[intro music]

TOM: We are the New South Wales Combined Year 10 and 11 Drama Ensemble for 2021. We are 11 students from different public schools and have worked on our piece together at the Arts Unit with our tutor, Mr. John Suffolk, and physical theatre specialist, Kate Sherman. Our piece is called 'The Human Experience' and is about the experiences we have as we grow and explore our worlds and some of the fears we face. We hope you enjoy.

KATIE: [clears throat] All the world's a stage and all the men and women merely--

ALL: We're not doing Shakespeare!

KATIE: What?

ALL: We are not doing Shakespeare!

KATIE: Well, why wasn't I told?

GRACE: The human experience can be defined as, 'The realities including the mental--

ENSEMBLE: [vocalise thinking]

GRACE: --emotional--

ENSEMBLE: [vocalise pain]

GRACE: --spiritual--

ENSEMBLE: [vocalise chanting]

GRACE: --and physical characteristics of human life.'

ANGIE: In other words, what we as individuals--

ALL: I'm an individual.

ANGIE: --or communally experience--

GRACE: Say cheese!

ALL: Cheese!

ANGIE: --throughout life and how we react and respond to these experiences-- how we build knowledge--

ENSEMBLE: Big brain!

ANGIE: --empathy--

INES: I can't do this!

ANGIE: --and take action--

ENSEMBLE: We want change!

ANGIE: --how we celebrate--

ENSEMBLE: Yes!

ANGIE: --commiserate--

JANICE: Come on.

LUKE: She'll be right.

ANGIE: --and express our feelings and emotions.

RAANI: [vocalises frustration]

CHARLIE: Oh no!

TOM: [laughs]

ANGIE: Also, how we all--

ALL: Overcome our fears.

GRACE: Take for example this child's joy and amazement in learning to read and write.

[shuffling loudly]

MARIAM: My name is Katie-- K--

ENSEMBLE: K!

MARIAM: E--

ALL: [vocalise frustration]

MARIAM: A--

ENSEMBLE: A!

MARIAM: L--

ALL: [vocalise frustration]

MARIAM: T--

ENSEMBLE: T! [both stomp]

MARIAM: I--

ENSEMBLE: I!

MARIAM: E.

ENSEMBLE: E!

MARIAM: Katie, my name is Katie.

ALL: [cheering]

SOPHIE: All right, all right. Today, we're going to be writing a little imaginary story. Are you ready?

ALL: Yes!

RAANI: The Fairyland Dragon. Once upon a time, there was a princess.

[trumpet plays]

And another time, there was a dragon.

ENSEMBLE: [inhales and exhales loudly]

[stomping]

RAANI: The dragon was big and scary!

ENSEMBLE: [roars]

RAANI: But the princess was little and small.

[stomping]

One day, the princess went to the dragon's dungeon.

[stomping]

ALL: And she was afraid.

TOM: (AGGRESSIVELY) What are you doing here? You're not welcome in my dungeon!

RAANI: And the dragon shooted her with his fire powers.

ENSEMBLE: [roars]

RAANI: But the princess had water powers.

ENSEMBLE: [vocalise spraying water]

RAANI: She was the queen of the world. She overcame her fears. The end. [stomps foot]

ALL: [cheering]

SOPHIE: What a great story. One day, you may become a successful writer.

CHARLIE: And so, our journey into the human experience continues. We become more emotionally charged and develop our own ideas and opinions.

SOPHIE: Mum, I don't want to wear that stupid little-girl dress anymore.

MARIAM: I'm going out with my friends and you can't stop me.

RAANI: But Mariam's mum is letting her go to the party. Why can't I?

KATIE: I'm old enough to make my decisions. Stop telling me what to do.

JANICE: And soon enough, school is over and we contemplate the real world and life after high school.

INES: This is it. I'm graduating, leaving behind school-- forever. That's OK. I'm ready. Right?

What am I going to do after this? [chuckles nervously] What the hell am I going to do? What mum wants me to do?

Yes-- No-- I don't know. It's fine! It's fine.

ENSEMBLE: Hey!

TOM: What university are you going to?

INES: I don't know.

TOM: [laughs condescendingly] I'm going to Harvard.

CHARLIE: I can't wait to leave home. How about you?

LUKE: Yeah, I'm going to be a doctor.

JANICE: Mariam, what are you going to do? I'm going to read history.

MARIAM: That's so cool. I want to be a physiotherapist.

ANGIE: I'm going to study art. I mean law.

GRACE: Dad wants me to follow in his footsteps and become a chemist.

RAANI: International Studies sounds interesting but what is it all about?

BOTH: Don't know.

KATIE: I'm going to get an English degree.

SOPHIE: I don't know what I want to do. Maybe I'll take a gap year and travel overseas.

RAANI: That's cool.

CHARLIE: I want to be an actor or director or--

LUKE: But you'll never make any money being an actor or a director or--

INES: I'm going to be what I want to be--

TOM: What?

INES: --not what others expect me to be.

SOPHIE: And even after we've graduated school and we know what we want to do, there are still some fears that we can never quite-- shake.

[ensemble stomps]

ENSEMBLE: [shuffling and vocalising]

CHARLIE: Yeah, I just sent the girls down to the basement to do a little bit of studying.

JANICE: OK, so why'd your mum send us into this basement to study?

ENSEMBLE: [shuffling and vocalising]

GRACE: Because we can't go to the attic.

JANICE: Well, why not?

GRACE: Way too many spiders up there.

ENSEMBLE: [shuffling and vocalising]

JANICE: There's none down here, right?

GRACE: Oh-- No, there are. They're just not that big.

ENSEMBLE: [shuffling and vocalising]

BOTH: Mum!

ENSEMBLE: [shuffling and vocalising]

CHARLIE: What? What? What?

BOTH: Spider!

ENSEMBLE: [shuffling and vocalising]

CHARLIE: Are you seriously still afraid of spiders?

ENSEMBLE: [shuffling and vocalising]

CHARLIE: Can. [vocalises spraying] Seriously, grow up.

LUKE: And yet, still new discoveries are made, travelling overseas, through jungles, into forests, across deserts, and, in recent times, travelling to our newest frontier-- space.

[mysterious music plays]

SOPHIE: Each one of us will have our time, our special time, when we make a breakthrough, change a life, herald a new beginning, or start a new career.

RAANI: Years of thinking, months of work, thousands of words, 300 pages worth. Was killing off the protagonist too much? Will I remember this moment for the rest of my life?

It's here. This can't be real. All the hesitation, angst, and doubt-- I published!

ENSEMBLE: [cheers]

LUKE: One more year and I'll be a doctor.

JANICE: I'm off on my first archaeological dig. So excited.

MARIAM: I started off in physiotherapy but ended up in early childhood education. It was much more me.

ANGIE: Law was so boring but I've decided to pursue my dreams in art. I might be poor but I love what I do.

GRACE: Chemistry was not me. Sorry, Dad. I'm on the road to success as an actor.

KATIE: I became a Shakespeare scholar. I've just finished my first biography.

SOPHIE: I'm still not sure what I want to do so I'm just going to keep travelling.

CHARLIE: My first feature film's in the making. I just have to secure some more funding.

TOM: Well, I'm about to start my first PhD-- in Scientology.

INES: I'm going to be exactly what I want to be-- me.

[audience cheers and applauds]