General News
6 April, 2022
Taking centre stage
MORTLAKE College 2021 Drama students Kaitlyn Gust and Taine De Manser were among the elite young thespians to perform at the Melbourne Arts Centre last week as part of the 2022 VCE Season of Excellence.
MORTLAKE College 2021 Drama students Kaitlyn Gust and Taine De Manser were among the elite young thespians to perform at the Melbourne Arts Centre last week as part of the 2022 VCE Season of Excellence.
The VCE Season of Excellence is an annual festival that showcases outstanding senior secondary student work from Victorian schools, in performing arts, design, multimedia and visual arts.
Top Class Drama and Theatre Studies concerts present performances by inspirational students who received outstanding grades for their 2021 VCE performance examinations.
The concerts provide both entertainment and learning opportunities for the current cohort of students, with presenters outlining the highlights of what it takes to create anA+ performance.
Mr DeManser, performing for his second time, said he was able to better enjoy the atmosphere thanks to the experience hehad gained.
“It was brilliant,” he said.
“It was 100 times better than last yearbecause I was quite nervous about the experience last year, whereas this year I could relax and worry less about the nervousness and competitive side of things.
“I really enjoyed every aspect this year.”
The performers are chosen from the students who achieve a perfect or close to perfect score on their end of year performance exams.
Those students then auditioned in February for the coveted places in the Top Class concerts.
Kaitlyn and Taine featured in the drama concert, performing their self-composed drama solos, The Princess and Narcissus, respectively.
“Narcissus is a character in Greek Mythology, and the idea is he’s the original narcissist,” Mr DeManser said.
“That’s a lot of what of what my solo revolved around, and connecting that to modern day narcissism.
“It had some commentary on social media and how that’s such a magnifying glass for today’s narcissism, and an outlet to becomea narcissist.”
Among the audience was Mortlake College VCE unit 1 Theatre students, who were excited to have the opportunity to see their peers perform at the highest level.
“It was extraordinary to have them there because there is a culture which has been built around the drama program at Mortlake College, which started well before I got to it,” Mr DeManser said.
“A lot of success myself and Kaitlyn are having comes from kids 10 years ago who decided they wanted to do drama.
“It’s good to be able to pass that on the way students once did for us.”
The duo of Taine and Kaitlyn were set to perform as Shrek and Donkey in Holiday Actors’ production of Shrek in January until it was postponed due to COVID-19.
They will also team up as Rum Tum Tugger and Bombalurina in the Warrnambool Theatre Company Holiday Actors production of Cats, due to open at the Lighthouse Theatre in June.
“I’m just hoping it does go ahead,” Mr DeManser said.
“Cats has been difficult because it has been cancelled four times at this point so we’re hoping that will go ahead.
“There is a lot of excitement, but also just a hope it will go ahead.”
