A captivated audience filled the Renmark Institute on Thursday 2^nd of April to witness the live broadcast of our radio play, Colliding Worlds. After months of collaborative script writing, editing and creative thinking by school children from across the Riverland and Mallee the radio play was broadcast live across South Australia and western New South Wales as part of the Peter Goers program on ABC Local radio.

22 cast members brought this performance to life with the help of Sasha Zara (producer), Sean Riley (writer), Julie Waddington (director) and Ian Moorhead (Composer).

198 students and teachers from 6 schools from across the region attended a dress rehearsal performance at 1pm. Most of the student audience had been involved in the creation of the play through in-school writing and sound design workshops.

ABC Local Radio presenter Peter Goers’ live radio broadcast began at 7pm and concluded at 10pm with the Wireless Voices radio play Colliding Worlds being performed at 8pm, many fans came from across the region to listen to the live broadcast. Between 100 – 150 audience members were seated in the Renmark Institute keen to see and hear what had been developed by young people from across the Riverland.

The entire audience was captivated by this imaginative storyline written by the youth from across the Riverland region. Writer Sean Riley said the performance was all he expected. "The commitment from the performers was fantastic, it’s always a nervous time for a writer but the cast, under the direction of Julie Waddington, really delivered”.

Program host, Peter Goers, said the play was quite a surprise. "It was a great script, "It really gets you in - and the cast was fantastic”.

The performance included live sound effects and a comprehensive sound track composed by Ian Moorhead. "It's been a pleasure to work with the Riverland Youth Theatre and ABC local radio and developing this sound track has been a challenge but tonight it all paid off.”

Colliding Worlds is part of the 2009 Come Out Festival and one episode will be broadcast on ABC Local Radio each night between 7 & 8pm from May 18 – 22 & 25 – 29.

Check out the podcasts on http://www.abc.net.au/riverland/features/radioplay/


The Riverland was represented with local and aspiring actors coming from Waikerie, Cobdogla, Loxton, Berri, Barmera, Renmark, Paringa, Winkie, East Murray  and Kingston-on-Murray. The cast is as follows:

Rebecca - Brianna Obst
Liam -  Roley Boon
Josephine - Jai Boon
Barbara - Ellen Traeger
Mr Manners - John Dawes
Sam - Shaun Crouch
Alison the fairy / Check out chick/ alien 2 - Lizzie Southeren
Mrs Elphington - Deirdre Graham
Nurse Dawkins - Miriam Lyons
Newsreader 1 - Dalia Smits
Newsreader 2 / Alien 1 - Taylor Schramm
Prime Minister -  Minister Maywald MP
The Trees - Jade Wolter, Robert Baulderstone, Tim Baulderstone, Holly O’Brien, Heidi Stanojevic, , Hebe Ingle, Madison Hentschke, Sally Mills, Alison Nesci and Heather McNaughton

CREATIVE TEAM

PRODUCER Sasha Zara

WRITER Sean Riley

DIRECTOR Julie Waddington

COMPOSER Ian Moorhead

REGIONAL PROGRAM DIRECTOR SA Jonathan Wright

ABC CROSS MEDIA REPORTER/PRODUCER Tom Coull

PARTICIPATING SCHOOLS

 Renmark North PS, Renmark PS, East Murray Area School, Kingston-on-Murray PS, Moorook PS, Renmark HS, Glossop HS, Loxton HS

WIRELESS VOICES ~ how the project worked

Creative juices flowed and resulted in a myriad of stories based on real and imaginative experiences of isolated regional youth as hundreds of young people from across the Riverland and Mallee directly contributed to the script and sound design through workshops and on-line collaboration with writer Sean Riley and composer Ian Moorhead. 

Sean Riley carried out Writing Workshops in Riverland schools and at RYT and developed the first scene of Wireless Voices which was posted online ready for feedback from young people across the region and state.  From feedback received each week Sean posted a new finished scene on the ABC website until all ten scenes were complete by the end of November ‘08

Composer and Sound Designer Ian Moorhead worked with RYT members and students across the Riverland, exploring the process of creating the soundscape for the play, demonstrating why sound is important to the art of radio plays and allowing young people to give valuable feedback on the sounds being used.

Auditions brought people from right across the region together for the cast and rehearsals. Led by Artistic Director Julie Waddington the cast worked together over eight weeks to bring the story to life for the live performance and broadcast in the Riverland. Tradition and technology will collide as sound effects are created old school style and mixed with the original music score during the public performance.

Recorded and produced by ABC Local Radio the play will be presented nationally as a series of ten episodes, one each day during the Come Out Festival.

See the original script online at http://www.abc.net.au/riverland/features/radioplay/