On the 1st of June 8 students from Burnside flew to Wellington to compete in the Sheilah Winn nationals after winning regionals in April. In this group, 6 students (Emma Boswell, Dorian Bayley, Lucas French, Annabel Williams, Sophie Olliver and myself) performed their 15 minute piece on Macbeth. A huge thank you to Francie Liebert for helping with makeup for the witches and massive congratulations to Gray Dawson for winning the best actor in the regional competition. Also, another huge thank you to Vicky in the costumes department for providing the costumes for everyone and helping with makeup. As a part of nationals, all the students got the opportunity to attend two workshops before the competition started. Some of these workshops included stage fighting, physical theatre, unlocking character through play and more. 

While in Wellington, we got plenty of opportunities to shop and visit places such as Te papa. In the Te Papa museum we looked at the Gallipoli: The Scale of Our War exhibition as well as the Te Taiao exhibition, where we learnt about nature. We also got to watch a devised performance by Red Leap Theatre entitled Dakota of the White Flats, based on the book Dakota of the White Flats. 

Finally, a huge thank you to the teachers who made this trip and experience possible: Ms KD and Ms Olliver. We are so fortunate to have teachers as dedicated as you are and we are all so grateful to have been chosen by you for this competition.