A little bit of Bard Medicine...

May the bad jokes continue as we prepare for the Intercolligate Shakespeare in Schools festival next month.  This year we are one of the 3 Wairarapa Colleges who have selected "MacBeth" as their 15 minute scene performance..... let's hope we all choose different acts and interpretations!

Without disclosing our interpretation of the play, we can disclose the key players.  Louis Gray plays the title role of MacBeth, and Barney Johnson as Duncan.  Arjun Pathmanathan plays the role of MacBeth's friend Banquo, and Waimarama Phillips is Lady MacBeth.  Dominic Hawke is an hillarious Ross, while the evil 'witches' are played by Daniel Cameron, Christina Hyde and Darren Dingle.  The cast is bolstered with Katie James, Donal Jephson, Adam Lesslie, Cat Wickman, James Owens, Jamie Rafferty, Jamie MacPherson and Bradley Hati, along with a chorus of Year 9-11 students.

This is the largest cast we have had in Shakespeare for a number of years, and the students are having fun with their interpretation of the script.  While the language is a daunting barrier for learning the lines, and for some, working out what is going on, it is a great opportunity to celebrate teh greatest playwright in the English Language.

We will be performing on March 29th at the Kuranui College Performing Arts Centre to an invitation only crowd, and looking forward to the Intercolligate Festival on April 27.  The best part will no doubt be seeing how different schools take on the challenge.  Wairarapa College have dominated the competition, and Rathkeale Senior College have done incredibly well in recent times.  Solway are set to put together a wonderful performance with their talented girls, and the 5 minute student directed scenes are always a sight to behold.  Here's hoping we can meet the same high standards.

Louis Gray, Waimarama Phillips and Barney Johnson.

James Owens, Christina Hyde and Adam Lesslie

Inside Out

To bring a thrilling end to our festival season, I travelled over to Wellington with 20 Drama students to see the Swedish Circus show, "Inside Out".  We may've been home incredibly late, but it was one of the best performances we had ever seen.  The performers brought heart, soul, excitment, emotion and skill to the stage.  The juggling was beyond comparison.

This was a wonderful opportunity to go to see a truly international performance of the highest calibre, and I am sure it has raised the expectations of the students with regard to what quality performances look like. 

This will not be the last chance of the year to see some professional theatre, but it will be the last for a while.  Hopefully with MacBeth in full swing and Stage Challenge underway, we can take these new standards and raise our game.

 

Christina, Cat and Katie out at tea

 

Wai, Juanita and Aaron enjoy a laugh

 

Louis, Wai and Katie waiting for the show to begin

 

Dan hides his excitement about the show

Mission Control

Well, we gottem home!

Today we went into Wellington to see "Apollo 13: Mission Control" as part of the Festival of the Arts.  It was AMAZING!  Basically we got to be at the control panels trying to bring the Astronauts home from their aborted moon mission.

The script was amazing, it followed so much of what actually was said during the original event, and involved all of us.  It was a truly awesome and interactive performance.

 

The Guidance crew hard at work

The console seats.... mega cool.

Echoa Performance Review

The French Dance company with their performance of Echoa was today at school- and was totally amazing!  Exploring sound and movement, their idea was simple, and elegantly put together.  With percussion instruments and dance, they told stories, entertained and were just hysterical.

If you are sitting at home wondering what to do tonight, GO TO ECHOA.  They perform tonight at the school auditorium, and the ticket price has been dropped to $25- well and truly worth the price.  After the show they are unpacking and heading to Te Papa for the rest of the festival season, and it will be a mammoth undertaking to move the large scale set.  (Starts at 7pm, so RUN)

Go..... you will not regret it.

Thanks to Gary, Jo, Wai, Zemira, Barn and Louis for all their hard work today, as well as Carly and the festival crew who put together an amazing performance.  Thanks so much for choosing to perform at Kuranui!

Stage Challenge 2010

After a frantic start to the year, Dance is well and truly underway.  Miss Pratt has been working incredibly hard with students, teaching them the audition routine, and running the auditions for Stage Challenge.

This year we will be entering the 'raw' category, which is less about the costumes and set, and more about the choreography.  The cast will be smaller, hence the very intense dancers seen around the school.

The theme is around anti-drink-driving, and an incredibly valuable message given the history of teenage drinking in this country.  The main cast and dancers have been selected, and we are all incredibly proud of Zemira Hayvice who has scored the lead role in Stage Challenge 2010.  Well done, Zemira!

We will keep you posted with updates as time goes by.

Zemira Hayvice (2nd from the left) with some of the other dancers, Jinelle, Sam and Maaki.

NZ Festival of the Arts

The NZ Festival of the Arts is about to kick off.  As well as our students heading west to see some fantastic shows and meet some wonderful authors, we are priviledged to host, "Echoa"- a French Dance troop.

We have a MAGNIFICENT discount for Kuranui Students.  $12 a head- and I would recommend as many people as possible get to see it.  Performing at Kuranui on the 1st of March, the school performance is at 1pm.  This means leaving class before the end of period 4 and missing a bit of lunch. 

This is what the Arts Festival has to say about 'Echoa':

"Drums of all descriptions are cleverly organised on scaffolding so that seven distinctly different dance scenes can unfold below. With incredible exuberance the movement and rhythm become flawlessly intertwined as the artists explore the questions: How does a percussionist dance? How does the body of a dancer sound?

Echoa is an unexpected dance experience in which we also see the dance with our ears. Sometimes as gentle as a whisper or as noisy as a carnival, it never lacks in spirit or fantasy. A truly delightful attack on the senses - a show for music and dance lovers of all ages.

Written by: Thomas Guerry and Camille Rocailleux
Sound direction: Olivier Pfeiffer
Lighting director: Laurent Bazire"

Drama newsletter.

This has gone home to parents via their children..... or at least, it will tomorrow.  Here is a preview.  Some have already got a copy, others are waiting for one.