Students from two Geelong primary schools had the opportunity to experience storytelling through opera with some of the medium’s best last week.
Hosted by not-for-profit arts learning organisation The Song Room, the Geelong Big Day of Learning brought together 100 students from Geelong East Primary School and Grovedale West Primary School at Platform Arts.
Students were led through the process of creating a story, learning songs, constructing sets, props and costumes and, ultimately, performing opera under the guidance of opera singer Ali McGregor and a team of opera professionals.
Ms McGregor said the event, which was the very first of what she hoped would be an ongoing series of workshops, was “incredible”.
“It’s the launch of a new program and I could not be happier, it went above and beyond my expectations,” she said.
“We created a 15-minute piece and they all got involved, it was amazing. If they weren’t really into the singing, then they really got to lean into crafting, or the storytelling; everyone found their little thing.”
Ms McGregor was inspired to come up with the idea for opera storytelling workshops for primary school children after realising young creatives did not often see opera as “a place to tell stories”.
“The whole concept is about wanting to widen the demographic of people who create opera,” she said.
“If you get to high school or university and you want to be a writer or composer, you can write a play, a book, a podcast, or a TV show. Opera is never really on that list.
“Giving kids agency in the creation of opera means that maybe it won’t be such a foreign thing.”
