With the end of the academic year only a few acts away, it was time for the MYP Theatre students to showcase their final performances in what turned into a two-week Theatre Festival!
Ms Lazareck guided the Year 7, Year 9 and Year 10 actors to stage, while Mr Mawhinney brought the Year 8 actors into the spotlight. Playing to audiences from Kindergarten and Year 3 up to Year 10 and Secondary staff, the performances took place in the sixth floor ‘black box’ Theatre classroom.
Year 7U took their audience on a journey through Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’, bringing one of the bard’s classic plays to UISG and an admiring Primary audience in a shorter Reader’s Theatre version. Lights, costumes and music accompanied our youngest MYP actors as they experienced the ‘black box’ stage.
Year 8 explored the Italian genre of Commedia dell’arte through their Art of Comedy unit. First applying their research skills to an investigation of Commedia stock characters, students then formed groups and presented a Commedia scenario to their Year 8 peers. The old men, Pantalone, Il Dottore and Il Capitano, appeared, as did the young lovers, Flavio and Isabella, and the zanni (servant and clown characters), Arlecchino, Colombina, Brighella and Pedrolino, in hilarious and sometimes confusing situations.
Year 9 took audiences back to a time when radio was the way, staging the radio drama ‘Sorry, Wrong Number’ by Lucille Fletcher. This suspense story transfixed the American national audience when it was first broadcast in 1943. This atmosphere was brought to the UISG stage as the ‘black box’ theatre was very much plunged into darkness, with actors illuminated only by torch light as they delivered their lines. Not only the lighting and general sound effects added to the mood but also the ‘click’ of torches coming on and going off resounding through the space.
Having now completed their MYP eAssessments, including online exams and the ePortfolio, Year 10 Theatre students let their hair down, or replaced their hair entirely, in their ‘Mini Musical Theatre Mash Up’. Student groups chose two songs from different musical eras and mixed them together with choreography, singing and costume. ‘Let it Snow!’ met ‘Mr Grinch’. ‘La La Land’ met ‘Frozen’. ‘Avicii’ mixed in with ‘Hello Dolly’.
With our Year 12 (DP2) Theatre students graduating and our Year 11 (DP1) Theatre class already completing final components for their course, including the Solo Theatre Piece, it has been a clean sweep of the boards for Secondary Theatre.
Congratulations to all our actors and directors!
Mr Malcolm Mawhinney
UISG Head of Performing Arts (K-12)
