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The next train to BuSTco will depart in 5
mins....
5th June 2008
By Melissa Trickey
 In
an industry that seems to thrive on recycling the old continuously
(everything old is new again?) it is so refreshing to see creative
forces working as people come up with novel ways to present us with
music, emotion and narrative. It is even better to see young people
with enthusiasm and passion work tremendously hard to see their
ideas come to fruition. Emily Hall is one such creative and
passionate person. Only just 21 years of age, Emily has recently
stepped to the other side of the curtain, having been nominated for
a Lyrebird award for her performance in Phoenix Theatre Company’s
“All the New Stuff” last year. I spoke with her to hear how
“Platform” came into being.
“Platform is a variety show with a difference. BuSTco wanted to put
on a show that would be able to incorporate new students at Deakin
into the company yet we wanted something with an edge. With so many
variety shows around at the moment we wanted to come up with
something different. Kate Warner and I came up with the situation of
a train and what people are like when they are travelling on one. As
we both study in the city we spend most of our time travelling up
and down the lines and we started to notice a lot of stuff; crazy
people talking in gibberish, people asking for money, people playing
instruments, people having very loud conversations on the phone or
in person - but everyone else spends all their energy ignoring
them. We then decided that this would be the perfect setting for a
variety show portraying all different stereotypes of people on a
train, depicting their lives through musical theatre songs – we were
onto something!”
“We have tried to pick as many different songs as possible, with
songs from: Legally Blonde: the Musical, Spring Awakening, I Love
You You're Perfect Now Change, Tick...tick, boom!, Avenue Q, The
Pirates of Penzance, Fame, Hairspray, Rent, Flower Drum Song,
Wicked, Ragtime, The Beautiful Game and Anything Goes just to name a
few. We are also presenting a
new song called Circular Motion from a new musical called Marking
Life by a Melbourne composer – it will be the second time the song
has ever been performed. Each person in the show has a character,
and each character has a song to tell their story. It is quite funny
in parts, but also very moving.”
“It has been a lot of hard work, especially being a first time
director but the show is shaping up into what would be a really
exciting event. Our musical Director Mal Fawcett has come up with
some great arrangements and the cast is getting pretty excited. We
have really tried to get as many students involved in the show with
half of the cast being Deakin students, and many in first year. It’s
been so great to see them grow as performers from one week to the
next, and I’m very proud of them all.”
Opening Thursday 5th of June for four performances, don’t
miss an opportunity to experience something a bit different. For
more information see the
What’s On section or check out
http://www.myspace.com/bustco
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