Last week the 5/6/7 students were given a real job by The Mount Gambier Theatre Group: to come up with a poster to advertise the one-act play “Blue Murder”. The theatre group were urgently looking for a poster, and to thank the students for their work, offered to run a mini-competition with the winning designer(s) to receive two free tickets to the “Blue Murder” play on either Friday 17th or Saturday 18th August.
Ashley in our class is playing the part of the landlady in this short play, written by Australian playwright Kenneth Lillington. The play is a humorous murder mystery in the tradition of Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson – although the characters’ names are “Dr Witless” and “Somwat Vague”!
Ashley summarised the story for us (without revealing the ending), and we also talked about the meaning of the expression “screaming blue murder” – which means that someone makes a very great outcry or noise about something (Collins Dictionary). Other famous references of the genre were discussed, for example Sherlock Holmes and his famous address at Baker Street, in London.
Following our discussion, we had a look at a few play posters and discussed their design, noting key features such as colour, size and perspective of elements like font and images. In addition, the students learnt that a png file, with a transparent background, is invaluable in graphic design work. Again, they used the free website Canva for their designs.
All the students’ designs (which I was REALLY impressed with) have been uploaded to the Mount Gambier Theatre Group’s Facebook page where members are going to vote for their favourite poster. The ultimate decision will be made by the group’s marketing team.
I am only including a few of the posters here. If you would like to have a look at more of them, visit the 5/6/7 classroom soon!
