Community & Service

ONE MAN TWO GOVERNORS

I had the honour of being a part of the 2024 college production ‘One Man Two Guvnors’

After auditions, I got one of the characters that I wanted, one of the leads ‘Alan’. Alan, in the play, is one of many comedic reliefs. As the play itself takes roots from the acting style of commedia dell’arte (‘the art of comedy), Allan is based on the archetypes of: ‘the lovers’, and ‘Il Capitano’, all bark, no bite. He “wants to be an actor” but unfortunately he’s not very good at it, and it’s a touch embarrassing when you live life like you’re reading a Shakespeare monologue, good thing he doesn’t seem to mind. Due to a series of identity shenanigans, misfortunes and misunderstandings, the likes of which unseen since ‘As You Like It’ and ‘Midsummer’s Night Dream’, he gets into a fight, defending his young love, but as with all good plays, everything comes neatly together at the end, love is restored, confusions cleared up, and weddings scheduled.

The rehearsal process was amazing, a blur of stunning costumes, great music, 12-hour school days and west-end grade sets, but, we managed to pull something together at the end, and with all productions, it was over far to soon. It was beyond fun to play the character and sing in the show, I was even able to score tickets to closing night. Thank you to Ms Parker, Ms Wellington, Geoff and Adrian, Ms Heggarty, Ms Elscot and Shelly, and all the other staff and cast who made the experience unforgettable.

And another thanks to Eva for doing my makeup every performance, I will never forgive you for doing that to me <3 (it looked amazing). My only hope is that the stage lights did their job, and toned down some of the contour.

The Leeuin

Christman voyage 2023

In the christman of 2023, just following the year 10 camp, my brother Ryan and I embarked as part of the YOUTH EXPLORER program, where we spent 7 days, aboard the ship. I was put in a group (not with my brother) and that group became my family for the duration of the voyage.

On the first day, we motored just out of Fremantle and learnt the ropes (so to speak). It was the second morning when we started our adventure, we killed the engines and started hauling, for the rest of the trip would be navigated by sail and wind power, the sails being changed by the wonderful deck hands (us) and led under the watchful eyes of our ‘watch leaders’. I was in Red Watch (the best one) and had two amazing watch leaders, Reagan and Tim. They helped us through the experience and were our motivators, keeping up the energy so that there wasn’t one glum moment, whether we were mustering for lunch, cleaning the bathrooms or getting up at 3 in the morning, with massive swell, ready to start your 3 hour night shift. During the voyage, I made friends I keep in touch with today, climbed a 33m mast, furled and unfurled sails, learnt how to coil, call, ease and hall the lines and even had a go leading my watch. I even had my first couple of driving lessons steering the boat (albeit in a slightly different environment to a traditional car. After an amazing trip of 10-meter swells, serving sea sickness (and not vomiting unlike my twin), a beach dar on Rotness and weirdly good food (including a Christmas dinner), the group was lucky enough to all be given a certificate of achievements, and I was given qualifications to come back (should I like to) as a Bosun’s mate (maintaining the ship’s health), a cooks mate (helping in the kitchen) or even as a trainee watch leader. All in all, it was a life-changing experience, that despite my initial apprehensions, I loved