Shakespeare Festival 2023

Congratulations to our Shakespeare team [Gemeve, Aliyah, Tia, Oliver, Kaea, Ella and Alex]

After 6 weeks of lunchtime practices and much commitment to learning, the final resilient team performed two scenes at the University of Otago Sheilah Winn Shakespeare Festival:Canterbury ki te Tonga on Saturday 1st April, at the Grange Theatre.

All were in the “Romeo and Juliet” scene directed by Alex, a lot of nervous newbies kept anchored by Ella [Nurse] and Alex [Peter] who had worked very hard on their characterisation. The young party lads [Aliyah and Gemeve] brought humour, energy and expressivity to their word play. We saw a great effort from Oliver who stepped in as Romeo in the last few days and acted with calm confidence.They received an Award for Best Use of Props [Ella’s fan and Tia’s muffins].

Oliver directed the Gravedigger scene from “Hamlet”, which he performed with Kaea. Their costumes, especially the top hats, set just the right funny yet funereal note. They demonstrated impressive focus, pace, and physicality as they dug Ophelia’s grave with serious expressions and measured words. An award for “Honouring the Text” was well deserved as it was a sophisticated bit of comedy.

These were great results from students who stepped up, gave a lot of their own time, imagination, and creativity. They showed great resilience persisting with their scenes to reach the competition standard. They were also a great audience, quiet and appreciative, as they watched a wide variety of Shakespeare scenes from other schools.

Thank you for the support given to them by Joanne Clark, Anne Howison, and Rochelle Jackson, who have worked on lines, ruffs, and worries, over the last few weeks. Thank you to all the family and friends who came to watch. It was a rich, varied show and the team had an intense, exciting, mind-expanding experience., and showed the best of our school values of commitment, achievement, resilience, and respect, and was an outstanding example of the sort of creative risk taking that is essential for creative excellence.

#manahoromaka #creativeexcellence