Students create musical script
It’s a busy week for students of Act 2 Visual and Performing Arts School, with the Taupo¯ Halloween Film Festival haunted walk last Sunday, the Halloween Glow Disco on Wednesday night, and two performances of a studentscripted musical Ms Fit and the Magical Forest coming up this Saturday.
The school’s director, Toni Neve, offers a performing arts programme for children aged 2 through to adults. Toni says student teachers Emma Carroll and Marija Stanisic, both 16, were in charge of the creative writing for Ms Fit and the Magical Forest as well as having acting parts. “To write a script is one thing, it’s quite another for them to fit into the production themselves while the whole story comes to life.”
Emma is home schooled and studies English while Marija studies drama, media studies and English at Tauhara College. They co-wrote the script together and says Toni chose them for the task because they are both involved in teaching younger students at the various classes offered by Act 2.
Marija says they walked into drama class one day and Toni asked them if they could write the script. “There was a big bit of paper on the table and we jotted down ideas. We already had the opening song Come Alive as a guide, it’s about finding out who you are and accepting others,” says Emma.
It’s been really tough at times, and the girls say they had to get used to being flexible with things sometimes changing overnight.
“We had to find ways to include all the cast. Everyone in Act 2 has a part, and the ages range from preschoolers to 19-year-olds,” says Marija.
Emma says what she has liked most about the whole experience is being able to say ‘I wrote that.’
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