News / Education
New school musical showcases talent of the future
BEPS production explores contemporary themes, including Artificial Intelligence
Brunswick Voice
STUDENTS from Brunswick East Primary School will premiere a new musical comedy next week almost entirely performed, written and produced by themselves.
Not only will the students make up the cast of The Android Academy, but they co-wrote the script and songs, designed the costumes, and built the sets.
The musical will be performed four times at the Darebin Arts Centre on August 6 and 8.
The Android Academy is a time travelling adventure set in a school in the near future and featuring a colourful array of characters – including teachers who may or may not be Artificial Intelligence, talking sea creatures, ’80s rock stars and a CEO mastermind behind the scenes pulling the strings.
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Students began developing the show in term four last year under the supervision of performing arts teacher Andrew Dabner and music teacher Sarah Cook.
Dabner said that after putting on multiple classic productions, including a version of Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors in 2022, he and Cook wanted to set themselves a challenge by writing a student-devised production from scratch, involving the whole school from Prep to Grade 6.
In term four last year, about 20 students attended ‘production club’ during lunchtime where they played drama games and brainstormed potential concepts, characters, and ideas.
That led to a ‘playwriting club’ in term one this year where students learnt how to write basic dialogue. A decision was made to produce a musical comedy about a normal, everyday school where all is not what it seems.
“In my day-to-day classes, drama workshops then revolved around tableaux-style games, teasing out characters and plot,” Dabner said.
“Each week I would then make notes and build upon what happened. Meanwhile this info was fed back into playwriting club. AI became a big theme, and the title was born: ‘The Android Academy’.”
During the term one holidays, Dabner pulled all the ideas that had been brainstormed into a script and at the start of term two auditions were held and rehearsals began. Students have been able to opt for preferred roles, whether as a musician, choir member, actor or in the production crew so all ages could be involved.
Production crew sessions involved cardboard set and prop design – including a mock #96 tram – and six songs were workshopped.
Parents have also stepped up doing lighting, creating t-shirts and conducting songwriting workshops.
“All in all, the journey has been epic, with students developing the confidence to perform in front of others, to try something new, to collaborate as part of an ensemble, see through a creative project to its fruition, and to experience the joy of putting on a successful show and have loads of fun along the way,” Dabner said.
The Android Academy will be performed at 10.30am and 6.30pm on Tuesday, August 6 and Thursday, August 8 at the Darebin Arts Centre, 401 Bell Street, Preston. The show runs for 90 minutes with an interval. Standard tickets are $25 each. Bookings can be made via the Darebin Arts website.
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