So I just went back to my high school, my old haunt,
the good ol’ stomping grounds etc., etc. to see a CAD play. CAD (Centre of Artistic
Development) is an extracurricular drama class for the really passionate and
talented year 11 and 12 drama students. You have to audition to get in,
maintain passing grades in both Year 11 and 12, and stay after schools at least
several hours throughout the week. They perform two performances each year
outside of school hours and require hours upon hours, weeks upon weeks of time
and effort.
Now I’m not a drama student; I could have been, but I
thought I could never do it justice. Almost every one of my friends, however,
are drama students. Some are even pursuing acting as a career path, one is even
being sent to California to participate in the World’s Championships of
Performing Arts. My best friends were all apart of CAD and I went to every one
of their plays and helped out in their rehearsals as much I could. So safe to
say I leant my support in this current play despite my friends having all
graduated and not actively being involved. I promoted the play on my radio show
and man am I glad I did.
The play they performed was the Greek tragedy, Medea,
which revolves around Medea, the mother, getting revenge on her husband who has
deserted her and their children to marry into the royal family. In the end she
kills her husband’s new wife and father-in-law (the princess and king of the
land respectively) and her own children as well. It was dark, raw and emotional
performance and I was absolutely enthralled by it. The play went for an hour,
but it felt like 15, maybe 20 minutes to me. There was a dark sense of humour
and drama, my favourite part was actually a cooking segment for how to make poison.
There was so much entailed including choreography for dances, interesting/powerful/sometimes
even hilarious song choices. The way they moved around the entire stage and
into the audience, how they yelled and threw themselves around; not a single person
walked away from this play without being absolutely mind blown.
I was majorly impressed with how the start and end of
the play took a modern day feel with a video put together featuring news
stories of child murders and court trials of the mother culprit and her
confessing, with experimental footage of the ocean and atomic bombs and things
I can’t even describe to sum up the
play and just really enhanced everything.
Alright, so here’s when I stop rambling and talk about
the effects of this performance. These kids, with their teachers, put in a huge
effort. They were able to get an entire Modelling and Prop Making class to make
them props and an art teacher to paint them. Students from past and present
worked lighting, footage and music and they got the local radio station (me and
my co-workers) to advertise. The actors were spending much time after school
practicing for two months straight and were even attending these sessions on
Sundays from 9-5. What’s more, half of them are grade 12 students and balance
this with assignments. They have their block exams in two weeks from now, too.
And yet despite all this there still seems to be a lack
of regard for the arts, particular in the performing arts area. The school is
thinking of getting rid of the CAD program. Funding is next to nothing and the
students are paying hundreds of dollars each year to be a part of it so that it
can stay afloat and they can learn. That seems just wrong to me. Seeing this
play tonight you realise there is such talent and all you want is to see more. It makes me angry that Premier Cambell
Newman can cut funding to arts like he is. Don’t get me wrong, I think he is
doing a good job, but this particular action sends out messages, ones that I
had hoped we had moved on from.
In any case, I emplore people to enjoy the arts. Check
out your local theatre groups, see what plays are happening, and definitely see
what is happening in the schools. They need all the help they can get.
I hope to interview at least one of the teachers who
organised this Medea play if not some of the actors themselves on the radio in
a couple of weeks. Hopefully I can get my hands on some photos of the event to
put up here, too. It was just so good I wish everyone could see it.
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