Four of Te Awamutu College’s seven students who are set to take part in National Youth Theatre’s inaugural performance in Hamilton – from left, Lily Dixon, James Crowhurst, Emily Brown and Martha Newland.
Te Awamutu College students will be to the fore – and looking to make a splash – in an upcoming inaugural National Youth Theatre performance in Hamilton.
After nearly two decades holding Auckland-based programmes, the organisation is preparing to venture into the Waikato for the first time – and seven college students who have been honing their acting chops under the college’s head drama teacher, Morag Carter, have signed up to participate.
They are students Emily Brown, James Crowhurst, Lily Dixon, Faith Still, Millie Thackray, Martha Newland and Denzel Stevens, and all of them, bar one, were involved in the school’s production of The Addams Family: School Edition earlier this year.
Open to students aged seven to 18, the eight-week National Youth Theatre programme – the first workshop of which is scheduled for early next month – sees participants given acting, singing and dancing training, before culminating in an on-stage performance.
Participants aren’t pre-cast in roles before workshops begin, rather, casting takes place throughout the course of the programme.
The Little Mermaid has been chosen as the show, and will hit the stage in early October at Hamilton’s Clarence St Theatre.
Morag described news of the show being The Little Mermaid as a “full circle” moment.
“I was part of the orchestra for Hamilton Operatic’s Hans Christian Anderson at Clarence St in 1996. That show featured a Little Mermaid ballet.
“How cool will it be to be able to see some of my students perform on the same stage.”
Ironically too, The Little Mermaid was the show which had been set to run at the college in 2020.
But it was cancelled due to Covid.
“In that sense”, Morag said, “it’s almost like these students get a second chance to be in the show which didn’t happen for them then.
“Sometimes there’s is a silver lining somewhere along the way.”
Morag was also delighted to see so many college students wanting to be involved in the Hamilton programme.
“Some of them hadn’t done a production before the school show, now they’re really keen for more opportunities.
“Working with the National Youth Theatre has come at exactly the right time. It’s the obvious next step.”
She added the parental support for the seven students’ aspirations was fantastic.
Meanwhile, Morag said an increasing number of theatre companies based in main centres like Auckland, Wellington Christchurch and Dunedin were investigating holding Waikato programmes.
Auckland’s Massive Theatre Company and Red Leap Theatre were two examples, she said.
“That’s really cool our students. In branching out, those companies will undoubtedly discover new up and coming acting talent and it’s fantastic that opportunity is becoming more readily available to our students.
“It’s also great to see so many of them taking the leap,” she said.
