Yesterday marked the end of our Short, Sharp Shakespeare Festival for 2025 — our annual end-of-year programme kicking off in Week 7 of this term. Year 9 English classes began the term learning about Shakespeare’s life and times, as well as becoming familiar with at least one of his works, and working on understanding and decoding the language.

Then in just two weeks, classes produced their own concept based upon a play, created a script, planned their production (costume, lighting, sound, props, and set design), made a trailer and poster promoting their production, and pulled it together for the stage during two performance days. Phew! And what incredible performances they were! From ‘Tragedy Royale’ and ‘MacBean’, to ‘TempestSaurusRex’ and ‘Robert Muldoon: The Grim Face of Power’, it was certainly Shakespeare reimagined!

Our own Oscars ceremony yesterday saw a large number of awards being handed out for such things as Best Use of Te Reo Maōri, Most Iconic Character, and Best Monologue. However, the biggest award of the day was for Best Performance. Third place went to 9Kereru for ‘MacBean’, second place to 9Kiwi for their version of Macbeth, and first place went to 9Whio for ‘Clash Royale’. 

All students should be incredibly proud of their efforts, both on and off stage. We’re certainly in awe of what they were able to produce in such a short time.