Pupils work through anxieties

MANY of the senior school pupils taking part in a National Shakespeare Schools Production in Dunedin have been battling with anxieties arising from Covid19 experiences, organisers say.

‘‘The one difference I’ve noticed this year is the anxieties of the students,’’ Shakespeare Globe Centre New Zealand Trust chief executive officer Dawn Sanders said yesterday.

About a third of the 49 secondary school pupils from throughout the country participating in the annual production had ‘‘significant anxiety’’, she said.

There were always pressures being away from home and taking part in the national production, but Covid19 had imposed greater pressures in this, the production’s 26th year.

Earlier lockdown phases had meant big disruption to school work, and rising family pressures as pupils tried to study in homes with lots of other activities under way.

One young woman had cried for an hour earlier in the week, and others were also clearly anxious, but the support of organisers, volunteers and fellow participants had made a big difference, and one previously reluctant participant said the week’s activities had been lifechanging.

In her official greeting, Mrs Sanders offered ‘‘huge congratulations’’ to all the pupils for ‘‘the perseverance and resilience you have demonstrated this year’’.

For the past six years the annual productions have alternated between Dunedin and Wellington.

PHOTO: PETER MCINTOSH Striking moment . . . Georgia Moynihan, of Christchurch, as Shakespeare’s King John, takes part in a rehearsal at the University of Otago College of Education Auditorium yesterday.