For Drama Captain Cassie, 2020 promised to be an exciting year. She was to play Matron Mama Morton, the prison warden in the School’s production of Chicago. “I was pretty stoked to get that role, it was one of the best characters in the whole show, she says. “I had one solo song, “When you’re good to Mama”. It’s a very powerful song that’s definitely a crowd pleaser.”

When Term 1 began, rehearsals for Chicago started in earnest. By early March however, excitement gave way to anxiety as the reality of the COVID-19 pandemic settled in.

“It was a really uncertain time,” Cassie explains. “We knew we wouldn’t be able to put on a show with a live audience filling the Performing Arts Centre.” she says. “There was an option of postponing it until later in the year.”

Despite the uncertainty, the cast kept rehearsing. “We predicted school would shut down, but everyone kept working really hard. They never gave up until it was officially called off,” she says.

“I’m really proud of the whole cast for doing that. It was really good to see people being enthusiastic.”

Despite the setbacks, Cassie has relished her role as Drama Captain. “I really enjoy making those experiences and memories with other people,” she says. “I just love how everyone comes together as a group and it's almost like the year level divisions disappear.”

“Performing is really fun,” says Cassie, “but having that time with the cast to chat to each other, practise performing with each other, is one of the most rewarding parts of being in a production in the first place.” 

“It’s not just the lights and audience.”

However there were some Drama traditions Cassie was looking forward to. “Getting ready before shows, getting the cast T-shirts,” she says. “It’s always fun to celebrate the work you've done.”

For Cassie and her fellow Year 12s, she admits it’s been a bit of a “flat year”. “Obviously we haven’t done as much as we would have normally done,” she says. But instead of giving up, lockdown forced them to be proactive.

“We’ve spent a lot of time in Student Leadership Team meetings brainstorming things that the whole School could do, in tutes or year levels, to keep people engaged in the year and in school as a whole,” she says. “We’ve tried to keep people together as much as possible.”

On a personal level she misses her friends. “It's been hard only being able to see people over a screen and not be able to hug them,” she says.

“We didn’t get to experience going to the Year 12 Conference at Lorne, or even just simple things like hanging out after school or going to 18th birthday parties,” she says. “So when we do meet up on a Zoom call or Facetime we try to make the most of the situation and get creative with what we do to make us feel like we are together and still feel really close as friends.”

Cassie’s positive attitude has helped her cope with the disappointments of 2020. “Just because I’ve missed out on something this year doesn’t mean that I haven’t had any good experiences,” she says. “I’ve tried to make as many new and different memories as possible,” she says.

And what is she looking forward to most of all? “Just hanging out with my friends,” she says. “Just being able to sit in the same room as them.”