Teens take the stage

By Dion Teasdale
TWO Yarra Valley teenagers have wowed city audiences and earned rave reviews for their solo theatre and music performances.
Healesville’s Hannah Blake and Jesse Martin have performed to sellout audiences in the past two weeks as part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival.
Ms Blake and Mr Martin, who are in their final years at the Little Yarra Steiner School in Yarra Junction, teamed up in a double act for the festival, which celebrates new and emerging artists and musicians.
Ms Blake performed her one woman show, a dynamic physical and visual theatre performance interweaving mythical and original text with movement and voice, titled fallingSTILL.
Mr Martin, who has played the cello for the past 10 years, performed The Crossing, an original live music performance which highlights the electric cello.
The pair created their work as part of an independent research project at their school and performed the double bill at the Sophia Mundi Steiner School in Abbotsford.
Ms Blake, whose performance explores themes of personal loss, sisterhood, and relationships between mothers and daughters, said it was a natural transition to perform her work as part of the Fringe Festival.
“I’ve been working on my project all year and I wanted to present the work to a professional standard outside the school,” she said.
“The festival seemed like a good way for Jesse and I to show what we have been doing to a wider audience, and it has been exhilarating.”
Mr Martin, whose performance encompasses a wide range of musical styles, including Indian, jazz, blues and one of his own original compositions, said the show was the culmination of a year’s hard work.
“I started the project with the aim of building my own electric cello and as I’ve been getting handson experience I’ve been learning about the instrument’s potential,” he said.
“The music performance developed from a desire to illustrate the effectiveness and possibilities of the electric cello and it has been a wonderful learning experience.”
The students will complete their projects in November with the submission of a 5000 word thesis and a 45minute presentation reporting on their research and performance.
They both hope to travel overseas next year, but said they would consider performing their double act for Yarra Valley residents before they depart.
“It would be great if we could perform our work for local audiences who haven’t been able to catch the show in Melbourne. It’s something we’ll look into,” Ms Blake said.