Young actors from Bay hit national stage

Students from the Napier Operatic Theatre School in Napier were awarded an Excellence in Acting Award at the 2017 Junior Theatre Celebration held in Auckland last month. Photo/Chris Agnew.

Young acting talent from Hawke's Bay's Napier Operatic Theatre School has been recognised on a national stage at the 2017 Junior Theatre Celebration.

Held at the Auckland Town Hall last month, the celebration saw eight students aged 8 to 17-years-old present a 10 minute bracket of their 2017 production Beauty and the Beast in front of esteemed international creatives.

Production manager Sonya Aifai said the celebration was competitive, with adjudicators judging performances, but also involved a series of workshops on song, dance and drama with directors from Disney.

"The kids loved it; the information they got from the directors and how the directors worked with them. It inspired them to do more productions.

"It was a very positive learning environment. Even though part of it was a competition, you didn't feel that competition."

Ms Aifai said herself and director James Wright were "really chuffed" to learn two of their actors had been selected from more than 200 youngsters for the 25-strong All Stars Cast; acknowledging students who had an extra 'wow' factor in their performances.

The cast performed on stage in the final number of the closing ceremony for the 400 attendees and guests.

Theodore Penitito, a Year 9 student at Napier Boys' High School, said the trip had been a great experience and he was both surprised and happy to be selected for the All Stars Cast.

"Drama is something I really love. It helps me interact with my inner self and it's one of my greatest passions. I just love how you embody another character and get to learn about other people as well and grow with the character.

The 13-year-old said the event was great to see other youth theatres schools at work, adding he wanted to pursue acting in the coming years.

"Just being up there on stage with everyone, getting to do what I love, was really cool."

Nikita Stone, aged 11, was also selected for the All Stars cast and said travelling to Auckland with a small theatre group was a special experience for her.

"It was really cool because we got to go up on to the stage in the performance afterwards and perform in front of all of the students and staff who participated in the shows."

A Year 6 student at Onekawa School, Nikita said she loved acting and while she couldn't pinpoint her favourite part of it she enjoyed being involved in "all of it".

The Napier Operatic Theatre School group were also awarded an Excellence in Acting award at the theatre event.

Ms Aifai said while the original cast for Beauty and the Beast was 47-strong, they could only take those in the lead roles of the Beast, Belle and the servants to the Labour Weekend event.

Adjudicators included iTheatrics lead educational consultant Cindy Ripley, director of education and resident director Marty Johnson and music theatre author and founding chairman Timothy McDonald.

Resident choreographer Steven G Kennedy said the Napier group's performance was a fantastic experience.

"The cast had an energetic and focused performance which was maintained throughout the piece. This cast had a maturity to them that was simply breathtaking."