DOCUMENT

24 Queen Margaret Calling :: ISSUE 62 :: October 2018 Two of our performing arts stars proved Shakespeare was not just for the Globe and made it to the Sheilah Winn Shakespeare National Festival competition earlier this year. Year 11 student Bethany Kaye-Blake and Year 12 student Kaia Holborow entered the regional festival with their scene from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and were surprised to hear they had made nationals. “When I found out we had been chosen for nationals I couldn’t quite believe my ears,”Bethany says. “I was a little nervous because I knew we were up against performers with years of experience but that all went away the second I stepped onstage.” QMC entered three teams into the annual SheilahWinn Shakespeare Festival this year. The competition encourages high school students to direct and perform scenes from Shakespeare’s plays. Bethany and Kaia were one of three teams fromWellington to be chosen for the national festival. Their piece was a humorous take on the Romeo and Juliet scene between Juliet and her nurse. This was Bethany’s first time taking part in SheilahWinn. She decided to audition because of her interest in Shakespeare’s works. “We were given a whole bunch of plays that we could pick to audition for and the scene that Kaia and I ended up performing wasn’t one I had initially chosen,”Bethany says. “Ms O’Connell organised the auditions and thought I would suit the role of the Nurse, and it turns out I did.” Kaia and Bethany rehearsed for most of Term 1 for the festival. ON THE NATIONAL STAGE SHAKESPEARE Kaia Holborow as Juliet and Bethany Kaye-Blake as the Nurse. “I was a little nervous because there were performers with years of experience but that went away the second I stepped onstage,” Bethany says. “We started reading lines and developing characters inWeek 4 and then started blocking the scene,” Bethany says. The regional festival took place at Wellington East Girls College and the national festival at the Michael Fowler Centre. Bethany says both festivals felt very supportive. “I think the biggest difference between the two events was that the national’s stage was much bigger. It was only Kaia and I on stage so the Michael Fowler Centre Stage seemed a lot bigger. My favourite part of the festivals was meeting so many people from aroundWellington and New Zealand.” Bethany, who enjoys Shakespeare’s tragedies the most because of their “rich and deep emotion”, says she would definitely like to take part in SheilahWinn again next year. “To have the opportunity to bring a piece of Shakespeare’s work to life with other people is such an amazing experience. “ LEARNING BEYOND THE CLASSROOM DRAMA PERFORMANCE