All Year 10 students at the College have just begun a new drama and film study on William Shakespeare’s comedy play, ‘Twelfth Night’ and its appropriation in the 2006 romantic teen comedy, ‘She’s the Man’, directed by Andy Fickman. To help our students to see through the challenging early modern English of the play’s dialogue, to the humour and human absurdity underneath, Thomas Hassall was pleased to host an incursion by the Australian Shakespeare Company, which took place in the College Auditorium on Wednesday, 20 August.
The visiting Shakespearean players performed key scenes from ‘Twelfth Night’, sharing with the student audience valuable insights into plot, character and the conventions of Shakespearean comedy, along the way. As helpful as this is, at this early stage of study in the English unit, however, the room really warmed up when impromptu thespians were invited from amongst the audience to volunteer for repeat performances.
A big “Bravo!” goes out to Emanuel S and Noah S, for their performance of the introduction between the protagonist, Viola, and Lady Olivia; to Logan A and Stella F for their performance of the ring scene between Viola and the unlikeable Malvolio; and to Matt L and Dean S for their presentation of an intense exchange between Viola and Duke Orsino. Matt and Dean also have our hearty thanks for their display of a textbook example of “corpsing”. The general consensus from the grade, afterwards, was that the event was a lot of fun and a great way to bring the text to life before putting it under the microscope in the English analysis laboratory.
The Australian Shakespeare Company will be returning to the College on the first day of Term 4 – Tuesday, 10 October – this time to entertain and inform students in the current Year 11 English Advanced course (soon to form a large part of the 2024 Year 12 cohort of the College). This next interactive performance will be of scenes from another of Shakespeare's comedies, 'The Merchant of Venice', and is similarly designed to enhance students' understanding of the text and the motivation of characters. It will ensure that students renew their familiarity with Shakespeare's comedy genre, and are introduced to this next play as a performance, before studying it in the Common Module: Texts and Human Experiences, thereby beginning the Year 12 English Advanced course.
Mr David Gawthorne
Faculty Coordinator - English