It was a very successful year for Wanganui schools at the regional Stage Challenge competition.
Wanganui High School won the competition with its piece about kidnap victims, called Invisible Children, and Wanganui Girls' College's piece, Trapped, about battery farming of hens, came third.
Horowhenua College came second at the regional final, which was held recently in Palmerston North.
Wanganui High School's powerful work explored every parent's worst nightmare: something terrible happening to their child. When a child goes missing, people seek justice. But what if the child is torn by war or poverty? The piece asks who treasures the child when atrocities like abduction make children invisible.
Stage Challenge manager Sarah-Jane Phillips said the piece was "flawless".