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International Grammar School’s weekly
e-newsletter
Term 4, No. 7 • 21 November 2014
COMING EVENTS
TERM 4
Mia Morrissey 2012
Harry Greenwood 2006
Thuso Lekwape 2011
Special 30th Anniversary Drama Report
IGS THESPIANS TAKE IT TO THE NEXT STAGE
What better week for In Focus to highlight our Alumni’s wonderful theatrical and screen pursuits
than this week, when the School’s Alumni 2014 Facebook page passed 1,000 members! And, for a
school that values the arts, what better year than our 30th Anniversary year, to celebrate some of
our alumni actors? We catch up with Harry, Mia and Thuso ...
Harry says ...
Whilst I was at IGS, Drama was the subject
I lived for. I could name many memorable
moments, however, one sticks out more
than any other. Ms Morabito had long
spoken to us about 'wolf,' a game, she
promised, that was like no other. Our
curiosity piqued, we pushed and nagged
until finally she agreed that we would
indeed be meeting the 'wolf' in our next
class. The day arrived. One by one we
were blindfolded and had an inflated
balloon attached to our waists. A 'pop' she
explained would signal our death. Huddled
into a corner of the room, our imaginations
racing, we were informed that our only
WEEK 9
Monday 1 December
Speech Night practice , 9am-1pm
Speech Night , Years 3-12, 7pm,State Theatre
Tuesday 2 December
Picnic Day Years K-11, Parsley Bay
Last day Term 4 for students
Wednesday 3 December
Staff Development Day
“I fell in love with theatre at IGS and this bug
has driven me this far ever since”. - Thuso
means of survival was the food that sat
treacherously on the other side of the room.
What ensued was a magical few hours of
long-form improvisation and imaginative
work that I still
think of, to this
day.
I have just
recently
finished
performing in
a production
of The Glass
Menagerie
at Belvoir St
Theatre and am
now looking
Continued ...
Term 4, No. 7 - 21 November 2014
WEEK 8
Monday 24 November
Year 9 High Resolves Session
Year 10 PDHPE Excursion to USYD
Tuersday 25 November
K-2 Speech Day Practice
Wednesday 26 November
K-2 Speech Day, 11am
High School Final House Assembly
Year 7 High Resolves
Thursday 27 November
High School End-Year Assembly
Year 12 PDHPE Excursion to UNSW
Friday 28 November
Years 1, 2 and 4 Swimming
Last week’s IGS Music
Showcase featured
original compositions and
300+ performers from the
school community
See page 4!
Editor: Rosemary Pryor
4-8 Kelly Street, Ultimo NSW 2007
Locked Bag 1022, Broadway
NSW 2007
Ph: 9219 6700 Fax: 9211 2474
e: [email protected]
from Page 1 continued
forward to a long holiday in Europe over
the Christmas period.
As an actor you can't really plan too far
into the future, you simply take the work
as it comes, but certainly in the coming
years I hope to continue to learn and gain
experience working in all media – the
theatre, film and TV. There are directors I'd
love to work with and roles I'd like to tackle
but on a really basic level I just want to
keep enjoying what I do and tell important,
meaningful stories.
- Harry Greenwood
Mia says ...
I have so many fond memories of IGS
Drama: Playing Maria Callas for my HSC
monologue (still the favourite character I
have ever played), Year 10 Commedia Del
l’arte (when I donned a wildly inappropriate
dress to truly channel La Signora and
overcame my fear of improvisation) and
of course, Shakespeare Festival every year
(including one year that Thuso and I did a
Romeo and Juliet dance and I accidentally
kicked him. Sorry Thuso!).
Not surprisingly, my first drama memory
ever was actually at IGS. We did a
kindergarten play of Edward the Emu in
assembly. I got so excited that I learnt
everyone’s lines, even though I was only on
stage for one song as a Lion (looking back,
if you saw my hair, you’d understand it was
a very fine piece of casting).
Even back then I was a firm believer in
the old rule, “There’s no such thing as a
small part, only a small actor”, despite the
fact that, at five years old, I was indeed
a very small actor. I honestly remember
very seriously asking my parents after the
performance if they truly believed my roars,
and if my lion physicality was aggressive
enough…
And so it began…
Fun fact: I can actually still recite the lines
to this day! “Edward the Emu was sick of
the zoo, there was nowhere to go, there
was nothing to do…”
I have kind of spent the last year country
hopping! I was filming a television series
in Germany for a few months, then came
back when I was on TV talent show The
Voice and I’ve just come back from India a
couple of weeks ago.
So right now, I just want to stay in Australia
for a bit to spend time with my family and
work on my music. I have been putting
down some originals that I can’t wait to
share with the world. I'm aiming for a
release early next year. Exciting stuff!
Thuso says ...
My fondest memories at
IGS are at the Arts Fest.
This festival brought
teachers and students
together who had never
worked together in this
way. It also brought
a strong cross-cohort
relationship. I personally
also miss some of the
after-school clubs. One
is the Shakespeare Club,
where students would
gather and revive texts
from Shakespeare to
enter in the Festival.
I think the essential thing I
miss is our student and teacher
relationship in my senior years
at IGS. The teachers became
‘professional friends’ to help
me through the stressful times
during HSC and that played a key
role in preparing me for tertiary
education. The reason I miss it
is because you don’t get that in
tertiary education. In saying that,
I felt equipped [to cope] after
leaving.
Above: Harry Greenwood in the recent Belvoir St
Theatre production of The Glass Menagerie; Below:
a younger Harry at IGS with Ms Morabito; Thuso and
Mia at IGS in Shakespeare Festival 2010; Mia sings at
the 30th celebration evening in July; Thuso at NIDA.
I recently graduated from the
National Institute of Dramatic
Art (NIDA) after three years of
intensive learning. I have been
fortunate enough to be cast in a
television drama after graduating,
which I’m currently working on. I
hope my luck doesn’t run out! But
I can only work hard and hope
this is the beginning of many
characters to play.
My future ambitions at the
moment are to get involved in
some of the creative projects that
Sydney Theatre Company and
Belvoir are putting on next year.
I fell in love with theatre at IGS and
this bug has driven me this far ever
since.
- Thuso Lekwape
Drama Report continued on P.4
Ed: More good news: Thuso is also
planning to assist IGS with some
Shakespeare workshops in 2015!
- Mia Morrissey
Term 4, No. 7 - 21 November 2014
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SNAPSHOTS
Hats off to the 80 IGS Year 4 students, Indigenous students
from other years and staff including Principal Shauna
Colnan who joined the Gurung Parade yesterday to mark
the beginning of the Corroboree Festival 2014
(some of the coverage can be seen at: http://abc.net.au/news/5906734)
... And hats on to the primary students who participated in Tuesday’s Crazy Wig and Hat Day to
raise money for the Orangutan Conservation Project in Indonesia.The Day raised $642.55!
Well done Team Primary.
Photos by Noriko
Term 4, No. 7 - 21 November 2014
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MUSIC NOTES
Showcase marks 30 years of making music at IGS
Thirty years of music making at IGS was
celebrated beautifully at last week’s
showcase concert through outstanding
performances representative of all areas of
the Music Department.
The items involved children from Year 1
who were involved in the delightful choral
work Orange Tree commissioned from Paul
Jarman (and based on poetry by alumnus
Valerio De Simoni), through to some of our
Year 12 HSC students who performed their
original compositions and performance
work.
The St Barnabas Auditorium capacity
audience of over 500 were treated to
works by a range of ensembles – choirs,
bands and orchestras, as well as thrilling
performances by professional musicians
in our community – Ben Hibbard, Cheryl
Barker and Peter Coleman-Wright.
