The Creative Industries is the home of Music, Drama, Multimedia and Art. In this edition, we reflect on the tremendous success of StandUp Theatre Company's production of 'Girls Like That', gear up for some fantastic performances from the Music Department and see what our Artist in Residence has been up to.

Drama

Wildy Drama Girls StandUp To ‘Girls Like That’

When a naked photograph of Scarlett goes viral, she becomes the centre of attention but for all the wrong reasons. While everyone at School forms an opinion and the actions of her tormentors escalate, Scarlett just stays silent, knowing that regardless of what she says, she is already condemned.

‘Girls Like That’ is an important, urgent and explosive play that explores the pressures of young women in the wake of advancing technology, the legacy of feminism and what it means to be a feminist for young women today when the vulnerability of one threatens the safety and identity of the whole flock.

English playwright Evan Placey devised ‘Girls Like That’ through a workshop with young female actors, many of whom believed that feminism is dead. What was shocking to him about this was that the generations of women who had fought for the right to vote, for control over their own bodies and for equality in politics and the workforce had given birth to a generation of girls who were increasingly insecure and often judgemental and unsisterly. He couldn’t help but question the role of technology in all of this.

When I first read the play, what struck me, was the allusion to a ‘space in-between’ where a girl was neither over nor under sexualised, but where she could just be a girl. It saddened me in the moment when the characters observed that the space in-between doesn’t exist and that this is a tension that so many of our young women are exposed to and just accept.

StandUp Theatre Company is Wilderness Drama’s first student class company. Formed in 2020, it is committed to producing theatre for young people by young people that have something important to say about the experience of being a young person. ‘Girls Like That’ follows their first two original productions, ‘The Invisible Girl’ and ‘Control Freaks’, by provoking conversations about the challenges facing young people today with a particular focus on the experience of young women.

The seven actors, Taylor Tran, Harriet McPharlin, Maegan Catt, Jaclyn Wilmot, Mary McAuliffe, Kate Adams and Alice Oakley-Conlon, provided an electric ensemble performance bombarding the audience with rapid-fire dialogue, sharp cues and an intricate portrayal of the St Helen’s Girls. Each girl transformed into Scarlett at different points, aided by a red cardigan that was draped over the shoulders of their monochromatic school uniforms. They also had the opportunity to portray women from past eras helping to explore the bravery of women who challenged misogyny in even the smallest of ways to bring about cultural and social change for women.

Taylor Tran’s portrayal of a girl in the 1920s going to a ‘scandalous’ pool party showed naivety, youthfulness, remorse and defiance counteracted by Maegan Catt’s menacing portrayal of the girl’s rigid conservative brother. Jaclyn Wilmot drew out the lightness in her cheeky monologue about a Scottish female pilot in the Auxilliary Services, who flew planes to be repaired during the war while also emphasising the treatment of women by men who did not like women doing ‘their’ jobs. Alice Oakley-Conlon and Harriet McPharlin took us to the 1960s, where affirmative action and the quest for liberation was in full force and presented a sensitive story about teenage pregnancy and choice, while Mary McAuliffe donned shoulder pads and a power suit to take on sexual harassment in the workplace in the 1980s. However, it was Kate Adams’ powerful final monologue as Scarlett who finally stands up to her tormentors that tied all these stories together. As Scarlett reveals that these women from the past were women from her own family history, Adams’ deliberate and motivated delivery of the monologue forced the audience to consider the power that exists in the friendship and bond between women and their shared narrative of rising to empowerment, and the danger should the legacy of feminism be forgotten.

Ella Anderson provided a symbolic multimedia design that set the scene and reinforced central ideas in the play which was accompanied by her mood-driven lighting plot. Xinru Yu helped transport the audience between locations and significant shifts in the play with an imaginative soundscape of school bells and to consider the messages for women through a soundtrack of female empowerment – or disempowerment – anthems which have so much become a part of our culture.

This was a brave and ambitious production for the young company who were met with nothing but praise from three sell-out audiences, who all went home thoroughly entertained and with so much to think about.

Aldo Longobardi
Head of Drama

Music

Upcoming Music Events

The Music Department is gearing up for a very busy few weeks at the conclusion of Term 2, and we hope you can catch an event or two and experience the amazing musicianship our girls have to offer.

On Monday 31 May in Hender Hall, we celebrate all things string with our Festival of Strings event. This intimate evening features our string ensembles, as well as some soloists. This concert is free to attend, however we ask you to register your attendance via the following link.

Following this we will see the following events take place:

Wednesday 2 June
Italian National Day
Featuring our Piano Trio
6.15pm
Fogolar Furlan

Sunday 6 June
Walkerville Rotary Concert
Featuring Senior Flute Ensemble, Senior Clarinet Ensemble, JSQ, Guitar Ensemble, Piano Due and Int Flutes
2.00pm
Walkerville Town Hall

Monday 7 June
Music Assembly
Featuring BB1 and Jazz Choir
8.30am
Gym

Tuesday 8 - Wednesday 9 June
Music in Residence Program
Michell Music Centre

Thursday 10 June
Jazz at The Gov
Featuring Wilderness School students and Jo Lawry and Will Vinson
6.00pm
The Governor Hindmarsh

Arguably one of our favourite events of the year, ‘Jazz At The Gov’ will take place at The Governor Hindmarsh. However, due to reduced COVID venue capacity, tickets are limited to two per family. If you are interested in attending this event and don’t have a student involved, please call the Music Office so we can register your interest. Once the parents of the girls involved in the concert have had the chance to secure their tickets, we will open ticket access to the public.

Tuesday 15 June
Yr 2 Strings Concert
5.00pm
Hender Hall

Tuesday 15 June
Year 4 Band Concert
6.00pm
Hender Hall

Ms Anna Lenartowicz
Head of Music

Art

Artist in Residence

Rosina Possingham has made an enormous positive impact on our girls, through her engaging, approach to art making. In particular students have been focusing on the skills necessary to work in collaboration, as they develop a group artwork in the Junior School Art Room and digital artwork shared between Middle School students.

Rosina’s practice focuses on ‘place’ and often brings science, maths and art together through visual mapping techniques. She has encouraged girls to use a range of different media, to closely observe their surroundings and embrace “mistakes”.

She has been interacting with our Senior School art students, discussing work of a social and political nature and engaging in conversations about her study, career journey and experiences. Students have appreciated hearing from a young, emerging artist’s perspective.

All of the work that the students are engaged in will be displayed in the Art Centre Gallery for the enjoyment of others, which will evolve further as Rosina continues her residency next week.

Brooke Porter
Head of Art