H for History

This article is dedicated with warmth, respect and a heel-click to the inspirational Lesley Pitt (Radford Staff member 1987-1994).

“I think it’s the Radford community that’s unique for me. Wherever you go, you run into people who are part of it. They all talk about how you feel, that you have this close connection. Memories – there are so many: musicals, our Tee Pee Project in the Early Learning Centre, Frog Gully Project in the Junior School, and the work done in Timor….. all about building community. That’s so special I think.”    Brenda Lander

Brenda Lander would certainly know first-hand about building community at the college. Across two stints on staff at Radford College from 1987 to 1992 and then from 2006 to the present day, she witnessed first-hand both the Secondary School and then later the Junior School grow around her. Brenda was appointed Head of Music for the 1987 school year, with founding Principal Jock Mackinnon and Deputy Headmaster Graeme Wigg making it clear in her original brief she was to be the Musical Director of the school’s first musical production. Alongside teaching colleague, director and friend, the legendary and charismatic Lesley Pitt (who sadly passed away in early 2013), the pair selected Rodgers and Hammerstein’s 1943 classic, Oklahoma.

They also chose to make it an all-inclusive production, and consciously decided not to turn away any of the 149 students – close to a quarter of the school’s student population – who auditioned. As their initial proposal indicated, “It is envisaged that this musical will be a whole-school activity and not an insular production by a select group”. If you showed up, you received a cowboy hat! (It was certainly “All Er Nuthin” indeed.) As Brenda recalls, “We didn’t actually knock anyone back!” And this included PE teacher John Pendall and Head of Sport Quentin Webster informing their aspiring First XV Footy and First XI Cricket players that if they wanted to be in the side, they had to be in the school musical!

What happened next was beyond anyone’s imagining. The school was often spontaneously, magically transformed into The Wild West – and sometimes even across weekends! As the 1987 Radfordian explained, a Sleep-Over Workshop was organised a month before opening night where “over one hundred and eighty staff, parents and students worked and lived together at the College for forty-eight hours, undertaking many arduous workshop sessions and housekeeping chores.” Yes, the library and even the staff room were transformed into bunk houses as all around the campus sets were being built, choreography finessed, the orchestra fine-tuned (which included a groovy young bass player called Dylan Mordike), scripts learnt and harmonies refined, all while a trusty posse of parents and Home Ec students prepared meals in a saloon somewhere offstage right.

Almost unbelievably, on the day of the premiere, the elaborate sets, intricate costumes, sundry props, instruments and players all needed to be transported to Llewellyn Hall in the heart of the “big smoke”, all in one afternoon under Deputy Sheriff Graeme Wigg’s watchful eye. “We didn’t get time off school!” Brenda remembers. But the time spent breaking in the horses meant that a lot of legs were broken throughout the three-night run (metaphorically speaking here of course). But would the Radford community actually come out in droves across three performances to support this “all-inclusive” venture, with tickets ranging from the lofty $6 to adults, $3 for school children and $20 for families? The answer was an emphatic “Yee-harr!”, as close to a staggering 2500 family and friends steered their buggies to the Canberra School of Music to sing, clap and whoop along to numbers such “Oh What a Beautiful Mornin”, “People Will Say We’re in Love” or the rousing and rip-roarin’ title track, in which one could almost hear the wind come sweepin’ down Belconnen Way, if you listened carefully enough.

The production had many priceless moments, too numerous to recount here. But one thing is for sure, Radford College’s first foray into musical theatre was one which set a benchmark for all that followed (see list below). As Brenda says about herself and dear colleague Lesley Pitt – two new and fresh arrivals to dusty Radfordville –  “We were stepping out of our comfort zone because we didn’t know our students and parents, but you felt confident…that everyone would back you. Because that’s what Radford does.”

And of Lesley Pitt, Brenda echoes the strong feelings of warmth from many cast, orchestra and crew members of subsequent Radford musicals when she recounts, “Lesley was my most influential colleague. She caught me when I was just second-year out and she really nurtured and mentored me with her passion for music. We just hit it off. We worked so closely together and so hard. It was also like that with our students. That close bond was formed with them and their families, so the learning just flowed…with ease and joy.”

Any former staff or collegians wishing to provide input to the new school history please Help H now.