WPS students make a splash on the silver screen
by KIRSTY WOLTERS
13th February 2026
A JOYFUL celebration of the golden years of Hollywood, complete with tap dancing, real “rain”, Vaudeville humour, and Broadway kick lines, was how the WPS students chose to end 2025.
All students, from Prep to Grade 6, came together to entertain the 700-plus audience at George Wood Performing Arts Centre with a dynamic and era-authentic performance of Singin’ in the Rain JR.
Principal Nieta Manser finds it hard to list just one highlight.
“The tap dancing, in particular, had the audience smiling — I was stunned at how much new technique they had learned.
The solo songs from our lead cast members were confident and impressive, and the lead actors shone with their strong acting skills and stage presence.
Every character brought something special to the performance, and the cast did a wonderful job capturing the humour, charm and fun of this musical.”
The journey to the stage began with what has become a WPS tradition, the production reveal, which included a surprise umbrella flash mob by the staff.
From there, the students enjoyed getting to know the show’s fun characters and different music genres.
They drew connections between the story and Charlie Chaplin movie excerpts viewed in the Performing Arts class unit of study, The History of Film.
The unit focused on exploring the complexities of the transition from silent movies to the introduction of “talkies”, and included an excursion to the Australian Centre for the Moving Image to interact with old film exhibits and technology.
In addition to each grade preparing class song and dance items, the students were given the opportunity to extend their skills in the areas of Tap and Broadway dancing, by opting in to additional dance ensembles, which included attending an inspiring performance of On Tap at Arts Centre Melbourne.
Some of the fabulous props and backdrops were designed by senior students who used digital technology to research and create images for the cyclorama projection.
The audience particularly enjoyed watching the old-fashioned silent-movie-style titles and the re-creation of the scene where silent film character, Lina, famously tries to sing.
For now, the students are excitedly awaiting the announcement of this year’s whole school musical.
Teachers have reported that one of the most asked questions on day one of 2026 has been, “What is this year’s production?”
While they will have to wait a couple more weeks for the big “reveal”, Nieta is confident it will be another high-energy performance that will again show how much can be achieved when a small school comes together as a team.
