Aloysiad 15-12 2006.indd - St Aloysius

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drama Aloys Play Fest 2006 Next year will mark forty years of continuous Drama productions at St Aloysius’ College. In 1967 The Great Hall was finished, complete with its full stage, orchestra pit and dress circle. In 1968 the Gilbert & Sullivan operas started up again after a seven year gap – this time with the Senior School – and Fr Donal Lane SJ began what has become a long tradition of Middle School play festivals. In The Aloysian of 1968 he writes that he was also able to take Live English classes each fortnight and so let the boys participate in curricular Drama activities as well. Over the next eleven years he would produce usually two one-act play festivals a year giving countless boys the opportunity to work on stage and back stage. To do this he also ran the Stage Crew, or Stage Staff as they were called then. By 1969 the Actor of the Year awards began with Tony Pieterse (SAC 1969) being the first winner and this has been running right up to today with Kurt Menzies (Year 11) taking out the Senior Award this year and Daniel Vickovich and Ben Armitage sharing the Year 10 Award. Daniel Farina as The Health Inspector, Michael Parker as Sybil and James May as Basil in Basil The Rat In 1979 Fr Lane moved to St Mary’s Parish in North Sydney and Mrs Margaret Cody and Miss Anne Ford joined the staff. They began staging full length dramatic productions starting with The Thwarting of Barron Bolligrew and went on to include Macbeth, the first full length Aloys Shakespearian production, Twelve Angry Men and Everyman. After Mrs Margaret Cody and Ms Anne Ford left, Mr Rob Schneider (SAC 1959) arrived and Drama at St Aloysius' has never looked back. As well as continuing the full length major productions starting with Pygmalion in 1987 and taking over the Stage Crew, he converted the old dormant Lecture Theatre into The Auditorium and re-instigated the one-act play festivals in 1989. They have continued to this day and though no longed called On Stage and Curtain Up, we now have the annual Aloys Play Fest. Rob Schneider also, with the assistance of the then Head of English Mr Magar Etmekdjian (SAC Staff 1983-2004), re-introduced classroom Drama in Years 7 St Aloysius’ College A Jesuit School for Boys _ Founded 1879 Damien Choy as Vern, Ben Gagaler as Taylor Dent as Chris and Joel Martorana as Gordie in Stand By Me and 8 and this fed a thriving and enthusiastic Year 7 and Year 8 Play Festival. By 1997 he had also succeeded in introducing Drama as an elective subject in Year 9 and eventually it continued through to the HSC. In 2001 the Year 8 Drama classes ended and the periods reverted to English. Finally, this year saw the end of the Year 7 Drama classes and the end of an era. Without the enthusiasm kept up in the classroom and with increasing competition for time, less and less boys are getting involved in the Aloys Play Fest. This year only two plays were performed – Stand By Me, an adaptation of the famous movie, and Fawlty Towers; Basil The Rat. Both plays had been performed before and this year they played to full houses over their two night run – a great success. Thanks to student director, Kurt Menzies (Year 11) for Stand by Me and to Ms Sarah Zinkin for Basil the Rat. Over the next year I would like to put together a history of the last forty years of Drama at St Aloysius’ so we can celebrate the fortieth anniversary in 2008. I have perused The Aloysians and listed the productions from 1968 to 1986 as much as possible. If anyone has photos, programmes, stories, additions and corrections to the information below please get in touch with me at the College so we can update the information. Any photos, William Nelson as The Major in Basil The Rat a l o y s i a d / p a g e 3 2
programmes, fliers etc that you have would be scanned and returned. We also have a Friends of Aloys Drama (FAD) group who receive invitations to our productions, special events, theatre subscriptions and the annual Drama Dinner. We would love to hear from any Old Boy who would like to be added to the list. Please contact me at Peter.Gough@staloysius.nsw.edu.au Although we no longer have Drama in Years 7 and 8 we do have a strong Drama Department and in 2007 we will have two Drama classes in each Year, 9 to 11, an HSC class and Video production classes in Year 9 and Year 10 as well. There will be the Major College Drama production of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, two full length Year 11 productions, a second major cocurricular production that we have planned to take overseas to Hong Kong, and of course the Aloys Play Fest 2007. Mr Peter Gough Head of Drama Dramatic Productions 1968 to 1986 1968 An Entertainment – Chekov’s Swan Song (with Michael Snelling) and Summer in the Country; Pinter’s Last To Go (with Anthony Pieterse and R Clout) and Still Alarm (5th Form) The Stage – The Secret; The Message; The Ship of Dreams: Play of the Yorkshire Shepherds Dir: Mr R Bardshaw and Fr Donal Lane SJ 1969 Festival of Drama – St Joan (with Nicholas Lush and Peter Karbowiak); The Doubtful Misfortune of Li Sing (2nd form with Brendan Higgins and Damien Peach); four mimes and Rory Aforesaid (5th form with Dan Madigan, Gervasse Liddy, Anthony Pieterse [Performer of the Year] and Barry Pheloung) Dir: Fr Donal Lane SJ; Staging: Paul Berkemier; Lighting: Tony Vidot. 