Best. Trip. Ever!

Having won the best 15-minute scene in the regional round of the Sheilah Winn Shakespeare Festival, our motley crew presenting Romeo and Juliet was invited to perform in the national competition in Wellington! We were ecstatic, fundraising and rehearsing for weeks before getting on the plane.

The early-morning flight to Wellington was rife with excitement. Everybody was ready for the adventure to start, chattering away with the people behind us who had won the best 5-minute scene in the regional round and who were also bound for the national festival. We took photos of the sunrise, went over lines, got to know each other better and even got complimentary breakfast muffins!

As soon as we landed in Wellington we were off to our hotel to drop our bags and begin to explore the city. Some of us hadn’t been to Wellington before, and I hadn’t been since I was much younger, so we were all keen to see our capital city. We visited Te Papa, walked around the shops and checked out the Michael Fowler Centre, where we would be performing.

The following day was another early start to get to the workshops we were enrolled in. Every person performing in the Shakespeare Festival was enrolled in two professional workshops such as clowning, improvisation, and stage combat with other people from the Festival. Our group was split up into different courses so as to meet new people, with Wyatt and I going to Maori stage combat and then an improvisation course. There, we made friends with kind and talented people with the same interest in the dramatic arts as ourselves, many of whom we’re still in touch with today!

Straight after these workshops, we had our 10 minutes of staging on the Michael Fowler Centre’s stage. We had to figure out where to place everything from our scene, such as the tomb that Juliet (played by Bridie) lays in, and Paris and Romeo’s sword fight. Seeing the large stage and seating was nerve-wracking since we knew we would be performing where we stood in less than 24 hours…

The following day was a blur as we had to quickly source costumes and some of our set, as well as rehearse as much as we could. This was the very first day of the competition, and we got to watch some of the best young actors in New Zealand perform before going backstage to get ready. It wasn’t long before we were onstage and the first lines of our scene were spoken, each of us giving it our best shot in order to please the judges and capture the audience’s attention. The entire performance went smoothly (although I accidentally skipped a few lines!) and we were met with a round of applause. The heart-stopping moment was finally over, after putting in so much work! Our group was full of pride and happiness as we ambled backstage.

The rest of our trip was filled with watching the rest of the competition, having some delicious gelato and pie, watching an 80’s themed live performance (Ms Olliver’s highlight), and playing card games in our hotel room. Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end and we had to fly home, but we brought some of our happiest memories home with us!