Performing Arts Report – September 11, 2015

Over the past month, the boys of St Patrick’s College have had some tremendous success at the Royal South Street Competitions.

Firstly, the boys who were involved in the Speech and Drama competitions gave some brilliant and detailed performances. Daniel Hillman and Darcy Cargeeg earned multiple accolades for their monologues and duologues while Patrick Willis and Callum Hofler earned a first place for the contemporary duologue section. The dramatic performances were completed with a series of improvisation sections which saw our Junior Team take out an honourable mention while our Senior Teams took out several honourable mentions and a third place. It was an entertaining evening with hilarious improvisations and the boys did an outstanding job representing the College.

More recently, we have had multiple bands and ensembles compete in various sections at the South Street Band Competitions at Her Majesty’s Theatre. Our Junior Concert Band gave an outstanding performance in only their second public performance and earned an extremely high score. Our Concert Band, Saxophone Ensemble and Stage Band each performed with great precision and musicality in the respective sections. And our Symphonic Wind Ensemble capped off an excellent week by earning third place in their section! Congratulations to all boys who were involved.

As well as this, our Concert Band and Stage Band have recently participated in the Victorian Schools Music Festival in Melbourne. This gave the boys a fantastic opportunity to perform in public, hear other bands play and receive expert feedback from the adjudicators in a workshop environment. Our Concert Band earned the Silver Award in their section and our Stage Band earned the Bronze Award in their section. Congratulations to everyone who played at these events.

A special thanks to all of the staff who have been involved in preparing the boys for these competitions. Your hard work and dedication is much appreciated.

This week, Loreto College made the announcement that for our 2016 Combined College Production, they will be staging Les Miserables. This promises to be an amazing opportunity for the boys of St Patrick’s College and the excitement being generated by this announcement is fantastic to see. I strongly encourage any boy who is interested in being a part of this production to stay tuned for details regarding auditions.

Greg Shawcross

Director Of Performing Arts