Senior Drama 2021 wrap-up
By Nick Akhurst, Head of Co-curricular Drama, Dance and Oratory
The Senior Drama production is always a challenge with acting students taking on challenging characterisations and technical theatre students taking on design and leadership roles to shape the production.
This year we had 10 talented technical students taking on such roles as lighting, sound stage management, set design and more for their production of The Real Inspector Hound. This is what happens in a normal year.
2021 has not been a normal year and required us to adapt the production. Jason Golding and Emily Ridge conducted rehearsals on Teams (pictured above) until we were allowed back in the space. This allowed a committed focus on the text, facial and voice expression with a very quick turn around on creating the physical movement. It was very interesting watching Jason direct a rehearsal at one point with the Year 12s live and in the space and the Year 11s involved through a Teams meeting. This speaks highly of all involved, who displayed a willingness to keep moving and adapt to challenges and demonstrated resilience, not letting the difficulties get us down.
This extends to the production team. The students were required to adapt design and implementation ideas and deal with a reduction in time, without the younger members of the technical crew to support their work. However, they powered through and worked diligently as a team with support from David Burcher and myself in set construction. I don’t think I have painted that much set in a while. They used class time, lunch, recess and more to make sure the stage was ready for the cast and have created a wonderful show.
We filmed the show twice in one night, so we opened the show and closed on the same night, a very unusual occurrence. With the support of the Media Crew and Tim Minehan, we were able to get a great recording and broadcast it the next week with the cast able to watch their opening night!
View The Real Inspector Hound program
This was Radford Theatre Company’s final show for 2021. These shows are student-led with support from a dedicated group of staff, without whom none of the shows would be possible.
We hope you enjoyed the show and are looking forward to our 2022 season.
