Megawatt '41 : Documentary Theatre : Wartime Adelaide in Review

Abstract

65 students doing first year drama needed a vehicle. It had to provide, for a diverisity of talents and interests, a common direction which would lead to a total dramatic experience. Ideas and forms were debated and explored; a topic was selected. The students, divided into groups according to fields of interest, scattered to research documentary material on the chosen subject and reassembled during the August vacation to pool their findings. Then came the sifiting and organisation of information, its transposition into dramatic form, its interpretation through actors, and finally its presentation on stage. Thus documentary theatre had emerged as a vehicle. The subject mater: Adelaide in war-time, centred on the closing of radio station 5KA. The result: Megawatt '41.