MUSE, Awaken, a theatre challenge that re-awoke a QACI tradition that spanned years before COVID-19, which saw its impermanent cancellation. For years MUSE remained dormant, until it’s revival with the current Year 12 2023 cohort. This assignment sees theatre students conducting highly cohesive and collaborative environments to devise their own 10-15 minute moment of performance. Themes this year spanned from exploring the idea of the 27 Club to a real life Cluedo performance to an absurd family car trip, all which reflect the 2023 cohort’s enthusiasm to create original and unique pieces.
It was truly wonderful to see what happens when teachers give creative reign to their students. Ms Hague and Mr Jennings didn’t only allow for this freedom but facilitated the opportunity through meaningful and insight set, tech and lighting designs. The cohort’s zest was doubled with the support and absolute commitment of our driven teachers. From constructing a car with functioning indicators to a realistic bedroom, the stage became lucid presentations of each piece’s heart.
The performance opened with a humorous presentation of family dynamics during a car trip in Unbroken Lines, with shocking circumstances and larger than life characters that truly revealed what it means to be family. By the Sea presented a poetic and reflective piece that rediscovered phantasms of a past friendship, and through lighting suspending them in a timeless, warped underwater space. Unsettling at times, contemplative and definitely provoked thought from audiences. This Strange Effect transported the audience through magical realist elements into the looming atmosphere of an office through unsettling sound design. It explored power dynamics, and what it means to be free in a time of capitalism and office culture. The 27 Club follows a celebrity from the genesis of her fame to her downfall. The bad decisions, the betrayals, the first loves and regrets- a complete rollercoaster with a catchy Paramore soundtrack. Red Right Hand followed the Cluedo characters you know and love through a live game, with realistic portrayals and a shocking twist, it was an incredibly fun piece. Fractured Bonds explored the transitory period from students to the real world and how once halcyon friendships can end on extremely bitter terms. Incredibly impactful, it revealed difficult truths through characters you built an investment for. Between Two Worlds studied the topic of divorce through a highly imaginative daughter who finds solace through making her parents King and Queen, which revealed an often unheard perspective to audiences. What the Funk closed the production with a humorous portrayal of complex friendships and deep desires which resulted in a bloody mess that the audience was surprised and entertained by.
Overall, the festival of 8 pieces across 3 nights had a resonating impact on the QACI community, and Muse couldn’t have been revived in a more jovial fashion. A massive thank you, of course to, Mr Jennings and Ms Hague for allowing this cohort to fully experience the process of creative development and for helping to challenge our largest imaginations into stunning stage pictures. Thank you to QACI Alumn Bryce Delany who year in and year out supports the technological aspects of the QACI theatre that cements the theatrical world and professionalism of the pieces, Julie Wilson and Jess Doyle for immortalizing the performance through stunning photography and filming, and the Year 10 Tech Team representatives, Dorothée Cloutier, Sarah Carvier and Reina Vunderink, who tirelessly worked backstage and in tech to serve the creative visions of the Year 12 cohort.
Article written by Pemay Johnsen, Year 12