It's been a busy last few weeks in The Arts at Sacred Heart.  As well as celebrating the achievements of our students, we are so proud and excited about the Archibald Prize shortlisting of our own Art Teacher, Liz Sullivan. Information about this momentous event can be found elsewhere in the newsletter. We will provide a report and a summary of Liz’s achievement in the next newsletter, as she heads up to Sydney for the announcement late today.

Life Drawing

We are so excited again this year to be offering ‘Life Drawing’ at the college, for our senior art and visual communication design students, over four sessions, the first of which was this week.

Learning to draw the human body enriches the students learning in the Arts, as well as honing their drawing skills in preparation for their VCE portfolios.

We are very fortunate to have Mrs Anne Berend who is an experienced artist, VCE Art teacher and ‘Life Drawing' facilitator. Anne has run 'Life Drawing' classes in regional Victoria over many years, and enjoys the process of challenging students to hone their skills.

'Clue- On Stage'  -  Dylan Bunn (Year 11)

“Clue - On Stage” was a truly exciting (yet stressful) experience that drove each and every one of the Year 12 Theatre Studies students to extremes of creative bliss. Everyone who was involved with this play gave it their all.

As part of the 'Clue' process, I was tasked to play Professor Plum, which was a difficult but fun role to act, as his personality traits and general mannerisms were very separate to my own. The most difficult aspect of acting for me was the accent work, as I found the American accent very challenging.

I primarily worked on the set and props design areas for 'Clue', which were both very interesting to work on, as I hadn’t done either of them prior to this.

'Clue' reminded me how much I love theatre, and especially how much it brings with it, including fun acting exercises, the creation of different ideas, and the development of a truly awesome play. Of course, this whole experience wouldn’t have been nearly as good without my follow cast members by my side, who are some of the best actors and actresses I’ve ever met.  It was, however, the ‘pay-off’ that made it all truly worth it. Even if the first matinee went a little rocky, all four performances showed how much work all of us put in, and what we did to make it special.

As the final production by the Year 12 Theatres Studies class of 2024, I believe 'Clue' was the perfect ending. A brilliant display of our skills as actors and designers. And I couldn’t imagine a better class to do it with. 

Producer’s Note  -   Ben Gallagher

As part of VCE Theatre Studies Units 3, the students in the class have been responsible for all aspects of the development of the play 'Clue', including set and costume design, lighting, sound, directing, acting and make-up. As part of the process, they were also responsible for the Dramaturgy.

What is ‘Dramaturgy’? Did I make that term up? ‘Dramaturgy’ is actually the process through which a play is researched before being staged.

The play is the culmination of months of work by the students, who are assessed on the work they have prepared in their own specialty areas of stagecraft.

‘Clue’ (what we in Australia call ‘Cluedo’) is a bit of phenomenon. Many of us have fond memories of playing ‘Cluedo’ as children (or adults), while others were introduced to Boddy Manor and its cast of suspects through the iconic 1985 film. Regardless of how you first came to investigate the ‘whodunit, it has become a part of our culture.

The 1985 film was re-staged and partially re-written as a stage production, ‘Clue: On Stage’ in 2017 and it continues to play around the world to this day.

Bendigo Senior Secondary College staged their version of the play a few weeks before ours, so it’s a very popular play!

Huge thanks to everybody who supported the students through this very demanding process. Particular thanks to all the staff members who helped out, especially Haley Galloway, who generously gave us her directorial and stage management expertise.

Thanks, also to Andrew Scarlett, Peter Ashman and Steve Huntley for their invaluable set construction assistance, to Sharon Lanteri for her generosity supplying props from Chisholm College and to all the maintenance crew, Richard, Danny and Tyrone for the help shifting furniture! We couldn't have done it without the assistance of all these wonderful people!

Thanks to all of you who came along and supported our talented students. They all really appreciated it!