2007 School Magazine

English

SHAKESPEARE ON STAGE

Combining the Creative, the Critical and the Aesthetic

In April, Year 12 students who studied William Shakespeare’s Hamlet attended a production of the play at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre. This afforded students not only an opportunity to see Shakespeare’s most noted play come alive in performance but also provided insights into the effects that theatrical production and direction have on the interpretation and staging of a play text.

The value that the School, and in particular the Faculty of English, places on literary accomplishment is evident in both classroom practice and the co-curricular opportunities afforded

the girls throughout the year. Those who enjoy expressing their creativity in writing also pursue their interests in a co-curricular setting as members of the Gwen Harwood Society, named in honour of one of Australia’s foremost twentieth century poets who was a past student of the School. In 2007 the inaugural Junior Writers’ Camp was held at Marrapatta, with young writers in Years 8, 9 and 10 engaging in a series of intensive writing workshops conducted by Ms Anita Bell, an award-winning author of novels, short stories, poems and non-fiction, who, over the four day period, led the girls in a series of informative, entertaining and practical activities on topics ranging from developing characters and fictional worlds to the pragmatics of getting published. Each evening an hour of silence was devoted to writing and by Sunday afternoon the budding writers were simultaneously energised and exhausted. The Camp was a stimulating experience in a beautiful setting and the Faculty anticipates this becoming a highlight of the year for our talented young writers. Twenty-five girls in Years 11 and 12 took two days out of classes in the first week of Term III to participate in the Senior Writer in Residence Programme with this year’s Doris Waraker Townsend Memorial Writer in Residence, Dr Venero Armanno, Head of Creative Writing at the University of Queensland where he obtained a University award for Excellence in Teaching. Dr Armanno

Photo : QPAC

WILDE AND WONDERFUL

Sometimes the girls have opportunities to enter the fictional worlds of the texts they study in a more physical sense. As an extension of their study of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, students in Year 9 classes enjoyed a traditional Victorian High Tea. Taking their inspiration from Wilde’s comedy of manners, the girls assumed roles and social positions, enacting these in the historical ambience of the Annie Mackay Room, thereby recreating the setting of a genteel afternoon tea. The girls entered wholeheartedly into the spirit of the roleplay, making and wearing

costumes, providing authentic food, and assuming

has also won numerous literary awards for his novels and short stories. During the Residency, students participated in Master Classes on aspects of the writer’s craft. Dr Armanno spoke highly of the talents and abilities of the students with whom he worked and the active community of writers within the School. Dr Robyn Colwill Director

the requisite manners and

affectations of the period. Needless to say, they

enjoyed themselves immensely. This kind of enrichment activity not only enhances the girls’ aesthetic appreciation of literature, but also translates the formal academic study of a text into an entertaining communal and creative activity.

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