On Monday the 8th of May Miss Evans’ Year 12 English and Ms Stagg’s Year 12 Essential English classes headed to Adelaide for an overnight camp. The Monday included a visit to the UniSA City West campus, some shopping in Rundle Mall and the experience of watching Duncan Macmillan’s play Every Brilliant Thing.
This play was a one-man show that involved a lot of audience participation with our students engaging with fantastic enthusiasm. One of our students, Maddie, conjured the courage to perform up on stage to play the role of a counsellor, with our many other students reading out items from a list when called upon.
After a good night’s sleep, the classes visited Bounce for some teambuilding activities and then had a quick stop at the St Kilda Adventure Playground before heading home again. The students on this excursion should be congratulated as it was an excellent camp and students represented the school exceptionally well.
Ms Stagg, Miss Evans, Mr Foulis
See what some of our students thought about their trip away:
“On Monday and Tuesday we went on an English trip to Adelaide. The trip included stops at Bounce, Rundle mall, watching Every Brilliant Thing play, and St Kilda Playground and we stayed at West Beach. My favourite part was Bounce followed by the play because it was very entertaining and engaging.”
“On the English trip we went to the following: Bounce, Uni SA, Saint Kilda, Every Brilliant Thing Play, and Rundle Mall. When we went down on the trip we stayed at West Beach Cabin Park. My favourite part of the camp was going to the play as I found it very engaging and it was interesting how the actor managed to use the audience as part of the play.”
“Every Brilliant Thing was an outstanding one-man show; it dealt with a serious topic but turned it into a light-hearted performance. My favourite part of the camp was hearing everyone sing songs together on the school bus and no one getting judge for how badly they sung.”
” I had a fantastic time at the year 12 English excursion. Students watched the play Every Brilliant Thing. It displayed the serious topic of suicide, specifically how children of depressed mothers suffer unimaginably. However, the actor managed to keep it light-hearted and engage the audience in an inspiring way. The narrator
made a list of every brilliant in the world to show his mother that life is worth living for. My favourite part of the camp was having the opportunity to go up on stage and improvise with the actor.”
“The play was an amazing example of how engaging the audience can leave a positive long- lasting effect on audience about what is thought to be an extremely sensitive topic. The trips to Bounce and the Saint Kilda playground were an extremely fun way to blow off steam, that really tied this camp together. Miss Evans and Ms Stagg have done a great job with the planning and preparation of the camp, choosing a great play and fun activities.”
“May 8th, 2023. I woke up cold and lonely. I was not yet prepared for the experience that was soon to befall upon me. Stepping onto the bus, a shiver went down my spine. The other students paraded the vehicle like wild animals. After a long and treacherous journey, we landed at the campus of UNISA where we showed the drabness of our inevitable future at university. A long and tiring walk led us to the theatre where the play was soon to start. This play changed me from a depressed, gloomy, unengaged boy to a hopeful, starry-eyed, and encouraged young man. Seeing just one man able to tell such a compelling story all by himself was awe-inspiring. I cried on multiple occasions.
That night I had dreams of the play running through my mind. I awoke the next morning, still cold but much less lonely as I was surrounded by my best of friends. We then bounced on over to Bounce after our lacklustre breakfast of bland cereal with warm milk that had to be eaten out of a cup. Bounce was good, I suppose, except for when Tyson struck me in the face with a ball during dodgeball. I vowed that day to never forgive him and to take revenge when he least expected. We then had lunch and we went home.”
“I enjoyed watching the play because it was different from things I have seen before. Seeing the performer include people from the audience throughout the play was good. It was also good to do the tour through the uni to give us more of an idea of what to expect moving from high school to university. I enjoyed doing extra activities throughout the excursion to have some time away from the school side of the trip.”
“The performance Jimi Bani gave was inspiring and I had a great time at Bounce on the basketball rings.”
“Every Brilliant Thing was an amazing interactive play that was very heart touching. My favourite thing about the excursion was seeing people having fun.”
“I enjoyed the play, especially the moments where he found a way to laugh and feel happy through his sorrows, even getting a laugh from the audience. My favourite part of the excursion, however, was when we were at St Kilda park, watching all the people falling off or failing on all the different parts of the playground”
“While in Adelaide, we watched the play, Every Brilliant Thing. Among the best parts of the experience was the engagement with the audience. Several members of the audience where given cues to speak aloud in various parts of the play. This made the play very memorable and unique.”
“Every Brilliant Thing was very dependent on the audience’s interaction with the actor. My favourite part of the play was when Maddie had to take her shoe off and portray her sock as a puppet. Bounce was a fun ending to the trip running around for two hours and making the ride home very quiet.