News from The Arts

Our Year 12 Visual Artists achieved outstanding success in the 2025 Creative Generation Excellence Awards and were recognised at the Official Opening of the DDSWQ Regional Exhibition. Congratulations to the girls on their outstanding achievements: > Certificate of Excellence Award – Bron Francis, ‘Choose your path’. Bron’s work will be exhibited at QAGOMA in 2026 as part of the State’s Central Exhibition – an incredible honour! > Regional Encouragement Award – Amelia Bryant-Peterson, ‘Perspectivae Culturales de Morte’ (cultural perspectives about death) > Certificate of Commendation Award – Indianna Hitchcock, ‘Omnia ad Initium Redeunt’ (Everything Returns to the Beginning) > Certificate of Participation Award – Yas Lethbridge, ‘Perceived Façades, Assumed Expectations and Underlying Realities’ This year, from almost 500 submissions across 168 schools in Queensland, only 150 works were shortlisted, with just 40 Excellence winners (including 2 from the DDSWQ region) and 8 Regional Encouragement awardees.  The DDSWQ Regional Exhibition is on display at the Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery until 16 November – we encourage you to visit and view these inspiring works.

Fairholme College is celebrating the success of three talented students, Mia Hall, Helen Yong, and Abigail Walker, who have been awarded Empire Theatre Foundation Y outh Bursaries for 2025. These bursaries provide young performers with access to professional development opportunities at leading Australian performing arts institutions. The Empire Theatre Foundation Youth Bursaries program supports students who demonstrate excellence and commitment across a range of disciplines, including dance, acting, instrumental music, singing, music theatre, and film and television. The program enables recipients to attend intensive short courses designed to elevate their skills and broaden their industry experience. Mia Hall, a Year 10 student, received her bursary for Dance and will attend the renowned Conroy School of Dance. For Mia the bursary means an opportunity to explore new styles of dance and work with many different choreographers in an unfamiliar environment. “It will help me grow as a dancer, gain insights into the industry, and transition from an enthusiastic student into a pre-professional dancer. The bursary also helps with tuition fees, allowing me to access top-tier training and expand my professional network,” Mia said. Helen Yong, also in Year 10, was awarded a bursary for her achievements as a violinist. Having played since the age of eight, Helen is excited to participate in a national music program. “I’m looking forward to learning from and connecting with other musicians across Australia to expand my skills,” she shared. Abigail Walker, a talented trumpet player in Year 7, expressed her appreciation for the opportunity. “Going through the application process and panel interviews was a valuable experience,” she said. “Receiving this bursary is something I’m keen to make the most of.” These achievements reflect not only the students’ dedication and talent but also the strength of the Fairholme Arts programs, which continue to nurture and inspire young creatives. As these students prepare to take the next steps in their artistic journeys, their success serves as a powerful reminder of the importance of opportunity, mentorship, and the transformative power of the arts.

The 2025 Senior IMPACT Ensemble, Empire Theatre, present their self-devised new work ‘When I Think of The End’, and Year 12 Drama student, Emmi Lange, is one of the lead characters... Tell us about the character you are playing… My role is Millie Morgan. She is hosting an ‘end of the world’ theme party… literally. She has a huge secret about her parent’s evil plan to restart humanity by wiping out the human species at midnight of the party. While her parents left her alone in the house where she will see out the catastrophe, she invites a random group of classmates in order to save them from the event. How would you describe the play? The play is very funny. Whilst it uses humour, it also reveals how we treat each other as teenagers when we know the end is closer than expected and how these connections can diminish or expand once we realise our time is almost up. It mixes comedy with darkness all the while seeing the light even through the murky. What’s been the most challenging part of the whole process? The most challenging part is coming up with a single idea with a million and one sub ideas from our research. Our prompt was ‘the end of the world’. While we were in the writing process, we looked at stimulus from poetry, media, movies and TV and analysed their end of the world scenarios: supernatural, political, environmental, rich vs poor and much more. We also used sources from news and current events and many deep conversations were raised about our stance in society in relation to these topics. From here, we explored us as students in Toowoomba facing the end of the world to which created some condensed ideas for the play! How do you get into character before a performance? Before each performance, of course, there is nerves. However, overcoming this, I relay my purpose in the story. Understanding who am I? What are my values? My reactions, my opinions, my relationship with other characters? This helps me understanding what my character is saying and why. How do you and your castmates support each other on and off stage? The cast has become a tight group... like a big friend group! Like-minded, close friends. I love the cast with all their different acting styles and opinions to contribute. We frequently do group building exercises/games at the start of each rehearsal and check-ins. With the help of Grace, our director, we are well looked after and becoming close friends, we all care for each other. What have you learned about yourself through this process? I have learned throughout IMPACT the importance of working in a group. It is easy to bounce off other people and, being an extrovert, I love working around other like-minded people. Another thing is for my character, she faces many reactions to everyone finding out the end is near and two very different energies contrasting from the beginning to the end of the performance. So, through this, I have learnt how to distinctively differentiate my reactions and how I say my lines to project my feeling towards the end of the world situation which isn’t an easy skill. For example trying to hide this huge secret from a group of people but project to the audience my anxiety towards this big revelation VS the end of the play when everyone knows. Is drama something you would like to pursue after school? Drama has been a dream for me since I was in Year 5 when I started Speech and Drama lessons. Whether its on the movie screen or on a small stage, I want to pursue my love for entertaining through performing. Wherever this takes me, I will enjoy every bit of it if I’m acting. I have started applying for drama schools for next year. Any advice for someone who wants to get into an impact play? My advice for wanting to apply for IMPACT is to be prepared to contribute immense ideas and writing. Writing has never been my strong suit but coming to IMPACT I’m able to get assistance and corroborate ideas with others to grow my ideas. Therefore, don’t be discouraged if writing isn’t your best talent, because like me, IMPACT will help grow your creative writing skills. Tickets are on sale now for the October performance of ‘When I Think of the End’ at the Empire Theatre starring Fairholme’s very own Emmi Lange, Adeline Hamilton and Eliza Kinniburgh.