Campion College students Joan Utting and Tyler Thomas in the lead roles in of Romeo and Juliet which won the 15-minute section of the Tairāwhiti Shakespeare Festival. Photo / Lucy Hands
Campion College students Joan Utting and Tyler Thomas in the lead roles in of Romeo and Juliet which won the 15-minute section of the Tairāwhiti Shakespeare Festival. Photo / Lucy Hands
Campion College students took out the top prizes at the Tairāwhiti regional Shakespeare Festival to qualify for the national competition in Wellington over King’s Birthday weekend.
The best 15-minute piece winner was Campion’s performance of Romeo and Juliet, with Tyler Thomas and Joan Utting playing the lead roles.
The best five-minute piece was another Campion piece, from Hamlet, with Piper Leggett and Emma Ruelens as leads and Ruelens the director.
Piper won the Erica Jones Memorial Cup for most promising actor.
Gisborne Girls’ High School student Grace O’Connor won direct entry to the National Shakespeare Schools Production (NSSP) for her role as Portia in The Merchant of Venice.
Partington said she was highly impressed by the standard of the 10 Tairāwhiti festival entries involving 60 students.
Students also have the opportunity to be selected for the National Shakespeare Student Production - a week-long intensive course that culminates in three Shakespeare performances. From the course, 22 students are chosen to travel to London the following year to perform at the Globe Theatre.
Regional festivals comprise two categories - 15-minute scenes (directed by a student or adult) and five-minute scenes (directed by a student).
Scenes can be taken from any of Shakespeare’s plays or sonnets and can be interpreted in any way. However, only Shakespeare’s words can be used.
Campion College drama teacher Charli Haskell said they were allowed to edit the script, but not add any dialogue.
“There are also strict time constraints and groups can be disqualified if they fall outside of these.”
There is no set time frame for putting the scenes together, but schools usually start working on them at the start of the school year.
“At Campion this year, our junior students worked on scenes during class time, our five-minute scenes were all in the students’ own time and Jol’s (Jol Sparks) 15-minute scene, with senior students, was a mix of class time and evening/weekend rehearsals.
“The senior performances can count towards NCEA drama, especially for Level 2/3, but most of our performances this year were created for the festival and not credits,” she said.
This year’s judges were Dinna Myers, founder of Evolution Theatre Company, and seasoned Gisborne production performer Mike Costello.
Gisborne Girls' High School students Kiana Buchanan (left) and Grace O'Connor perform a scene from The Merchant of Venice at the Tairāwhiti Shakespeare Festival. Photo / Lucy Hands
