VCE Drama Ensemble Season

Last week was a big week for our seniors as they presented their Unit 3 ensemble, a performance that they have been collaborating on since the later part of last year. On a simplistic level, this complicated task is a group devised performance based on a given structure.

The style of the performance was eclectic, borrowing from a number of theatre styles the students have been studying and was a highly original vehicle to display a range of acting and play building abilities.

The ensemble task, I still concede, is one of the most difficult tasks in the VCE. Unlike most of their senior educational experiences this year their success and or failure within the task is set within the context of a group working both within and for a team. It is a project that suddenly requires a mature sense of management. It requires students between 17 and 18 years of age to become playwrights and performers of their own material.

A key concept within this year’s performance was the suspension of disbelief and our willingness as a society to dispel logic and truth to believe in something surreal or fabricated. What is ‘real’ anyway? How much of reality is matter of perspective? Conspiracy theories, Propaganda, Reality TV, the internet, virtual reality and many nods to popular culture, literature, film and theatre all featured within the bizarre and disjointed plot of the performance.

This task from conception to the final season of performances was a long road travelled and tested the student’s concepts of hard work, commitment, professionalism and humour in the face of adversity. The audiences last week witnessed the rewards of this journey.

I congratulate Liana Canfield, Jack Coats, Asha Dickson, Karla Gallagher, Elarin Johnson, Katelyn Ritchie and Ava Skilbeck. The performance was a credit to your talents and skills as performers.

Andrew Seeary

Performing Arts Coordinator- Drama