The local ‘Dramatic Society’ are well renowned in the community for doing regular and ambitious productions. This Murder Mystery is no exception. Invariably, these events are fraught with disaster. People forgetting lines, missing cues, set piece collapsing. Mrs Reece, is President of the local Guild. This is the Guild’s annual theatre production and becomes a complete entertainment experience.
This is a fractured fairy tale of a different sort. Mr and Mrs Hood, Wed’s parents, I mean Red’s parents are lazy people and instead of attending to their daughters (they have two other, Medium Purple and Big Green Hood), they watch television endlessly. The girls are pretty much left to their own devices. The older two are interested in getting married and Red, well she just like to go for walks in the forest.
The story of the Ugly Duckling resonates with all of us in some ways. We have or will face adversity in life and yet each of us is created in the image of Almighty God and as such have gifts that we are called to discover and develop. So it is for Ugly – the little cygnet who discovers that he’s not an ugly duckling, but actually has the gift of being a swan and he uses his experience of adversity to bless others by remaining on the lake next to the duckyard.
This is a story about older people. People who have fallen in love, married and then lost that love, through a mismatch, illness or death. But loss it turns out is the great life leveller.
Charley’s Aunt is a hilarious farce about two young men trying to propose to two young women! However, without a chaperone to assist them these men are destined to have their hopes dashed. Until their friend Fancourt Babberly, (yes that is his real name) discloses that he is in a local theatrical (play) would like their opinion on his costume.
This is a gritty, confronting, passionate production, performed by some remarkable young people, who it has been my privilege to know and work with.
This is not a pleasant story. It is after all a tragedy, however, in this adaptation I have tried to contextualise the meaning of a young woman of faith who is disempowered by the system of her own country. That message is universal sadly, one that we cannot be reminded of enough. It is also a story about redemption and regret. When hubris ( pride) often forces us to hold on to long to ideas to our own detriment.
"Production and performance experience for young people is invaluable. I believe these awards are a vital part of that journey. They honour and acknowledge not only the gifts and talents of the people sitting in this room but their ability to see something come to fruition, to be generous, to collaborate and to express themselves creativity, which is an invaluable intelligence." -Jane Hille
The Junior Fenceline Theatre Company this year was tremendously successful. It involved no less than 38 Year 5 and Year 6 students who did a splendid job performing on stage over two nights to their enthusiastic and appreciative audiences. The students worked on their understanding of audience’s response to action and their own comic timing.
The lead cast are made up of senior students and it has been a difficult Year 12 for them. I wanted Fame, if we could manage it, to be a positive memory for their final year of school. It was easy to cancel it, but we decided to work really hard to recreate a new version albeit without an audience.
Clara’s on the Curtains is a comic farce that deals with all the hilarity of an armature community theatrical club putting on a play. The curtain is about to go up on the Women's Guild variety and dramatic show when one of the leads loses her voice.
The town of Middle Swan has been overrun with rats. They’ve come down from the hills, out of the reeds by the river, over the plains of valley and nestled in the middle of Middle Swan.
A modern, fresh and fun reinterpretation of the classic Shakespearean story of illusions, love and forest fairies, told in today's English. Directed by Jane Hille and adapted by Dr Carolyn Harper.
The Dramatic Arts Enrichment Program students workshopped a script adapted from the Gospel of Matthew. This play captures a story of what it might have been like for the disciples after Jesus had dies on the cross and rose from the dead.
The Book of Everything by Australian playwright Richard Tulloch, based on Guus Kuijer‘s novel, was performed by Swan Christian College’s school-based theatre company Fenceline Theatre and directed by Jane Hille.
Christmas presentation for Junior School - Carols By Candlelight 2018
This is a contemporary presentation on the real meaning of Christmas. One of the messages of Jesus’ life was for us to see him in each other.
Reinterpreting Godspell for a contemporary audience set in the Swan Valley required a metonymic design that would symbolically represent who and where we are. Culturally and contextually relevant to our students and the wider community.
The Year 5 and 6 students worked very hard on this play. This was an exciting family-friendly story about a fairy tale that gets all mixed up because a Dragon is thrown into the mix.
The talented and generous staff, got together at lunchtimes and after school to work on a terribly corny Pantomime about a wicked task master and a gentle family.
Rhinoceros is an Absurdist play and is a set text on the curriculum. Rhinoceros is a long and difficult play to understand and certainly to perform, but its message is profound. It is for this reason the student’s selected poignant scenes for the performance of this task.
ANYMAN (produced by Fenceline Theatre in conjunction with Shalom House) dealt with the story of addiction from the perspective of men in rehabilitation – a topic that affects many in our community.
The Final Dress Rehearsal” was a funny little production about an amateur theatre group putting on a play and all is in uproar. Nothing goes right at all.
We have taken Antigone written by Sophocles around 441BC and reinterpreted for a contemporary 20th century audience and set it in a post-apocalyptic, dystopian world, set in no specific time or place. Antigone is a classic Greek Tragedy and as such explores the characters’ tragic demise, as they journey through imitation, pity, fear and purgation.