That time we met with Gandalf

This year we performed "King Lear".  2 years ago, Finn was told he was too short to be in "The Hobbit".  This last weekend, our luck was in, and we met with the man who links both parts- Sir Ian McKellan.

Ian was in Carterton raising money to rebuild the Royal Theatre in Christchurch.  We were not far behind because we love a chance to talk Shakespeare with a legend.  A group of 10 of us headed out to see him on Sunday, sitting in the front row.

The highlights were many, but when we all had a chance to join him on stage, we thought all our dreams had come true!  He was superb onstage, humble offstage, and incredibly generous with his time with us.

We had a blast, and gained a new appreciation for a legend of Stage and Screen.

With Sir Ian McKellan from left:  Travis Brown, Oliver Healy, Mr. Buckham, Juanita McLellan, Finn Shepherd, Chris Buckham and Izabelle Brown.

Wordless Wednesday: National Youth Drama School

One of our students, Zoe Renor, spent her Easter holidays at the National Youth Drama School in Hastings.  She had a great time, as you can tell in the pictures.  She is the one in the hat at the front of the triangle.

National Certificates

Last year we had great success in the Arts Department.  The Dominion Post has all the NCEA results published in it today, which is timely.... but actually, we had more success than even we planned on. 

We offered a "Performing Arts" course last year- a programme focussing on the technical aspects of performance.  What we didn't realise was that students taking the course suddenly became able to attain National Certifications.

We had 3 very successful Performing Arts Students.  Zoe Renor, Alena-Rose Burt and Alexandra Fleming all gained the National Certificate in Drama, and Alena-Rose Burt also attained the National Certificate in the Performing Arts.

To gain the National Certificate in Drama, students needed to complete 30 credits in Drama and 10 credits in a supporting subfield, which was the Performing Arts course for all 3.

To gain the National Certificate in the Performing Arts, Alena had to complete 45 credits in 3 areas of Performance, which she did with Drama, Dance and Performing Arts standards.

Zoe Renor and Alena-Rose Burt

Performing Arts in Focus

One of our new areas of education is in Performing Arts Technology.  Here senior students choose what they want to focus their time and energies into, looking at the technical aspects of performance.  We have students looking into hair and make-up for the stage, costume design, stage design and construction, directing, script writing and lighting and sound technologies.

The courses are predominantly student driven.  Most students have areas of focus within the Performing Arts (Dance, Drama and Music) and then choose their standards to align with their interests.  Ariane will be linking her studies with her work in Dance, planning and implementing Stage Challenge this year.  Oliver works tirelessly on set and stage construction, linking to his interest in Sculpture, while Zoe and Alena focus on Drama with script and concept development for the stage.

Here are a group of Performing Arts students working on a construction challenge for our 15 minute scene for Shakespeare this year.

Out of the chaos will come something wonderful

Chaedyn and Kylie model their headpieces

Playing with Fire

As part of the Level 2 Dance curriculum, students have to perform an Ethnic or Social dance.  This year has seen a huge number of performance options.  We have had Chinese Sword Dancing, the Highland Fling, Rarotongan Dance and now Samoan Fire Dancing.

Anthony Fa'afoi and Daniel Carlisle both completed this Dance assessment in front of the main offices, with Oliver Healy on the fire extinguisher.  Travis Brown and Dominic Hawke completed a musical performance on the Congas during the performance.  It was a terrific way for 3 subject areas to work together to a students strengths in performance.  The performance counted as part of assessments for Dance, Performing Arts and Music, which was terrific.

Script Frenzy 2011

This year we were thrilled to be able to participate in Script Frenzy.  Script Frenzy is a challenge run through the Office of Letters and Light in Berkley, California.  We signed up to write a 100 page script in 30 days.  All in all, we did good.  15 people met their overall goal, with 50 others not far behind.

We even got featured on the Office of Letters and Light blog!

Read the article here:
Office of Letters and Light Blog

You can find out more about Script Frenzy here:
http://www.scriptfrenzy.org/