By Ewen McRae
Springside West College is less than two years old, but its drama stars are already getting national recognition.
The Fraser Rise school entered in the recent Wakakirri competition – the largest school performing arts competition in Australia – and came away with four wins.
College head of drama Brooke Middleton said it was fantastic recognition for the school.
“It was a pretty cool opportunity for the kids,” Ms Middleton said.
“We’re a brand new school and we don’t have a lot of facilities at the moment to do a full school production, but performing arts is definitely a focus of a lot of the students here.”
The school won the best teamwork award, best individual costume, a participation award and one for sustainability, after re-using materials to create sets and props. There were 39 students from the college taking part in the competition.
Ms Middleton said the students developed their own ideas for the performances.
“We decided to re-tell an Aboriginal Dreamtime story and we decided on that because it is about bullying,” she said. “So straight away we were able to see connections to the story and tie it back to our own experiences.
“We’re hoping to move forward with a full school production in the next year or so … this is a fantastic starting point.”
Ewen McRae
