Tate Tisdall overwhelmed and humbled to win Rotorua Performer of the Year

Tate Tisdall was both overwhelmed and humbled to win the prestigious Rotorua Performer of the Year Award.

Tate Tisdall was both overwhelmed and humbled to win the prestigious Rotorua Performer of the Year Award.

The 75th annual Rotorua Speech and Drama Competition was held in July at Distinction Hotel, with talented local youth performing in group dramas, character recitals, improvisations, poems, readings and more.

The premier event was the Performer of the Year Award, where senior competitors took to the stage to compete for the prestigious award, and Tate was this year's winner.

Tate says for the Performer of the Year event they had to do a piece of prose, a piece of poetry and a character recital linked together, coupled with an impromptu given by the adjudicators.

He says he enjoyed doing the character recital the most, as he got to go through a wave of emotions with his character and felt present on the stage.

Tate Tisdall was the winner of this year's Rotorua Performer of the Year Award in the 75th annual Rotorua Speech and Drama Competition. Photo / Supplied

When he was announced this year's winner he felt shocked, overwhelmed and bewildered - "I couldn't believe it".

"Although I was bewildered, I was also very humbled to win Rotorua Performer of the Year, because going into it I was only going for the experience to prepare for next year.

"I was humbled and honoured to come home with the trophy."

Tate has competed in the annual Rotorua Speech and Drama Competition three years previously, but this was his first year being in the age bracket to compete for Performer of the Year.

As Rotorua Performer of the Year, he will be heading to Palmerston North over Labour Weekend to compete in the Nationals.

He will be joined by Rotorua's Ashton McGarvie, who was last year's winner. Since the 2021 Nationals were cancelled due to Covid, they are taking the winners from both years.

Tate says it is fantastic to be able to have competitions this year, given how the last couple of years had been with Covid.

At the nationals he is looking forward to being able to compete against some of the best actors of his age group in the country, seeing the different styles people bring, and meeting amazing people who enjoy and love the same things as him.

He says he has been doing speech and drama for close to six years now, since starting at John Paul College.

Performing has been a part of Tate's life for many years though, having also played piano for 11 years, singing for eight, and playing bagpipes for eight.

He says being able to connect with an audience, and being able to get certain emotions across to them, is the biggest kick he gets out of performing.