All the world's a stage for Cael

YONDER WINDOW: Cael Friday, Wairarapa College Year 13 drama student, has been selected for the Young Shakespeare Company. PHOTO/NATHAN CROMBIE

A budding Wairarapa College actor with a deep admiration for the bard has won a berth in the Young Shakespeare Company and the opportunity to travel to The Globe Theatre in London next year.

Seventeen-year-old Cael Friday - a self-confessed fan of the Elizabethan playwright - attended the week-long National Shakespeare School Production workshop held last month and was selected along with 23 other young actors nationwide to join the Young Shakespeare Company.

Marilyn Bouzaid, Shakespeare Festival Wairarapa regional organiser, said the Year 13 student "joins quite a long list of students from Wairarapa colleges who, over the years, have been selected to join this prestigious company and who have gone on to further their theatre careers".

Dawn Sanders, Shakespeare Globe Centre chief executive, had commented that Cael was "a fine actor and a great team player", Ms Bouzaid said.

Cael said he started at Wairarapa College in 2013 and a friend had helped fire his initial enthusiasm for the stage, urging his involvement in drama "and Shakespeare".

"I've loved it ever since. I think it's the way Shakespeare writes, his writing. It transports you to a different world and it feels like you're in another era - which you are.

"He was a visionary of his time, and remains a visionary of our time as well.

"I feel we can still learn a lot from him today. His work is just so universal."

Cael said the performances that helped lead to his selection in the Young Shakespeare Company included his portrayal of Edgar in a five-minute student-directed scene from King Lear, and playing Master Ford in a 15-minute teacher-directed scene from The Merry Wives of Windsor.

He was rapt with his achievement and was told he was the first young actor from Wairarapa College to be selected for the Young Shakespeare Company since Ryan Cundy won selection in 2009.

Cael was today looking forward to "working a lot and fundraising", he said, to help pay for his trip to The Globe Theatre next year.

He would have a gap year after his graduation this year, he said, to give him more time to work and raise funds before returning to drama studies in 2017 at Toi Whakaari New Zealand Drama School in Wellington, or Auckland University for film and theatre studies.

"I know it's a really hard business to get into but I'd very much like to try the creative side of things as an actor or in film, anything like that," he said.

"I'm also going to see if I can do some fundraising here, and I may come back to Wairarapa College next year if I can be of any help in the drama department.

"I know we've got a Shakespeare standard in Year 12 and I might come back and see if I can help with that," he said.

"I'm looking to give back to my school because they helped give me this great opportunity."