What a wonderful start to Term 2 having seen students and staff working together with great perseverance and teamwork to stage ‘Shrek the Musical’. This is the first major Musical we have been able to stage since Covid 19 hit our shores (in 2019). The planning for this production needed to take into account the risk of restrictions (issues around Covid). In any given year there is a lot of effort put into a production, including: bringing the team together, auditioning and rehearsing the production (several months of this was done via zoom), costuming, designing sets and getting to the performance. When you add the risk that the production might be severely impacted because of a potential ‘lockdown’ or sickness to major cast members. Indeed, we did lose our Musical Director 48 hours before the show. Fortunately, this challenge and every major challenge that arose was able to be resolved. I thank everyone involved in the process for their commitment and patience in making this experience such a success. I also want to acknowledge the skilful planning by Mr Robinson (Musical Producer) and Mr Clisdell (Technical Director) as they endeavoured to cover all the angles to ensure we had something worthy of celebrating across our community. Special thanks to our guest Director, Meg Day who worked so wonderfully well with all our students.
Continuing in the same spirit this week we endured a wet and soggy Athletics Carnival. Despite the weather the students attending maintained a positive and upbeat manner. The Year 12s led the way in encouraging students to get involved with smiles and encouragement in just being together and enjoying the day. I think if we continue in this approach, we will find that our community will grow from strength to strength through adversity. These are important opportunities in moving forward, reigniting some of the important culture building experiences post Covid that are so important in Learning to Live and Living to Serve.When you watch the production as an audience member you are not aware of the obstacles that needed to be overcome. Every person involved had to work together to ensure success. When some of the preferred cast members were in the auditioning process, they declared that they couldn’t be in the musical because they, ‘couldn’t sing’. Now that’s a challenge when you’re a major part in a two hour show; however, the students’ protests were met with encouragement, ‘we’ll teach you to sing!’, was the response. This gave some nervous students the confidence to have a go! So much has been learned by everyone involved in this production. I offer up a few of the enhanced skills that have been developed, including: teamwork, perseverance, resilience, overcoming adversity, stage & performance skills. In addition, there have been many new friendships forged in fire with the joy of success experienced through the performances. I thank all the parents who supported students and the audience that attended in good number. Thank You ALL!
Finally, in all things I want to thank our great God for His provision and protection through all that we are doing. Getting back to NORMAL has not been easy; life is challenging but through all of this we have been blessed by our Lord Jesus. Please join me in praying for our community from day to day.
