The Drama department has been very busy in 2013. It all started with a change of HOD in January. After many years building a fantastic department Denise Walsh retired. Although she has been on hand to help me settle in. I arrived in New Zealand at the start of the year and it has been a great experience.
The Drama department has had a make over, including the conversion of a classroom into a second black box theatre. This has been a very successful change. Students have used this for performances, social events and scholarship exams. We have staged over 40 performances this year which have been of an excellent standard thanks to the dedication of the students. We were successful in the One Act Play Competition winning the Selecon Technical Award. The comedy "The Queen Must Die" by David Farr was well received and it was great to have a full technical team this year.
We have also entered the Shelia Winn Shakespeare competition in two categories and Matthew Scadden and Anika Campbell were awarded Best Actor and Runner up awards. Following this Matthew was invited to Wellington for a two week course. He has now been asked to represent New Zealand as a member of the delegation going to the UK in July 2014.
We have been lucky enough to see a lot of plays this year. At the Fortune Theatre we have seen, Tribes, and Gifted. At the Playhouse Theatre we have seen The Road That Wasn't There. The Ugly Shakespeare Theatre Company came to us and performed Macbeth. We have also seen lectures and performances at the University of Otago.
Denise Walsh was delighted to see two students receive NCEA Drama scholarships in her final year and we hope the students this year are just as successful.
We have much to celebrate this year, and I am very grateful for the welcome that I have received from the whole community since I arrived. I am looking forward to more exciting events next year.