Many parents, staff and alumni joined the
mass choirs for the large works written
especially for this joyful occasion. Some of
these will heard again at Speech Night on
1 December.
Alison Housley
Director of Music
Ed: Special guests who enjoyed the
superb evening’s entertainment included
City of Sydney Councillor John Mant;
IGS Board Chair Larissa Cook; Principal
Shauna Colnan and husband Mr Michael
Colnan; former Principal and current Board
Member, Rita Fin and husband Tommy
Andersson; former Board Chair David
Baker; and Valerio De Simoni’s mother,
Vittoria Pasquini.
More in the next edition of Jigsaw!
photos by Annie Kim
... Special Drama Report continued from Page 2
And the show goes on at IGS!
HSC Drama Showcase ONStage for
2015
Selected:
Matilda Davis, Ella Fitzpatrick-Lubowitz and
Madeleine Madden - Group Performance,
Backtrack.
Elodie Hennessey-Trupheme Poster Design
for play Falling Petals
Madeleine Goodsir for her ‘Critical Analysis
Applied Research Project’
Madeleine Madden (reserve) has been
selected as a reserve for her Video Drama
Daisy
Also nominated:
Nicola Irvin - Karagiozi
Hestea Cook for Autumn
Sam Varian, Madeleine Goodsir, Nicola Irvin
and Hestea Cook - Univershoeties
Term 4, No. 7 - 21 November 2014
Robin Anderson Film Awards 2014
Craft Prizes
Esther Hannan Moon- Best Acting, Crushed
Madeleine Madden – Best Screenplay,
Daisy
Nominated:
Himavaan Chandra – Gadget
Joseph Howe – Quixotic
Elly Carantinos – My Only Enemy is Time
Naysan Baghai – Crushed
Madeleine Madden – Daisy
IGS Alumnus
Daniel Askill
co-directed
the awardwinning Sia
video for
Chandelier
Several students’ films were also screened
at the Newington College Film Festival.
Post note: The recent ‘music video clip of
the year’ for the song Chandelier sung by
Sia was made by alumnus Daniel Askill,
internationally renowned director. Daniel
was in the IGS Year 1 home class 30 years
ago and went right through high school
at IGS.
Report compiled by Rosemary Pryor
and Rita Morabito
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vjPBrBU-TM
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ARTWORK OF THE WEEK
Our chosen
artwork of
the week is a
‘Multiplicity’
image by Oliver
Workman in Year
10 - from the
Printmaking class.
Victoria Califano
Art Department
ALUMNI CORNER
IGS alumna Isabel Muscatello (Class
of ’12) pictured left at the 2013 Alumni
Event, is currently studying at Modena
University for six months and was recently
interviewed on Italian news (Rai 3) about
her experiences as a foreign student living
in Italy.
Click on the link below and at around 9’
30” into the news program you will see
Isabel. It is wonderful to see how far she
has gone and her excellent level in Italian,
well done Isabel!
Isabel attended our Welcome Back to
IGS Alumni Event in 2013
http://www.rai.tv/dl/RaiTV/programmi/
media/ContentItem-6fff50a5-57a5-4326ba83-4a0f92c35702-tgr.html#p=0
MATHS SPOT solution
Parent John Sergeant provides the correct
answer to last week’s quiz - 24 minutes,
based on solving the following for t:
(t + 16) x 6 = 10t
John adds: “Having said that, a cyclist
who can only manage 10mph downhill is
barely worthy of the name: especially so if
the hill is so steep
that it must be
climbed at 6mph”.
Ed: :)
EVENTS
K-2 Speech Day
Years 3-12 Speech Night
End of Year School Picnic
Early Learning Concert
Wednesday 26 November
Monday 1 December
Tuesday 2 December
Friday 28 November
School Hall
State Theatre
Parsley Bay*
School Hall.
11.00am
49 Market St Sydney
Kindergarten - Year 11.
11:00am
All K – 2 students are required
to wear full school uniform
Parking available at nearby
parking stations (details to
follow for special parking rate)
Parents are welcome to join us
on the day!
This year’s theme is “Once
Upon a Story”.
This is a compulsory event for
all Years 3- 12 students
Term 4, No. 7 - 21 November 2014
More details to follow later in
the term.
*Please note change of venue
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