Students triumph at Shakespeare Festival

For the fourth year running, Avondale College has won the regional heats of the Shakespeare Festival, qualifying them to perform on the prestigious St James Theatre stage in Wellington. This year, however, marked a special milestone: for the first time in recent years, the scene was directed not by a teacher, but by a student: Year 11 student Milo Wilson-MacLeod. The performers were also joined by Mandara Gamage who entered the Shakespeare essay competition and Abigail Deng who entered the Shakespeare poster competition. Karl Nathan Liwanag was also a finalist in the Poster competition.

The group of performers travelled to Wellington over King’s Birthday weekend and participated in a wide range of workshops hosted by the Shakespeare Globe Centre New Zealand at the beautiful campus of Wellington East Girls' College. The workshops stretched their performance skills across a broad range of disciplines, including stand- up comedy, costume design, text interpretation, and stage combat.

On the first day, the group also enjoyed a guided tour of New Zealand Parliament Buildings, learning more about how Parliament operates and even getting the rare opportunity to watch Parliament in session live.

After viewing approximately 50 performances from schools around the country, the group also managed to attend a production at Circa Theatre. Julia, a 90-minute solo play about former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, was performed by Lara MacGregor, who generously came out afterwards to meet and speak with the students.

At the culminating prizegiving ceremony, the Julius Caesar piece won “Most Imaginative and Innovative Production” award, Mandara Gamage received second place for her essay, Abigail Deng third for her poster, and Karl Nathan Liwanag, Highly Commended for his static image.

After a brief visit to Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, the students returned home inspired, energised, and full of ideas for next year’s festival!