Tuesday, March 30, 2010

An Evening with the Bard

This year we set off the Shakespearean Season with an exclusive, invitation-only performance at Kuranui College.  Here was the chance for the 9 student directed scenes to battle it out for who would be representing us at the Intercolligiate Shakespeare in Schools festival.

The night was a huge success, with a great deal of imagination shown on stage.  The students had to battle their own fears, and their own peers, to get their scenes to performance.  There were tears, dramas and tantrums backstage, but quality performances onstage.  Zoe Renor was a convincing matron in her interpretation of "A Midsummer Nights Dream" while Alena-Rose Burt showed off her cunning in "Twelfth Night".  Swordplay was popular, used by Aodhan Stonnell well with his interpretation of "MacBeth", directing Louis and Barney.  Darren Dingle pulled an hillarious number out of the bag with "Hamlet" and his cast of zombies.  However, only one scene could be selected for the intercolls, and it went to Waimarama Phillips and Katie James with their scene from "Romeo and Juliet".

The 15 minute scene from "MacBeth" was also debuted to the fantastic crowd.  It was thrilling to see the way the students had really grown and dealt with their challenging roles.  Arjun Pathmanathan was a sight to behold as Banquo, and Louis was impressive as a romantic MacBeth, while the scene was completely stolen by Barney Johnson as Duncan every time he stepped on stage.  The cast worked fantastically well together and it worked well in the end.  The Year 11 class who were responsible for costumes, make-up and set design/construction did a magnificent job, and the show could not have been a success without them.


Louis and Aodhan face off as MacBeth and Young Siward.

Barney as MacDuff runs MacBeth through

Darren Dingle's "Hamlet" with Rowan Pemberton, Kevin Jephson, Arjun Pathmanathan & Dominic Hawke

Waimarama Phillips and Katie James in "Romeo and Juliet"

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