Wagga High Student Harry Tidd and program organiser Joel Lowry showcasing the new Mobile Entertainment Training Unit. Photo: Jarryd Rowley.
Putting on a show isn’t as simple as getting on stage to sing or act.
It takes a lot of behind-the-scenes work to make sure it goes on without a hitch and that’s exactly what Riverina public school students are getting the opportunity to experience.
The recently-launched Mobile Entertainment Training Unit will be visiting public high schools across the Riverina, giving students access to professional audio, lighting and production equipment.
Visited schools will then get access to a three to four-day course in hopes that once completed, students who are interested will enrol in production-based VET courses.
Year 9 Wagga High student Harry Tidd was one of a select few students who participated in the course prior to its launch.
Using the mobile studio, he and several other students put on a show for Wagga High and other public schools across the city. While normally a performer, Harry said he learnt a lot about what goes on off stage to make sure a production runs smoothly.
“It feels great to get my hands in and dirty,” he said.
“For the last few days, I’ve been learning about lighting on stage and how to operate it. I’d always see performances and think, how is this put on and how is this done?
“Being able to get amongst it and see for myself firsthand how it’s done has been a great opportunity. It’s given me more appreciation for how shows are put on and the people behind them.”
Following the unit’s official launch, it will now travel from school to school. All the equipment including microphones, lights, speakers and panels travel in the back of a trailer that the project facilitator and trainer Joel Lowry uses to deliver the course.
“It’s always a great experience to work with a new group of kids and to feel the excitement that comes with it,” he said.
“The Wagga High students have done a fantastic job putting on the launch and showing some of the other schools around town what this unit can allow them to create.
“The core of this project is to travel to places that don’t have access to this kind of equipment within rural and regional school systems, so that they can get an experience of what it’s like to stand on a video console and to light a stage.
“It’s got everything that you need to stage a production. There’s an audio system, there’s a lighting system, the visual system and staging elements as well.
“We’ve seen excellent results and we can’t wait to take it to other schools and see what they can achieve.”
The Education Department’s Ellen Lintjens said the launch of the new mobile entertainment unit had been two years in the making and now that it was operational it would allow public schools within the Riverina an experience that only private or city schools would normally experience.
“It’s absolutely all about equity between our private schools and our public schools,” she said.
“The kids should all have the same opportunities. But it’s also particularly relevant that kids who live in more rural, remote and regional areas get access to this type of training opportunity.
“In the larger cities, it’s easier sometimes to do this type of training, but that’s why we have, for the smaller schools in the local area, a unit that has everything in it on wheels that can go to local schools that may not have the right equipment and may not have the right teacher.
“This is like a taster unit where kids can get a taste for over three to four days. They can see how new equipment works, they can actually do a little live performance at their school and then if they want … to take up the formal qualification of a Cert Two in Entertainment Studies.”
