While Suzanne Cory High School’s upcoming performance of ‘Working’ drew inspiration from the Studs Terkel book of interviews with American workers, the schools musical production director Helena Hall says the audience can expect a more “localised version”.
The original story aimed to highlight workers often taken for granted, school teachers, phone operators, and waitresses.
Ms Hall said the schools production will combine the original script with new stories.
“We have permission to replace some specific sections of the original script with our own material,” she said.
“I have interviewed six local (Melbourne and surrounds) workers from a range of different professions and then used their responses to write new material for our students to perform.”
Ms Hall hopes that localising the story will help the audience to better connect with the material and ideas in the show.
“We all know that jobs exist but we rarely stop to think about the actual experience of that work and what it must be like for that worker,” she said.
“How often do we stop to think about the people who built the room we’re sitting in? Or who made the clothes we wear?
“We hope that the audience walks away having learned something new about different jobs, having been challenged to think a bit more about the people who do the work, and maybe also feeling seen and acknowledged themselves.”
Working will be performed from August 4-6 at Suzanne Cory High School in Werribee.
