Star Struck Rise Up 2021 had two alternating 1500-member performance teams presenting the same song and dance routines on Friday and Saturday, one at a matinee, the other at night, with the students drawn from 96 primary and high schools.

And the HSPA plays were among 46 entered for the festival, with the Broadmeadow-based school being the only one from outside Sydney to present plays which can't have a running time of more than 10 minutes.

This year's Star Struck title shows how intent teachers and students are to present a brightly engaging show after the COVID restrictions prevented big get-togethers in 2020.

The HSPA students, who have won many awards at the Sharp Short festivals, likewise were eager to show their talents again, with three of the four plays they entered among the 10 that were staged at Friday's final.

The Star Struck events reminded watchers of things that had happened in the past year, with the opening routines having many of the performers wearing red costumes and very bright red lighting projected behind the on-stage student band bringing up memories of the fierce fires. And, midway through the show, there was an increase in the range of colours, with the liveliness of the dance numbers indicating that things were getting back to normal.

The routines were drawn from a wide range of performance styles, including ballets and brisk stage musical movements, and some of the dancers were manipulated like puppets, with their garb also suggesting that was what they were. Amusingly, there were also brisk appearances by colourful characters that looked very much like figures from animated television shows.

And the classic Over the Rainbow was very much like that, with a primary choir indicating how much songs of that style helped to get people interested in musicals, with the following numbers, Fly Away and I See Stars, showing how people's interests broadened.

This was the sixth consecutive year that HSPA has had three plays perform in the final and win four of the major awards.

The Explorers, written and directed by Olivia Calverley-Haack, and starring her and Sebastian Smee, won the awards for Best Script and Best Overall Production. The play is set in a hospital where two young people keep bumping into each other over several days, with their reasons for being in the hospital being very different, and with the young man revealing why he is there at the play's end, when he and the woman begin a relationship.

Overdue, written and directed by Luka McCallum, and starring Zamika Grant and Tennyson Neville, won Zamika the award for Best Performer. It shows the very different natures of two present-day young people, where entertainment is concerned, with the male revealing that he rents DVDs to watch films, and the female telling him sharply that she has grown up and he hasn't, because she prefers to look at films on her mobile phone.

And Love in An Elevator, written and directed by Lucy Lewis, and starring Will Kyte, Sophia Unicomb, Reyna Lambert, Zara Cassin and Georgia Roddenby, won the Mentor's Choice Award.

All the winners received trophies and some excellent theatre industry prizes.

IN THE NEWS:

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: