TAKING a nostalgic trip back in time, the cultural centre was a sea of song and dance at the weekend as St George State High School performed their Back to the 80's stage show.

The all-star ensemble performed every song from the popular musical written by Neil Gooding, with friends and family in raptures over the production's use of humour and music.

Production director Chris Rigney said the musical selection had to be based on what would generate strong levels of audience engagement and cast participation.

"We chose Back to the 80's because it had a lot of major roles, which meant that it was more inclusive, allowing me to expose as many students to the performing arts as possible,” he said.

"It's also very fun and appeals to a lot of people because it features songs that everyone knows, it has a funny script and allowed us to make a real crowd-pleaser.”

St George State High's previous school play was nearly two years ago and Mr Rigney said it took time before the directors and cast understood each other.

"The vast majority of the students had never done anything like this before, so there was a little bit of learning on both my part and theirs as we figured out how to work together.

"Considering that, the kids were committed from day one and I rarely had to remind them to attend rehearsals.”

Audience reaction to the play was overwhelmingly positive, according to Mr Rigney.

"There were people that I had never met before telling me how marvellous the show was and how much they enjoyed it.”