Shakespeare Festival New Zealand 2024: Waikato schools not afraid of greatness

Some of the 17-strong cast of Titus Andronicus, the winning Waikato play from Hamilton Boys' High School, during a break at the regional Shakespeare Festival at Te Awamutu College in April. Photo / Dean Taylor

Three Waikato schools hope to achieve greatness at the Sheilah Winn Shakespeare Festival in Wellington this weekend.

Hamilton Boys’ and Girls’ High schools and Taupō-nui-a-Tia College are three of 48 theatre groups selected from throughout New Zealand to participate in the annual Shakespeare Globe Centre New Zealand National University of Otago Sheilah Winn Shakespeare Festival (SGCNZ UOSWSF).

All groups qualified during regional events in April, and Taupo-nui-a-Tia College head boy Oscar McDougall even had greatness thrust upon him when his regional performance caused him to be selected for the National Shakespeare Schools Production and a chance to represent New Zealand at the Globe Theatre in London as part of the Young Shakespeare Company.

The public performances of the Shakespeare Festival in Wellington will be held at St James Theatre on Saturday and Sunday, and will begin at 9.30am with Avondale College and a cast of 34 performing a compilation from Julius Caesar.

Taupo-nui-a-Tia College will perform Troilus and Cressida. Originally set in the Trojan Wars, it contains a love affair, bawdy comedy and “tragic gloom”.

Hamilton Boys’ High School will perform Titus Andronicus, opening the public section on Sunday at 9am.

Hamilton Girls’ High School will perform The Tempest, the last performance on Saturday afternoon.

All performances can include contemporary parallels, however, only original text from the play being performed is allowed to be used.

The performances will then be judged and given awards.

Lucy Stapleton (left), Luka Ewert and Madison McCluskey perform in Taupō-nui-a-Tia College's winning 15-minute scene from Troilus and Cressida set in tournament week.

The assessors are renowned Kiwi actor Theresa Healey, and Ben Ashby, actor-director and former director of Long Cloud Youth Theatre.

This year, the festival’s guest assessor from the UK is Lucy Cuthbertson, who is the new director of education at the Globe Theatre in London.

Her career spans professional theatre and school drama education with more than 20 years of experience as a head of drama in London state schools.

She said she was keen to see what the young people did with Shakespeare in New Zealand.

Hamilton Girls' High School's 2024 Shakespeare group in a scene from The Tempest: (back from left) Korihi Gates, Ivy Brunskill, Taylor Hastie and Amber Sutherland; (front) Heidi Moore, Frankie Waldron, Indi Kardas, Connie Mills and Sophia Bankers.

On Sunday evening, members of SGCNZ Young Shakespeare Company 2024 will perform, followed by finalists in SGCNZ’s allied competitions in music composition, costume, static image and video title card design and essay writing, all inspired by Shakespeare.

Shakespeare Globe Centre NZ was founded in 1991, when it joined five others around the world.

The first SGCNZ Festival of Shakespeare in Schools was held in 1992.

For the programme schedule and more details, go to sgcnz.org.nz.

Taupō-nui-a-Tia College head boy Oscar McDougall's performance as Benvolio in a five-minute scene from Romeo and Juliet during the regional event has won him great honours.