Thanks

Thanks from The Director - Miss Marron

Oliver was finally open to the public and everyone involved help create a fantastic show. Many students of the school, families and friends came to show their support. We thank our wonderful audience and the families of the students involved. A lot of time and effort was required of the show and we thank everyone that was involved, as well as their family and friends for their support. The productions are a big part of the St Ignatius traditions, and we are happy to have them back. As a final hurrah, I would like to formally thank everyone involved in the production of Oliver!

Special Thanks – Mr. Houghton

The show would not have been possible without our new Music and Drama teacher, Mr. Houghton, as the Musical Director he overseen the choir and assistant directed. In his second week at school, he was ready to lead the chorus rehearsals and the students instantly enjoyed his rehearsals. His passion for the show was infectious and we are extremely grateful for his direction for the musical numbers. Students were able to showcase their talents and develop them thanks to Mr. Houghton’s rehearsals and encouragement. Mr. Houghton also overseen the TAS Sound team every performance and O’Neil Lawrence, Kamahl Mannings and Jorian Neblett thank you for your support. I personally thank you for your support and guidance during the process, as my second eye you were able to notice and support students who needed extra help with their performance. You were able to show every student their talents and strengths and highlight them in the production. Thank you, Mr. Houghton, for your cooperation in the production of Oliver!

Special Thanks – Ms. Goude

Ms. Goude and I have been working together on the production of Oliver since the previous school year. The production was going to be a small-scale performance, due to Covid-19, however eventually was postponed. This year Ms. Goude developed the TAS Producer team to something substantial and meaningful for the students. Ms. Goude and her team overseen the organization of rehearsals, Primary rehearsals and any other communications for the production. Most importantly her team gave students their merits for attending rehearsals too! A key member of Ms. Goude’s Production team was Isabella Thomas, who stepped up as the TAS Producer Manager for the production. Ms. Goude, and the Oliver team, are extremely thankful for Isabella’s commitment and support during rehearsals and the shows.

Students and Teachers

It has been a delight to work with the students and we feel privileged to be able to teach so many talented students. This year’s production had over two hundred students involved, through Primary performers, Secondary performers, the band and TAS.

Year 5 and 6

We thank the wonderful Year 5 and 6 performers as the helped open the show with a big ‘wow’! Around sixty primary performers stomped into the auditorium in tune to “Food, Glorious Food” and then sang “Oliver!”. As well as this we had dancers from both year groups gracing the stage with their wonderful kick steps and step ball change. Students have been rehearsing for the opening scene during their Drama lessons and ‘Creative Arts’. In addition to this, students attended a few afterschool and weekend rehearsals too. Thank you to Mr. Houghton for leading these rehearsals, Ms. Goude for being the main point of contact, Ms. Moss for choreography, Ms. Hickey for rehearsal support and Ms. Johnson & Ms. J Lewis for supporting their classes. We thank our wonderful Primary school performers and look forward to them joining us next year, either as Year 6 or in our Secondary performing groups.

Secondary Performers

Our school is full of talented students and we would like to thank them all for bringing Oliver’s story to life. A few special mentions should go to our lead performers. Firstly, our stars of the show playing Oliver, Lili Deosaran and Cohen Ting. This was Lili’s debut as a high school performer, and she was a super star! We thank Lili for taking on the lead role on the Friday night, as Cohen was unfortunately ill. This was Cohen’s first opportunity as a lead character in a whole school performance and was able to feel better and perform with fantastic skill ready for Saturday’s matinee. Everyone involved enjoyed rehearsing with them both and we look forward to them returning to the stage in our future shows.

Ethan Almedia, also know as Fagin, brought his own spin to the role and was able to captivate audience members in his solo performance, one of which lasted four minutes! Ethan became the ring leader of the pickpocket scenes and was able to encourage the other performers on stage to have fun with their characters too. We congratulate Ethan with his successful run as Fagin and hope to see him on stage next year during his final year at St Ignatius. We had two Artful Dodgers this year Orla Lennon and Clare Artuch both performers created their own spin on the character, but both had the playful and kind side of Dodger to shine through. Alongside Dodger was always Charley, the ‘cheeky chap’ of the pickpocketing gang was played by Alasdair Dewson who embraced the comical relief that the character was. The student’s favorite song was “Be Back Soon” and we are sure to miss our Dodgers roar “Line Up” to start the song.

Both of our Nancy’s are new to St Ignatius and we are extremely grateful for them choosing to join the cast of Oliver! Colindra-Rodericka McGarney-Sterling and Thea Ali graced the stage and blew us away with their powerful singing of “He Needs Me” which made many audience members cry due to the emotion that they delivered. As well as this, they also had a lot of fun with songs such as “I’d Do Anything” and “A Fine Life”. We thank both performers for their hard work and dedication to the show. Bet, played by Rio Windsor, added some grace to Fagin’s Thieves Kitchen and shared the friendship between Nancy and Bet. Whenever Nancy was on stage, Bill Sikes wasn’t too far away and Judah Hart was able develop an intensely scary Sikes of his own. Judah, a kind and hard working student in real life, had a challenge to become the villain of the show. He stepped it up and managed to create the intimidating atmosphere needed, especially for the song “My Name”.

Aidan Montana performed in a musical for the last time with St Ignatius and he made some great memories playing Mr. Bumble. Aidan and his on-stage wife, Jade as Widow Corney, developed their characters into a comical duo. Aidan and Jade worked great together and had many audience members laughing along to “I Shall Scream”. Both performers were able to create more playful scenes between the two and made the “Old Sally’s” death into a very humorous scene where the character’s true colours are really shared. We congratulate Rose Woodcock for her debut in the high school performance and thank her for a fabulous performance of Sally who reveals the big secret in the play.

