The 16th annual Come Alive Festival of Museum Theatre will light up the Joe Woodward Theatre at Daramalan College, showcasing original performances by, with and for ACT schools.

Hosted by the National Library of Australia and presented by founding artistic director Peter Wilkins alongside Joe Woodward, artistic director of Shadowhouse Pits, the festival continues its mission to bring history to life through the creative voices of young performers.

When I caught Wilkins he was still visiting schools putting the finishing touches to the event.

Those participating schools include Alfred Deakin High School, Campbell High School, Canberra Girls Grammar School, Daramalan College, Lake Tuggeranong College, Marist College, Merici College, St Clare’s College, St Francis Xavier College and Ulladulla High School.

Adding an international flavour, there will also be a special video screening each night from the Fokida Festival of Museum Theatre in Greece – believed to be the only other festival of its kind in the world. Their play, based on the Persephone myth, will be performed on video by students from Greece, marking the first time an international work has been featured at Come Alive.

Each school’s performance is inspired by an item from the National Library’s collection — whether a character like Ned Kelly, an event such as the 1975 Dismissal, or an evocative object like Ben Hall’s revolver. With guidance from teachers and Library education officers, students explore the stories behind these items and reimagine them for the stage.

This year’s themes are as diverse as they are compelling: the music of the Australia 75 Exhibition, the tales of Jeannie Day, stowaway; Nell Mantel, suffragette; Ethel Turner, author of Seven Little Australians; the 1970s Art Protest Movement; The Babinda Boulders Book – Myth or Legend?, the King of Pop Awards, and Ned Kelly and the Boxing Day Test of 1975.

Among the highlights is Daramalan College’s own production, Threads of Resistance, inspired by the Progressive Art Movement of the 1970s, led by artists Anne Newmarch, Mandy Martin, and Bob Boynes, along with politics lecturer Brian Medkin of Flinders University. Appropriately, Threads of Resistance will close the festival on Friday, November 7.

Each evening, three or four schools will share the stage, watching and supporting one another’s performances — a true celebration of creativity, history, and community.

Come Alive 25, November 5-7,  Joe Woodward Theatre, Daramalan College. Book here