Shakespeare festival performers put Bard’s words into action
‘‘GO wisely and slowly. Those who rush, stumble and fall.’’
King’s High School pupils are taking the line from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet as inspiration as they prepare to perform a 15minute scene from the Bard’s play at the national University of Otago Sheilah Winn Shakespeare Festival in Wellington next month.
Cast member Daniel Honey said Shakespeare scripts were quite difficult to learn.
‘‘Learning the words is easy enough — anyone could do that.
‘‘But really understanding the lines and understanding how you should deliver them and what they mean, is more difficult and takes time.
‘‘We’ve taken time to learn the script and what it means. A lot of it is about crafting the scene and our characters, and seeing what our purpose is in the scene.’’
It was that extra level of preparation that would give them confidence, consistency and stability on stage, he said.
The festival, run by the Shakespeare Globe Centre New Zealand (SGCNZ), will be held in Wellington, from June 3 to 7.
Each year, SGCNZ holds 24 festivals nationwide, in which secondaryage pupils aged 1119, perform five and 15minute scenes from Shakespeare’s plays.
They can be set in any time, place, ethnicity and attire, but they must be performed in Shakespeare’s words.
An outstanding fiveminute and a 15minute scene from each region will perform at the national festival and participate in workshops, tours and talks at the Michael Fowler Centre and other locations within the city.
King’s High School will be joined by Columba College, which will represent Otago in the fiveminute pupildirected category, performing a scene from Macbeth.
James Hargest College (Invercargill) will represent the Southland region in the 15minute category, with various scenes from Othello.
Unusually, Kavanagh College, of Dunedin, will represent Southland in the fiveminute pupildirected category with a scene from The Taming of the Shrew.
A SGCNZ spokeswoman said schools could compete in regions outside of their own if the festival date clashed with other major school engagements.
The pupils stand to be selected for a weeklong event run by SGCNZ later this year, from which a small group will be selected to visit the Globe Theatre in London, if the Covid19 situation allows.