To be not to be

successful acting career which took her to New York for many years and now to London where she has been a leading audio book narrator and now an ensemble director. Melissa shared thoughts of her Grammar playwright days saying, " My practice as an ensemble theatre-maker often deals with the human stories woven into the frontiers of 20th century science. The play I created for the interhouse drama competition at Grammar is my earliest experiment in this form, and the origin of a lifelong artistic interest. The extraordinary resources of the BGGS drama program, and Sybil Edward’s support in entering the play for the Comalco Qld Young Playwrights award set a standard of self-entitlement for my work that has carried me through a 25-year career in some tough artistic marketplaces, contributing to a sense of self in a business where women practitioners continue to fight for equality." (Chambers email 01.05.24) In 1986, the school consisted of only six Houses and the Interhouse Drama competition was held in what was known as “The Auditorium”, a proscenium arch theatre with a very large audience capacity.

2001 Beanland’s Libby Gill as Snow White in the Interhouse play, Snow White performed in the Auditorium .

With the demolition of the auditorium to make way for the current Cherrell Hirst Creative Learning Centre in 2006, and with the introduction of three more Houses, O’Connor, Beanland, and Mackay in 1990, 1994, and 1998 respectively, by the mid-2000s, it became too difficult to find rehearsal and performance spaces to stage the competition. Finding time amongst so many other co-curricular offerings and the great demands that the competition placed on Year 12 House Drama captains were other reasons why the competition stopped. Who knows, perhaps in a different format, with a large new theatre, the Doreen Yeates Interhouse Play Competition Trophy could once again be awarded on Speech Day.

Sybil Edwards (Curtis 1983) Head of Lilley House

Pauline Harvey-Short (1971) Manager, School History and Culture