Teacher Feature - Staging a High School Musical

Director of the Arts at Mercedes College, Kathleen Cocks shares her experiences of working with PALINK and staging a school show in a professional venue. 

I was approached by our Principal to move our musical off campus to a professional venue, and my initial reaction was hesitant and slightly overwhelmed. It is a very large space. Completely different to our usual space at school. This was all unknown. 

We engaged PALINK to build and design our set as well as manage all the technical aspects of production - including sourcing our lighting and sound professionals. They also prepared us to work in a professional space - being the bridge between school and venue. 

It was challenging at first – knowing where everything was going to be and how it would look. But Nathan and Matthew explained everything in a language I understood as a drama teacher and that was very helpful. 

When we arrived at the venue for our first day of rehearsal the set was ready to use and the student crew were already pulling ropes and moving set pieces. I wasn’t expecting that. To have someone take that job out of my hands was fabulous. It gave me the time to work with the students – fine tuning blocking and acting choices and that was a luxury that I have never had before.

Thanks to the support and training that I received through PALINK, I was quickly working collaboratively with industry professionals and that was really exciting and a great learning experience. 

This show is outstanding compared to what we usually do. Not only is it more polished and professional looking but I think that the experience of taking this show out into a professional venue has pushed us as a group (students and staff) to a new level.