Castlemaine Secondary College drama students will showcase their theatrical efforts with two plays over the next week.
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Year 11 students have spent a semester preparing Carlo Goldoni’s 18th century play The Servant of Two Masters while year 12 students have been busy identifying with Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest.
Crispin Smythe, who plays the comic lead Truffaldino in The Servant of Two Masters, said the play revolves around one servant trying to get as much as he can out of everyone he encounters.
“We see all the things everyone goes through as a result of him trying to extort them,” he said.
“It helps us using a modernised script that's also been Australian-ised. A lot of things the play uses like slapstick and verbal word play are still funny today.
“We get about three or four hours a week to work on it along with the theory and stage craft and a few after school and lunch time rehearsals.”
Reiley Bennett is directing the Year 12 performance of The Importance of Being Earnest.
“The directing aspect has been interesting. When we started into the play, we had a lot of idealistic visions of what it should be and how it should be produced,” he said.
“There were a lot of things I wanted to incorporate that were distinctive to my vision but as we developed it, we went in a more naturalistic way and kept it how it was meant to be.
“Oscar Wilde is my favourite author. I adore his moral quips and proclamations about British society, especially the social critiquing in this play. It is still quite relevant to the modern day.”
The Year 11 production of The Servant of Two Masters is on Thursday night from 7pm at Castlemaine Secondary College’s Etty Street campus.
The Year 12 drama students performance of The Importance of Being Earnest is being performed on Tuesday, May 31, from 7pm at Castlemaine Secondary College’s Etty Street campus.