The Perth Speech and Drama Festival is a unique opportunity for students of Speech and Drama to come together to celebrate the joy of the spoken word, the performance of literature and the growth and development that has taken place in many studios and classrooms each year. The Festival is the ‘jewel in the crown’ of the Speech and Drama Teachers Association. We pride ourselves on providing an opportunity for all students to develop strength of character, build resilience and achieve personal performance goals.
It gives us enormous pride to see the Festival continue to go from strength to strength. Regularly attracting over 600 entrants, students line up for a golden opportunity to develop essential presentation skills in a nurturing and welcoming environment.
Communication skills are now, more than ever, an essential part of our life-long education, and are what sets us apart in a highly competitive job market. Developing confidence in sharing our thoughts and opinions, our creative imagination, teamwork, leadership, public speaking, and presentation skills has never been more important. Developing these essential skills ensures that our students will be able to successfully navigate both personal and professional relationships and will have long reaching benefits for the rest of their lives.
SDTAWA wishes to thank the many hard-working volunteers who form the backbone of the Perth Speech and Drama Festival. They work together as a tireless team, to provide our students with an experience that extends far beyond our own studios and classrooms to include the Speech and Drama community at large. The Speech and Drama Teachers Association would like to officially thank our sponsors, the AMEB, who provide essential funding. We also wish to publicly thank our patron, Ms Julia Moody, who is the esteemed figurehead of our organisation.
A note from our life member and festival co-founder: Karen Goddard…
‘Life member’ is an honourary title bestowed on someone who has made a significant contribution to our association…
When my good friend and colleague, Suzanne Lawrence, and I started the 1st Perth Speech and Drama Festival in 1997, little did we know that it would flourish and become the highlight of SDTAWA’s calendar each year.
From humble beginnings at Collier Primary School over one weekend it has grown to six days of performances and fellowship for our members and their students.
We have used a number of venues over the years including Collier PS, Como SHS, Wesley College, AMEB, The Old Mill Theatre, Perth College and Stirling Players Theatre. We are very grateful to our sponsors, the AMEB, who have supported us, almost from the inception of the Festival. Their generosity enables us to procure the services of experienced adjudicators and provide appropriate prizes for our outstanding students.
Our Blue Ribbon events, the Goddard/Lawrence trophy,the AMEB trophy and the STAWA trophy are much coveted by our senior students each year and are always highly entertaining. At the other end it is always satisfying to see our youngest students have their first taste of performance in a friendly, supportive environment and then to watch as they move through the years becoming more and more confident speakers and performers.
We teachers have also benefited greatly from sharing ideas with each other and honed our own skills in teaching and directing over 25 years. Thank you to all our volunteers over the years who have made this Festival a reality and to the sub-committees and day coordinators in particularly for their part in the smooth running of the Festival.
I do hope our beloved Festival can continue to provide inspiration for new generations of students and teachers.