2023 Drama Showcase
Misogyny, fame, and greed were some of the timeless themes addressed in the 2023 91黑料不打烊 HSC Drama Showcase.
The course emphasises both individual and collaborative experiences, and relatives and friends thoroughly enjoyed witnessing the results of the students' hard work at a Showcase filled with humorous, serious and emotionally stirring pieces.
In groups, the students performed original scripts they devised through improvisation. Each dealt with a theme supplied by the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA).
One group explored men's yearning for love through The Manly Men’s Movement, a piece in the style of Theatre of the Absurd. Another group took a satirical approach with The Alpha Man, which delved into the roots of misogyny and societal teachings. The quirky Galactic Quartet told the tale of four characters obsessed with Elon Musk, and The Mysterious Murder of Whitney Tears investigated the impact of fame through a Film Noir lens. A Christmas Story was a satirical children’s tale about the impact of greed on innocence.
In addition to the group performances, the students prepared individual projects. Some delivered monologues, others designed costumes or sets.
Lara chose Anthony Minghella’s play, Cigarettes and Chocolate, taking on the role of Camilla, a haughty English woman dealing with her overly caring sister and a homeless woman. “I was interested in its representation of silence within relationships and how this lack of communication acts as a catalyst for truthful confessions,” Lara said. “Taking on this character’s mindset provided me with an insight into how individuals seek comfort by judging others, attempting to mask their own discomfort when the silence becomes too loud.”
Sophie chose Edgar Allan Poe's poem, The Tell Tale Heart, using physical theatre to portray her character’s internal turmoil. “I was drawn to the unreliable, unstable narrator in the poem, a complicated character who grapples with the complexity of morals within a guilty conscience. I composed blocking with physical theatre to highlight the unhinged madness of the narrator, enhancing subtext through my body's contradiction to the words, and my transformative use of the chair as a prop. Jemima’s comic piece, Principal Problems, saw her playing the principal of a finishing school for young boys, dealing with a terrorising student. “My Individual Performance is comedic. My character recounts the story of being taunted and harassed by a pupil who created terror in the school,” Jemima said.
Ellie and Amber chose set design projects. Ellie designed a set for David Milroy’s Waltzing the Wilarra, drawing inspiration from Western Australia’s environment and landscape during the 1940s. “My intention was to highlight the inequities faced by Indigenous Australians post-war, by emphasising the theme of ‘Terra Nullius’ that is repeated throughout the play,” she said.
Amber designed a set for Sophocles' Athenian tragedy, Antigone, using a resin hand as a symbol of looming fate. “I chose Antigone as I was inspired by the titular character's rigidity of belief in her morals, the underlying themes of fate versus destiny and the inherent corruption of power. I created a largely metaphorical stage, with the hand as its centrepiece. Using resin gave it the effect of vague transparency, which further evoked my central idea of fate as both predictable and invisible to those plagued by self-serving motivations. I also utilised the metal wall to create an ominous sense of entrapment and Thebes as a fortress defined by corrupt law,” she said. A production using Amber’s set will be performed in the Roselyn Packer Theatre.
Harriet and Cherry delved into costume design for Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. Harriet’s design explored the dehumanising treatment of women in the play, using 1920s America as a backdrop. “I aimed to subvert the play’s comedic aspects by emphasising the ritualistic humiliation and ‘domestication’ of Katherine, for the benefit of Petruchio’s entertainment. Setting it in 1920s America helped achieve this. It drew the audience’s attention to the connection between men’s status and success and female oppression. I used animal and hunting imagery (established in the discussion of hunting hounds and falcons in the induction scene, which then pervades the play in descriptions of Kathrine as a ‘shrew’ and ‘wildcat’) to explore the dehumanising nature of misogynistic abuse.”
Cherry emphasised the theme of gender roles, setting the play in the 1950s when gender roles were very defined. “Women back then were regarded as submissive, inferior beings and often expected to take on the role as a ‘homemaker,’” she said. “The Taming of the Shrew was originally written as a comedy and at the beginning of my envisaged production, the humour shines through, as demonstrated by my choice of bold cartoon colours. However, for a modern audience, the tragedy of the play becomes increasingly apparent, as Katherine changes, growing more submissive and ‘tamed”’.
PHOTOS BELOW: Individual performance, Food Baby, by Ella and set design, Stories in the Dark, by Sophie: