Home › Tpjunior › St Michael's Grammar Presents '13'

St Michael's Grammar Presents '13'

Renee Maloney's picture
Submitted by Renee Maloney on Saturday, 8th May 2010
Author: 
“I wanna fly, wanna drive, wanna get rich, wanna get out, wanna get my braces off, wanna get my nose pierced, wanna grow my hair long.” 
Catchy tunes bring the Australian premiere of 13 to life in this hilarious and high-energy musical for all ages.
 
St Michael’s Grammar School presents the Australian premiere of Jason Robert Brown’s ‘13’ at The CUB Malthouse this May. The 53-strong cast of students from Years 10 to 12 has been rehearsing this musical and dance-rich production since February. “The rock score is full of catchy and fun songs, with an abundance of full company production numbers,” said director Mr. Simon Parris.
 
“13 is a family friendly musical. Expect High School Musical meets Mean Girls crossed with Glee and Smallville. Being the Australian premiere it has been exciting working with the talented and enthused student cast to bring this production to life with our own spin. We can’t wait for opening night,” Mr. Parris said.
 
13 is about 13 year old Evan Goldman who has the ‘perfect’ life; he’s popular, has the ‘perfect’ family and lives in the ‘world’s greatest city’, New York. So what happens when his parents divorce and he gets uprooted to the flat, brown small town of Appleton, Indiana? With six weeks to go until his Bar Mitzvah, 13 is the story of Evan on a mission to befriend the jocks, cheer leaders and bullies while avoiding the nerds and geeks, and without walking into too many school yard minefields along the way. "13" is a show about finding out who you are, finding out what you need, and finding out what's really important.
 
 
Jason Robert Brown’s (the same man who brought us Parade, Songs for a new World and the orchestration for John and Jen), 13 opened on Broadway in November 2008, after a successful pre-Broadway premiere at the Mark Taper Forum in 2007. “It’s amazing to see the way a project like this brings together so many people from the school community. Everyone has a sense of purpose and a great sense of pride in the work,” said Head of the School, Mr. Simon Gipson.
 
St Michael’s Grammar is a theatrical institution in Victorian Schools Performing Arts Departments. 13 is supported by an exceptional production team headed by the amazing Simon Parris. Musically directed by the talented Natalie Calia and Andrew Leach and choreographed by James Rooney and Tamara Finch.
 
The School’s production of 13 is set to open on Thursday 13 May 2010 with performances continuing 14 to 15 May.
 
Please visit  www.stmichaels.vic.edu.au/13 to book tickets.

 

State: 
VIC

About the Author

Renée has been involved in over 60 shows in the past 24 years - directing, choreographing, producing, performing and stage managing. She has played such roles as ‘Anybody’s’ in West Side Story, ‘Lucy’ in Cosi, ‘Agnes’ in Gypsy and appeared in Annie, Guys and Dolls, Anything Goes and many more. She has been on the directing team for:  Annie, Guys and Dolls (twice), Les Mis, Joseph and His Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, Annie Get Your Gun, Back to Broadway, The Full Monty, Little Shop of Horrors, Stepping Out, Godspell and Nunsense 1 and 2 amongst many others. She has also appeared in Neighbours, Round the Twist, On the Beach, Short Cuts and a series of ANZ commercials. Renée has been a qualified dance teacher for the past 10 years teaching at many schools around Victoria preparing students for professional auditions, competitions, exams and VCE Dance assessment tasks.  Renée was nominated for ‘Best Director in a Variety’ two years in a row with the Lyrebird Awards. In her professional life she is a Secondary School teacher. In 2011 Renée has directed "Little Shop of Horrors"  and is production managing "Into the Woods" for Phoenix Theatre Company Inc. Reneé can be contacted at editor.renee@theatrepeople.com.au.