From 13th to 21st July - over school winter holidays - a very happy gathering of students enjoyed a successful 2012 drama tour of the Gold Coast, Queensland.
Their show One rocked their fellow students in the north of Australia.
One raises issues pertaining to teen violence, safe partying, peer pressure, bullying, mistakes and consequences and ultimately explores tragedy as a result of one stupid action.
It was a show for teenagers by teenagers!
Here is the cast gathered outside one of 6 different high schools where they performed over 9 days.including Marsden State High School, Ormeau Woods SHS, King’s Christian College, Tamborine Mountain College, Miami SHS and Nerang SHS. But it was the last school - Nerang SHS - where some magic happened.
From Natalie Burns - the wonder woman orchestrating the drama group and the tour:
The most rewarding performance of the six was our final show at Nerang State High School. We had been told at most schools that we visited that this was a very rough school and that the students were likely to laugh at us and disrespect the performance. This, however, was not the case. The 150 students who viewed the show were completely engrossed by the performance we presented. They did not speak throughout, and if one spoke out, they were quickly hushed by their peers. At the conclusion of the performance many audience members were in tears, and despite the fact that we had now entered their lunch time, all students stayed behind for a formal Q and A and mingling session. One teacher commented that she felt privileged to have viewed our performance; another informed me that their school is very much an Arts school, but they do not have the funds to bring performances to the school or take their students to shows. So when an opportunity such as this comes along it is treasured by the students. It was an extremely emotional performance as this was the last time ‘One’ would ever be performed. Many of our cast teared up on stage, along with three directors watching proudly from the crowd.
But life on the Gold Coast was not all work on the stage for these students.
There were a few interesting sidelines - like a visit to Dreamworld and the experience of watching a performance by Cirque du Soleil in Brisbane.
Wonder Woman - Natalie Burns
More details HERE in the Casey Grammar newsletter!
