|
Traditional school heroes at an inner city high school – the football team – have been struggling to find the form that saw them as state champions five years ago. Now with Matt at the helm , baby brother of the great Cameron Clifford who captained the school team in its glory days, it looks as if the tide has finally turned.
However the past few years has seen the emergence of one of the greatest girls’ hockey teams in the history of school competition. Under the dynamic leadership of Kelly Patterson they stand poised to win glory for themselves and the school.
When the school leases the oval to the local council for three evenings a week what ensues is a conflict of interests as the hockey team and the football team battle it out for access to the oval to train for the remaining two days.
This battle eventually draws in the entire school community, causing havoc with the personal lives of Kelly and Matt, their best friends Sam and Jonno and the members of the opposing teams. At the heart of the conflict are the football mad Physical Education teacher Mr Richardson and the new teacher at the school Mr Webster who sides with the hockey girls, while the hapless principal Mrs Hamilton presides over the entire scenario.
To complicate matters Kelly is chasing a scholarship to the A.I.S. to further her sporting ambitions while Matt searches for the heart to champion his team when he has other priorities. Sam wants Jonno who wants Sam – but there was that girl at the party last Saturday night! That kid Stuart Woolley always seems to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. And everyone has to try and make sense of their relationships with each other, their friends and their lives. Only one thing is for certain, they all want to win and when it comes to winning it’s Do Or Die.
Development & News
Written and directed by Craig Christie with music composed and arranged by Andrew Patterson, Do Or Die is an energetic and vibrant production for anyone who was ever a teenager at high school. The musical style combines 70s funk with current pop trends in a soundtrack that is attention grabbing and totally contemporary.
Do Or Die was first performed by the students of Billanook College, Melbourne in 1999 during Craig Christie’s engagement as artist in residence at the school as part of the process of the development of the new work.
A soundtrack cd was produced in 2000, but never released.
Do Or Die was revived in a new amateur production that was staged by Melbourne University in October 2006.
|
Music Theatre 
