Not so long ago, when we created original performances, students would be encouraged to ‘break the 4th wall’. Breaking the 4th wall is an approach to performance whereby we ignore the imaginary division between audience and stage and thereby achieve communion of all present. These days, that line between performer and audience is a health necessity, but that didn’t prevent Grade 10 from bursting a different kind of bubble last Friday afternoon as they completed their two-week cycle on campus with some long-awaited performance work.

How apt then, that their 25-minute live show began with the Grade 10 Band performing their instrumental version of Queen’s “The Show Must Go On.” An anthem to overcoming difficulties! They followed this with the poignant “Demons” by Imagine Dragons, another piece that urges us to accept and keep going, despite how we might feel about ourselves.

Next, Grade 10 Theatre shared the trials and tribulations of distance learning with a piece of original theatre. “The Meet Show” is a devised piece of theatre taking a humorous look at an online class. The framework was created during the group’s in-person classes and was completed with around 5 hours of creative collaboration.

With Music and Theatre ably supported by Grade 10 Performance Technology (who also had to think on their feet), in total 21 students from Grade 10 worked together to make their own show. Having achieved communion in the room, and with just moments left at the end of the day, the darkened Black Box Theatre was filled with light once more as we returned to reality. We quickly saluted the students and sent them on their way. They are now back in those Google Meets… we hope not for too long!