I have to admire teachers' abilities to organise twenty or so students to fundraise and execute a trip to Wellington, Gallipoli or New Caledonia. I had a hard enough time doing it for a three day trip to Invercargill for nine people. But it was worth it. 

I was one of three directors leading a group into the epic showdown of drama called the TheatreFest One Act Play Competition. Myself and Alesha-Jane Bowen co-directed a piece called “Bank Robbery” by Eitan Loewenstein about, you guessed it, a bank robbery. Marge loved her job as the manager of the Robour Bank, but she wanted a promotion. In order to test her loyalty, her boss, Mr. Jacobson, dressed up as a thief and pretended to rob the bank. The characters included Marge (myself, Tash Gosling), Mr. Jacobson (Brendan Kearns), Becca (Casey Wheeler), Aaron (Harrison Kennedy), Tina (Tanya Findlater) and The Narrator/Customer (Alesha-Jane Bowen). 

The play consisted of a lot of slapstick humour and stupid comments that followed no logic, but that was what made it funny. The other group headed by William Kilgour-Hand, performed a play called ‘All By Myself’ about a bunch of castaways on a deserted island. In the group was William, Brendan and Casey, as well as Tara Leckie and Jimmy Robinson. All together there were only four groups in the competition; the other two groups coming from Wakatipu High School and the Invercargill Repertory. Unfortunately, neither of our groups were placed, but two of our actors, Harrison and Jimmy got Excellence in Acting awards! Nevertheless, it was so much fun and because we were such a small group we bonded and became good friends. The whole trip, even only three days, was an adventure and although it was certainly stressful I wouldn’t have changed a thing.