by Luke Voogt
Big Brother was watching as disadvantaged Whittington students packed George Orwell’s 1984 into a 30-minute play on Thursday.
The play was “a pretty big deal for the kids” from MacKillop Specialist School, according to secondary teacher Brad Clough.
“A lot them have not been involved in a big school production like this,” he said.
“Some of our students have never been on stage before or have never been involved behind the scenes at a drama production.”
The yearly play had become a highlight for the school, which works with youth having difficulty fitting into mainstream schooling, Brad said.
“The play really helps build the confidence of our students.”
The students developed the concept, wrote the script, designed the costumes and set, and were in charge of technical production, Brad said.
“A lot of our students miss out on participating in large school events, so it’s great to have a range of different roles so every student can pick a task they are interested in.”
The students planned and rehearsed for months before performing for family and friends on Thursday.
But the only “challenge” was packing all the novel’s content into such a short a play, Brad said.
“We sort of pulled out the main scenes.”
The students loosely based the play on 1984 with a different ending to the book providing a surprise twist, Brad said.
“It’s not as dark as old Orwell would like it to be but we’ve gotta have a happy ending – that’s what we strive for with all our kids.”
