Can You Imagine?

By the end of March 1981 plans were well under way for Concordia’s production of the musical version of Peter Pan. There was an air of excitement and anticipation in the school community, and 174 students had applied for a part or a role backstage. But just as musical auditions were completed and the date for the first rehearsal was set, an unexpected disaster struck. The overseas agents for Peter Pan refused Concordia’s application for performance rights.
The production team refused to give way to panic and despair and immediately considered alternatives. It was decided to create an entirely new musical around the many original songs already composed. Can You Imagine? was a fantasy adventure set in a modern musical style with a cast of nearly 80 students and teachers. The script and much of the music was written by staff members Peter Westhorp and Peter Schmidt, together with Robin Mann of Kindekrist fame and renowned musician Tim Sexton.  The pressure was intense and the deadlines unavoidable, but the process was speeded up by the use of a word processing program on the very basic and bug-riddled computer built in the College AV department. As soon as the last revision to the script was printed, the computer crashed, never to run again.

Can You Imagine? introduced the audience to many colourful and familiar characters from nursery rhymes and folk tales such as Cinderella, Punchinello, Sinbad, Aladdin and Little Boy Blue. The heroine, Mary, is a straightforward girl who becomes trapped in this bizarre world of characters quite beyond her understanding.

The show featured a number of very intricate technical effects, including a witch with exploding fingernails. Although some of the performances suffered a few memorable glitches – a poor sound system fixed only on the last night, fireworks that failed to ignite and a theatre trap-door which had been built over - packed audiences greeted this unique show with enthusiasm.

A Challenge for the Leader

1900 was a particularly difficult year for Concordia in Murtoa. Clashes involving two staff members and the college director, Pastor Peters, came to a dramatic head.
Some years previously, in 1892, Peters had employed Mr Alex Gray to teach a range of subjects, in particular, English. Gray was an Anglican, so this was a somewhat controversial appointment. A theologian was also needed for the seminary arm of the college, so Johannes Kunstmann, a 21-year old graduate from the USA joined the staff the following year. Gray proved to be a popular figure as well as an excellent teacher, attracting many new students to the college, so that it remained financially viable. However, he became rather too self-assured about his position and reputation. He began to make disdainful remarks about the Lutheran church and his fellow teachers, creating rifts between the high school students and those studying theology under the direction of his colleague Kunstmann. Unfortunately, Pastor Peters refused to listen to any criticism of his protégé Gray and labelled any complaints as ‘baseless slanders.’
Inevitably, this troublesome issue needed to be resolved. Gray was finally dismissed in June 1900, charged with open unbelief, the undermining of colleagues, neglect of duties and slander of Lutheran schools.
However, there was damaging fall-out. Although Peters had resigned as college director to concentrate on his duties as parish pastor, Kunstmann was not content to let the matter rest. He had been the main agitator for Gray’s dismissal and in the process had also lost all respect for Peters and any confidence in his leadership. Kunstmann dragged up many old grievances into the public arena, accusing Peters of acting autocratically and hypocritically. The conflict fanned by Kunstmann divided the loyalties of the whole congregation. Yet before any real resolution or reconciliation could be reached, Kunstmann took matters into his own hands, tendered his resignation and left for Germany in 1901.

The photo shows Johannes Kunstmann with his wife and family in 1899. The little boy with the long hair next to Sophia Kunstmann is Martin, born in 1897, and the older boy with the cap is Johannes, born in 1894.
(Thanks to Mark Kunstmann, grandson of Johannes, for providing these details of people in the photograph).