From left: Maralinga Primary School students Katherine as Abby The Angel and Lucy as Kassi The Crocodile for the forthcoming school production What a Day!
By Shaun Inguanzo
THE spectacle of Broadway is coming to Keysborough’s Maralinga Primary School as its staff and students begin counting down the days until the opening night of the school’s latest stage production.
What a Day! is an extraordinary production because it was written by the school’s physical education and performing arts teacher David Campbell.
While bearing no relation to Jimmy Barnes’ son, who shares the same name, Maralinga’s Mr Campbell is clearly just as talented.
He told Star the production involved the whole school of 210 students – a challenge to coordinate during 10 weeks of tiring rehearsals.
The story centres around a class’ visit to a television network.
When five students break away from the main group and attempt to find their classmates, they instead stumble upon the many stages within the studio, and meet the television stars and production crews.
Mr Campbell said the students would meet stars such as The Giggles, Tommy the Prank Engine, Gretel McSpleen and other parodies of real-life entertainers.
“When they find the main group the teachers say to the children, ‘we bet you didn’t see anything on the tour’, when in fact they’ve had the best experience because they’ve been in recording studios and played big parts in the show, or in solving the directors’ problems,” he said.
Mr Campbell said different grades at Maralinga would perform the different scenes, and the whole school would play a big part.
“Probably about 110 kids will have something to say in it,” he said.
“Some roles are small but most are a reasonable size.”
What a Day! will be performed on Tuesday, 28 August and Thursday, 30 August at Cleeland Secondary College, with a matinee on 27 August.
