Creating new works is one of the most challenging tasks in the performing arts. It requires critical thinking, self-awareness and resilience to work through the process.

“ Creativity is intelligence having fun” Albert Einstein

In NCEA, Drama class students created several interesting pieces:

Killer Party - a murder mystery based around Cluedo, a drama about facing your fears and how secrecy can ruin someone's life.

Self-hatred - a drama about true friendship which explores the idea of self-hatred, low self-esteem and shows how friendship can improve our lives.

Death Games - a computer-games inspired roleplay set in a dystopian future with the message that violence is not ok.

Somewhere in the Middle - the experience of being transgender - incorporating stand-up comedy jokes, political rally, facts and feelings.

For junior students improvisation is a good skill to lead them into creating their own work. They had fun learning improvisation games like shared story and expert interview. This is a great way to work with others, have fun and practise quick thinking. It requires strong story-telling skills to make the audience care about a character and keep them watching. You have to show physical bravery by leaping into poses and actions which could take you anywhere! You become a risk taker, walking on the edge of the stage, making up dialogue as you go. Not for the faint-hearted.

COMPOSING in NCEA Music - During the last week of Term 1 we welcomed the wonderful Lavina Williams into our Performing Arts whanau for two days thanks to the NZ Music commission. Lavina is a singer/songwriter from Auckland. She has also performed extensively in musical theatre and was the only polynesian woman to ever play the role of ‘Rafiki’ in The Lion King. To say we were excited to have her at Hornby was an understatement. Lavina worked with our talented senior musicians on stage craft, performance skills and songwriting. This was an awesome opportunity to have professional mentorship and all of the students involved gained a lot from the workshops.

Creating devised work as a group shows all the school values, commitment to the team, showing resilience by pushing through the process, having respect for everyone’s ideas and feelings as you select and discard pieces and, finally, creating a piece that shares your ideas with an audience.

“A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.”

Ayn Rand