1970 Night of Plays – Captain of the Gate (3rd form with Damien Peach, Brendan Higgins, R Givney, M Collins and J Donaldson); The Bespoke Overcoat (5th form with D Madigan, Nicholas Lush, M O’Donnell and C Bernaud); The Dear Departed (2nd form with Michael Smith, S Hart, Huon Snelgrove, D Pieterse, C Ivens and A McSpedden) and Unhand Me Squire (1st form with S Higgins, Robert Pelletier T Cumming and S Lill) Dir: Fr Donal Lane SJ; SM: Jeremy Gormly; Lighting: Peter McGarry. 1971 Curtain Up – The Final Factor (with Nicholas Lush, C Bernaud, M Mahady, C Hawkins and B Burke); Queer Street and Blue Murder (with A Bleasal, M Collins, Damien Peach, Michael Smith, S Hart, P Crennan, R Givney, D Pieterse, J E’Estrange, S Kelly and S Higgins); Black and White (with Huon Snelgrove [Performer of the Year] and J Fitzpatrick) and A Narrow Squeak for Humpleberg (with Robert Pelletier, T Cuming, B Churchill, P Dwyer, G Higgins, C Cummins, M Bernaud and S Lloyd) On Stage – The Wall (with B Burke, J McKenzie, P Donnelly, Huon Snelgrove, J Fitzpatrick, M Cooke and S Burton); The Jest of Hahalaba (with S Lill, B Favaloro, G Howard and C Henry); The ‘Ole in the Road (with J Bennett and Robert Pelletier); The Walrus and the Carpenter (with D Pieterse, Michael Smith, J L’Estrange, R Noonan, S Hart, C Ivens and S Kelly) and Ah! Cruel Fate (1st form with B Churchill, C Power, C Wilkinson, S Rice, P Neeson, C Cummins, P Hofstetter, B Jenkins, M Benaud, S Bleasel, Robert Cavanagh and B Biggs) Dir: Fr Donal Lane SJ; SM: Jeremy Gormly; Lighting: C Branagan. 1972 Curtain Up ’72 – The Sky is Overcast (with P Donnelly and Brendan Higgins); Boy Dudgeon (with R Hyde and L Beange) and comedy sketches (with M Chase, S Kelly, Michael Smith and D Pieterse) Playbill ’72 – The Formula and Operation Plughole (with S Newman, Robert Pelletier and J Corcoran); Forty Winks for Beauty and Hi-Fi-Spy (with S Burton and D Goldrick). Dir: Fr Don Lane SJ; SM: P Buckingham and P O’Connor. 1973 Curtain Up ’73 and A Trilogy of Comedy – In The Zone (with Brendan Higgins); Pukka Sahib; The Real Inspector Hound (with J Quoyle, Michael Smith [Actor of the Year] and G Higgins); Ernie’s Incredible Illucinations (with S Burton); Weevils in My Biscuit; Thread O’Scarlet (with W McGuire); Sweeping Reductions (with T Connors) and Fiesta Fandango Dir: Fr Donal Lane SJ; SM: P Buckingham 1974 The Jolly Good Fellow; Davy Jones Goes Hunting; As Good as New; Albert Laddin; Olaf and the Ogre (with M Branagan and Don Hardman); The Day of Atonement (with Robert Pelletier [Actor of the Year], T Burton, Joe McGirr and C Still); Trial and Error and The Crimson Coconut Dir: Fr Donal Lane SJ 1975 Ile (with Grant Higgins [Actor of the Year] and Tony Kelleher); The Quack Doctor (with D Holt, Joe McGirr, K Pedemont, M Branagan, N Polin and S Burton); Birds of a Feather (with N Bates, D Goldrick, J Quoyle and S Burton); A Fourth for Bridge (with Robert Pelletier, G Burke, B Churchill and J Cocoran); You Never Heard Such Unearthly Laughter (with S Cahill, Mark Edwards, D McKenzie and Don Hardman); The Doubtful Misfortune of Li Sing (with S Uglow, M McGirr, G Sutton and R Powell); I Am a Dustbin (with G Pedemont, Tony Kelleher, S Cahill, D Powe and D Rice); Rinse The Blood off My Toga (with G Sutton, J Fisk, A Chalk and S Edwards); Over the Garden Wall (with M Branley and G Pedemont) and Unhand Me St Aloysius’ College A Jesuit School for Boys _ Founded 1879 a l o y s i a d / p a g e 3 3
Page 1 and 2: ALOYSIAD The Magazine of St Aloysiu
Page 3 and 4: Guimerá was determined that no for
Page 5 and 6: demanding of all involved. Both rig
Page 7 and 8: Estelle and Sasha Conoplia (SAC 199
Page 9 and 10: with different hands-on experiments
Page 11 and 12: from the deputy principal As a staf
Page 13 and 14: Tournament Of Minds NSW State Champ
Page 15 and 16: These skills, capacities and unders
Page 17 and 18: Ms Carmel Amasi and the Year 8 winn
Page 19 and 20: a lot but each one of you may have
Page 21 and 22: using aboriginal picture art and th
Page 23 and 24: if-you-can-catch-the-red-back-spide
Page 25 and 26: Student Achievements (in other spor
Page 27 and 28: Volleyball The College is fielding
Page 29 and 30: Bouris, Mark Dietz, Mark Sindone, M
Page 31: cadets A Bridge to Nowhere... As I
Page 35 and 36: Julius Caesar - Year 10 Co-curricul
Page 37 and 38: from the registrar Another busy yea
Page 39 and 40: From the Property Manager The Prope
Page 41 and 42: from SACOBU The Gonzaga Society Mem
Page 43 and 44: Daniel Gardon has completed Medical

Aloysiad 15-12 2006.indd - St Aloysius

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