Treading the boards at Shakefest finals
By Holly Cummings, Year 10, Peace Lutheran College
AFTER winning the regional competition of the 2018 Queensland Youth Shakespeare Festival in September, Emma McMullen and I were thrilled to take part in the Shakefest State Finals in Brisbane last week.
More than 170 performers were selected from 6000 entries across Queensland so we were thrilled to have this opportunity.
More than 50 performances took place during the day and the standard was so good. We hoped we would make our school community proud.
We watched our fellow competitors perform until it was time for the duologues.
We were surprisingly calm before we went on stage.
As we waited, we ran through our scene, even then finding new ways of improving our scene and applying them just minutes before our performance.
We were led into the green room where we would wait before being led to the curtains next to the stage, trying to stay calm.
Emma didn’t want to sit down and I didn’t want to stand. We greeted our fellow competitors silently and stood there, waiting and waiting for what seemed forever. Then it was our turn. The host introduced our names and play and I watched Emma take her place centre stage. I was shaking as I stood behind the curtain waiting for my cue.
The lights went up and Emma struck her first pose and strutted across the stage as Petruchio. Then it was my turn. I swallowed my nerves and stepped onto the stage as the quick-witted Katerina.
We performed with gusto, throwing witty comments back and forth until we got to our finale with me being dragged off stage by the legs. It was done. I hugged Emma with relief. We wished the next performers good luck and went to collect our belongings.
It was such an amazing experience and we were so glad to have been a part of it.