Four productions showcase student work across Acting, Dance, Music Theatre and Design and Production programs

Performers dance on stage — The four productions will take place at the VCA across late May and early June.

Students from the Victorian College of the Arts’ Acting, Dance, Music Theatre and Design and Production programs will this week launch the first of four productions as part of the 2024 mid-year student work showcase.

Presented by VCA Acting and Design and Production and set within the framework of a morality play, Everybody (by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins) follows the journey of ‘Everybody’, as they navigate their final moments, accompanied by ‘Death’ and other allegorical characters. Through humour, pathos, existential inquiry, and socio-racial commentary, the play prompts audiences to reflect on the inevitability of death and the essence of what it means to live a meaningful life.

With a unique structure that randomly assigns roles to seven of the actors each performance, Everybody offers a dynamic and thought-provoking exploration of the human condition. The play is directed by Isabella Vadiveloo.

Also presented by VCA Acting and Design and Production, The Bank (by Melissa Reeves) is a political comedy set in a small suburban banking branch in the aftermath of a big enquiry. Directed by Daniela Farinacci, The Bank explores the terrible individual harm caused by banks, as well as questioning our heedless acceptance of their place in the world.

"We looked for plays that, for our third year acting students, are formally daring, timely, and great entertainment," says Head of Acting and Theatre Chris Mead. "While our students are still with us we want to really stretch their legs, their imagination and their understanding of what theatre can do. And while a play about the banking Royal Commission and an update of a medieval mystery play might seem at a distance from ‘entertainment’, these plays deliver on all that and more."

Spring Awakening, presented by VCA Music Theatre and Design and Production, explores the mysteries and challenges of adolescence. The landmark musical by Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater transports audiences to late-nineteenth century conservative Germany, where a group of teenagers navigate curious desire and self-discovery with beautiful and devastating consequences. An electrifying fusion of morality, sexuality and rock ‘n’ roll, Spring Awakening is compelling and timeless in its celebration of youthful rebellion.

"I’m thrilled that our final year students are given such rich and demanding material to embrace," says Head of Music Theatre Tyran Parke. "I’ve seen rehearsals of this production and though dealing with challenging themes, it always does so with respect and integrity and it is transformed through the collective talents of a vibrant group of student theatre makers."

Featuring VCA Dance and Design and Production students, Ocean is a rearrangement of material from Merce Cunningham’s Ocean (1994), a work he conceived with John Cage. This production celebrates 30 years since its premier at the Cirque Royal in Brussels.

Carol Brown, Head of Dance, says "The title Ocean comes from the suggestion by Joseph Campbell that the next work James Joyce would have written (after Finnegan’s Wake) would be about water and the ocean."

"Cage’s idea was that the dance be presented in the centre of a circular space with the audience surrounding the dancers and both audience and performers submerged in sound. The ocean is thus a potent symbol for redefining audience relationship to the theatre. For this iteration, we invite you to engage with the signature moves and compositional processes of Cunningham’s choreographic oeuvre and experience the student’s response to the dance."

"Design and Production students have collaborated with professional directors, choreographers and their fellow peers across the VCA to dream-up and colour-in each of these four, live-performance worlds," says Anna Cordingley, Acting Head of Design and Production.

"They’ve designed and constructed environments, costumes, lighting and sound scapes, and they’ve stage managed it all into a real synthesis. Each of the four pieces in this season is fresh, distinct, considered, and the result of some punchy artistic conversations."

EVENT DETAILS

Everybody by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins | Directed by Isabella Vadiveloo | Presented by VCA Acting and Design and Production | 30 May – 4 June | Book tickets

The Bank by Melissa Reeves | Directed by Daniela Farinacci | Presented by VCA Acting and Design and Production | 31 May – 5 June | Book tickets

Ocean (an arrangement) by Merce Cunningham | Presented by VCA Dance and Design and Production | 6 –12 June | Book tickets