Another great duo were Mr. and Mrs. Sowerberry, Jamal Leon and Julianne Aurelio, as an audience member we wanted to see more of these two characters due to their comical, yet distributing ways of making profit in an undertakers. Both Jamal and Julianne cared a lot for their scenes and would regularly and independently rehearse during lunch. In these Sowerberry scenes Noah Claypole, Clare Artuch and Charlotte, Coco Windsor, were introduced. Both performers were able to create believable characters that shared the chaos in the Sowerberry’s undertakers.

The Brownlow house invited the audience to the upper class are of London, where Mr. Brownlow, played by Jon-Paul Miller and Mrs. Bedwin played by Brooke Teixeria-Mitchell started to care for Oliver after he is caught stealing. Harrisen Richards was able to present the pessimistic Mr. Grimwig that did not trust Oliver. Harrisen, Brooke and Jon-Paul all worked extremely hard for the performance, during one of the longest scenes in the play. We congratulate Brooke for her debut and first solo and say goodbye to Harrisen, as this is his final performance at St Ignatius before graduating.

A special shout out goes to our “Who Will Buy” singers especially Hannah Mohammed, who started Oliver in TAS Directing and then Mr. Houghton helped her see her talents and eventually take on the solo part of ‘Strawberry Seller’ in Who Will Buy. We congratulate Hannah, Coco, Aidan and Rio for their beautiful performances of “Who Will Buy” which can be named as the most difficult song in the show.

We also thank our committed and talented chorus members for their exceptional acting and singing on stage:

Elyssa Blair, Tristan Cacho, Nathaniel Lord, Grace Moss, Oscar Nyyssonen, Isabella Partridge, Aaron Rajamohan, Gabriel Richards, Joshua Rose, McKenzie Stafford, Sophia Villarin, Samantha Wood.

We hope to see you again for next year and perhaps with a lead role!

Lastly, we also thank our talented dancers and Ms. Moss for the choreography:

Leah Makasare, Grace Moss, Khobika Rajesh Kannan, Jade Robinson, Ashika Singh, Brooke Teixeria-Mitchell.

Orchestra / Music

This year we introduced more student involvement in the orchestra for the performance. We thank Mr. Biliti and Ms. Horrocks for overseeing the signups for the orchestra. Mr. Biliti conducted the performance with Year 13 student Charles Henderson Co Conducting during Act Two Scenes One and Two.

We thank all students, volunteers, teachers and professionals in this year’s orchestra:

Ms. Hennelly – Tenor Sax

Ms. Horrocks – Flute and Recorder

Mr. Dorrington – Piano and Trumpet

Richard Addlestone - Violin

Duncan Anderson – Baritone & Trombone

Dana Barett – Violin

Sarah Bertran - Violin

Gabielle Best – Violin

Laura Cooper – Clarinet & Alto Sax

Mikhail Fedenev – Piano

McAllister Fernandes – Percussion

John Gill - Clarinet

Elaine Graham - Cello

Charles Henderson – Clarinet & Bass Clarinet

Gabriel Mathura – Bass Guitar

Reid McNeal – French Horn

Katie Moore - Percussion

Gabielle Murray - Violin

Jude Solomon – Cello

Johann Uy - Piano

Logan Wilson – Violin

Students are in bold

Theatre Apprenticeship Scheme

With the introduction of the Theatre Apprenticeship Scheme (TAS) many students were able to be involved in the show ‘behind the scenes’ with thanks to their ‘Teacher Managers’ and their teams.

Producing – Ms. Goude

Producer Managers: Hannah Mohammed, Isabella Thomas and Aidan Montana

Stage Management, Lighting & Directing – Ms. Marron

Stage Manager: Isabella Thomas

Back Stage Managers: Ava Hickey and Shaylee Rea

Serena Lord, Isabella McGlaughin, Ela Arun, Emery Augustine, Gracelyn Huys, Hart DaCosta, Isabella Ting, Marcus Lagman, Sophie Aitken, Holly McArthur, Riley Watson,

Runner - Drew Ewing-chow, Pavitrra Varadharajan, Chealsea Whittaker, Felix Muhlanga, Joshua Brown

Directors: Alexa Phipps, Amara Singh, Lucy Sims, Coco Windsor

Lighting & Sound

Louie Ching, Kamahl Mannings, Oneil Lawrence, Jorian Neblett

Lighting ssistant – Darragh O’Regan

Sound – Mr. Houghton

Louie Ching, Kamahl Mannings, Oneil Lawrence, Jorian Neblett

Costume and Makeup – Ms. Kaumba

Costume Manager: Hanna Garberino

Makeup – Ms. Weaver

Gabriella Sanchez and Ciarah Bodden

Marketing – Ms. Finnerty

Managers: DeShae Cann, Christopher Sanchez, Adelaide Watson, Jelani Hanson and Skye Phillips

Leah Makasare, Elaina Almeida, Ashika Singh

Set Painting and Props – Ms. Flemming

Set Manager: Yoleiddy Cid-Paredes

Sachin Pandohie, Kiarah Mckenzie,

Accounting – Ms. Chenier

Anjia Delapenha, Louie Ching, Caleb Feare, Alexander Rhule, Jenna McLaughlin, Xairia Robinson, Mikhail Fedenev

Props and Staging – Ms.Hickey

Costume Alterations – Ms. Horrocks