"The outstanding ones are selected to go to the national festival which is in Wellington," she said.
"Another thing is, you have all those people going to the nationals and then individuals are selected to go to a week-long programme, which this year will be in Dunedin."
In Dunedin, the 48 students are split into three groups that perform in three plays, directed by top directors.
"From that, 24 are selected to go to the Globe Theatre in London, where they have the opportunity to perform in a play and get a whole bunch of experience," Ms Craig said.
The festival is in its 27th year and Ms Craig said that it was popular for many reasons.
"One of the things that makes it popular is that people have the opportunity to bring a totally creative look to Shakespeare," she said.
"Shakespeare is global in terms of the emotions, the themes in the stories, like love, and so it's a useful base to tell a deeper story, retold in a modern and creative way."
One example of a modernised Shakespeare work in Whanganui was Iwi Capulet - a new take on Romeo and Juliet which explored inter-racial marriage.
Ms Craig said that National MP Harete Hipango had indicated her intention to attend the event and that the assessor of the performances would be Sally Bollinger.
Ms Bollinger has competed at the festival, now she is a writer/director and is part of an award winning web series called Nothing Much To Do as part of The Candle Wasters.
Ms Bollinger will be doing a presentation on the Saturday before the festival at 3pm, for more details including the location, contact Karen Craig on 021 132 3939 or send her an email at kebcraig@gmail.com
