Students to showcase talents

THE Ballarat Centre of Music and the Arts’ latest production, 13 The Musical, has been tentatively earmarked to go ahead on 11 and 12 September after several of the centre’s other shows were abandoned due to Victoria’s latest snap lockdown.

“Things have been a little bit topsy turvy, just like for everyone else,” BCMA director Paula Heenan said.

“We cancelled both the Aladdin Jr. and Shrek Jr. performances, which was heartbreaking, but we’re going to film them at the end of the year.

“I’d just kept announcing new dates and organising everybody, then having to change them again.

“It’s not just there’s 150 kids on stage, but there’s all the families and the tech crew and the theatre, plus loading the truck – there’s everything else to reorganise as well.”

While Aladdin Jr. and Shrek Jr. were set to feature a rambunctious group of all-singing, all-dancing junior members from the BCMA cohort, 13 The Musical has been chosen to highlight the talents of a smaller bracket of older students.

“These are our senior musical theatre students,” Ms Heenan said.

“They’re aged from 13 to 17 and they’ve all been doing musical theatre for a lot of years. So these are the ones who are looking at launching into a career.”

“13 The Musical is about a group of 12 to 14 year olds, and tackles a lot of mental health issues and things that a lot of teenagers are coming to grips with at that stage in their life.”

“It’s great music, written by Jason Robert Brown, and the harmonies are really intricate – quite challenging even for an adult cast.”

Subject to change, 13 The Musical is currently scheduled to take place at the Helen Macpherson Smith Theatre at FedUni’s Arts Academy Camp Street campus on Saturday, 11 and Sunday, 12 September. Bookings can be made via bit.ly/37erE5y.