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Education – The Musical (6f, 6m + chorus)
A run down school. Nothing seems to work and the teachers are stressed and the students are bored. Sophie arrives fresh from university with energy and the desire to make a difference. She falls in love and slowly learns what reality is. This new musical is a satirical look at education with a catchy score by Andrew Batterham.
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Livingston: You must be Sophie.
Sophie: Yes. I am.
Livingston: Ignore them!
(beat) Rosemary Livingston, Head of Art.
Sophie: Nice to meet you.
Livingston: I’m an artist.
Sophie: Oh … I only teach Art.Livingston: Well…never mind. (beat) You will be teaching Year 8… sculpture and form…there are 28 boys and 4 girls in your class. 31 of them have no interest in Art…and the one boy that likes it is away a lot, so you shouldn’t have any problems. (beat) If there are happen to be any problems just find me … I’ve got to do some photo-copying now. The administration wants a lesson-plan for every class … but you’ll find out.
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Book and Lyrics: Joachim Matschoss / Music: Andrew Batterham
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... AND SUDDENLY IT´S EVENING (3f + chorus)
Two girls, growing up. Both in conflict with their parents, teased and bullied by their peers. They rely on each other to survive and discover that what makes them strong is their love for each other.
Style: Multiple timeframes and non-naturalistic imagery
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I AM NOT STRONG (Brooks/Matschoss)
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A place at the fringes of a large city.
A girl sings:
Now it is mid-february again
and we will choose a morning of cool change
to move up the river
to find a secret spring.
Upriver, beyond suburban streets
plastic bottles like bloated fish
shopping trolleys underneath the water
but we walk on.
Dark-blue streams we travel
to keep us from our fears
ice-cold streams we travel
to help us through the years
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Book and Lyrics: Joachim Matschoss / Music: Ross Brooks & Yolette Stewart (CD available)
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WATERSKY (5f, 2m, large chorus)
Watersky’ is set in the future, a distant future, a future that hopefully will never become a now. The story is set against the backdrop of a society where people have lost the ability to communicate. The cities are over crowded, polluted and disease-ridden. Constant noise and a frantic pace govern the life of the people. A strange group of people arrive: ‘The Raindancers’. They look human, but are they?
Style: non naturalistic musical theatre
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Scene 1
Overture.
On screen: the Raindancer searching
Water-theme, a floating piece of music.
One can sense the presence of water. People travel. A young boy.
Rose on a swing, where she will remain for most of the play.
A girl's voice, singing
RACHEL:
The rain will stop.
The sun will come.
and I will be all on my own –
a shadow doesn‘t leave a spot.
The sun will come.
The rain will stop.
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Book and Lyrics: Joachim Matschoss / Music: Ross Brooks & Matt Baker
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SHIVERS (12f, 2m, chorus)
From the late nineteenth century through until the 1970s these homes took in girls, young women, between the age of 13 and 18 who had been deemed wayward, homeless, deviant, at risk of moral danger or simply pregnant. Thousands of unmarried mothers and their babies passed through these homes, in Australia, in Scotland, Ireland and wherever else.
Style: realism with non-naturalistic elements
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To video gallery
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Book and Lyrics: Joachim Matschoss / Music: Ross Brooks (CD available)
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The Nurse (sings briefly):
No matter where you are
No matter where you are
Or who you’re near
When we come up for air
We come up for air together
Change.
The bells of a church. Dim light. Still a wooden floor.The Girls are entering. They kneel down.An organ plays.
Music.
Girls:
Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy
Lord, have mercy
Christ, hear us
Christ, graciously hear us
Single Voice:
God, the father in heaven
All have mercy on us
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ANDERSON STREET
(6f, 12m, chorus)
A quiet street in a sleepy suburb in a large Australian city. Lisa is a bubbly teenager madly in love who lives a carefree life, partying on a Saturday night and working in a supermarket. All her mates do pretty much the same. One day the USA is invading a country off shore and Australia is there to help their allies. This will change Lisa’s life forever..
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To video gallery
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Book and Lyrics: Joachim Matschoss / Music: Matt Baker & Paul Snowdon (CD available)
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LAUREN: Hi! I like Anderson Street…it’s the best…we don’t have any highrise development here, well not yet anyway…’cause we
have all these paperbark trees and the council doesn’t want to get rid of them, even though their roots block the drains…we had our backyard flooded, you know…shit everywhere…
LISA: Anyway, here’s our song…our song about Anderson Street, which you’ve heard already at the start…
SALLY sing:
Anderson Street, Anderson Street
Lisa and Famo, Mum and Pete.
Anderson Street, Anderson Street
A gumtree and a lorrikeet
Anderson Street, Anderson Street
Lisa and Famo, Mum and Pete.
Anderson Street, Anderson Street
A gumtree and a lorrikeet
LISA: That’s the Chorus, we didn’t have verses for yonks…but now we do, as you’ve heard at the beginning. Good, eh!?
(beat) Thanks guys!
SALLY: It’s really Lisa’s song…we’re just doing harmonies!
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BROWN-EYED GIRL
(6f, 4m, large chorus)
A love story set in a small coastal town somewhere in Australia and sometime now. The ocean is nearby and things are alright, until one Saturday night a car crashes and life will change forever…
Style: realism with non-naturalistic elements.
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To video gallery
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Evening. Dim light. A little girl outside, Sinead, with a skipping rope. An empty space. Grass. The ocean nearby. A bench. The sound of a keyboard. Minor chords. Overture.
Lucinda enters.
LUCINDA: Ah, there you are. I was looking for you all over.
SINEAD: Why didn’t you look where I was?
LUCINDA: I didn’t know where you were, otherwise I would’ve found you, wouldn’t I?
SINEAD: I was here. I’m always out here…when the sun’s gone, I am out here.
LUCINDA: Why?
SINEAD: I can still see the ocean from up here…and I can smell the waves…and hear the seagulls.
LUCINDA: Aren’t you cold?
SINEAD: No. I’m never cold.
Lucinda smiles. They sit down and look up.
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LONE PALM (8f, 7m)
Bridget has finished High School and her father gives her a present: a tropical island, so she can entertain her friends in style. She much rather would like to spend more time with her Dad. One day he plans to visit her out of the blue, but the plane never makes it to the island…
Style: realism with non-naturalistic elements
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A bare space, somewhere in the distance palm-trees, coconut umbrellas and a beach.
Bridget storms in, offstage her father, Peter Simpson.
BRIDGET: I hate you. I so hate you, Dad!!
What do you want from me? No!
She doesn’t want him to come near her. He remains offstage.
No don’t! Stay away… Mum is dead. She won’t come back. She will never come back. She is dead! And it’s all your fault.
Bridget runs off to the other side.
Change.
A group of young people enters.
ANGUS: Twenty days.
MEZ: Just twenty days left.
KEITH: And the exams…
KATE: Don’t spoil the fun.
HILLY: Nerd.
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