Soph Kingi’s Hip Hop crew 3rd in their category at the International Championships in Arizona, Jasmine Ward selected for national brass band, Nat Hutton’s Sound of the Stars a finalist in a national songwriting competition and Lara Chiswell returns from Michigan Dance course as tickets go on sale for The Wizard of Oz.

Hip Hop International Championships
We congratulate Soph Kingi, who danced with Auckland-based Identity Dance Company’s mega crew at the International Hip Hop Championships in Arizona last week, making their way into the semi-finals in their category, and Soph’s crew Masque placed 3rd in the Varsity category finals: tu meke!!

National Youth Brass Band
Jasmine Ward, Year 12, has once again been selected for the New Zealand Youth Brass Band, as one of four percussionists. The band, made up of young people from all over the country, will tour nationally in January.

Lion Foundation Songwriting Competition
Our co-Head of Arts Natalie Hutton has done it again! Nat’s song, Sound of the Stars, has been chosen along with 12 others, as a finalist in this year’s songwriting competition. This is another feather in Nat’s cap coming so close on the heels of her recent selection into the national Rockquest competition, which takes place up in Auckland September 14th.

Interlochen School of Modern Dance: Lara Chiswell
For the last 4 weeks, I have been at Interlochen arts camp in the USA! Earlier in the year I had sent a tape audition through and was very happy to find out I had been offered a place in the 3 week Golden Age Musical Theatre Revue. Over the 3 weeks of this course, we learned about 20 pieces of golden age musical theatre! Our days were very busy starting class at 8.00 then carrying on to 11.45am when we had a break for lunch from 12.00-1.00pm. We would then have a practice period where we had our own practice time for going over dances or harmonies in songs. At first, when I saw we had a practice period I thought I probably wouldn't need to use it and I should be able to just relax! But noooooo there was always something I needed to practise or perfect. And by some miracle, if I did have free time I would usually use it to nap as I was so tired. After the practice period, classes would start again at 2.00pm and would go on to 5.00pm. From 5.00pm-6.30pm we would have dinner. 6.30pm- 9.00pm we would have nighttime rehearsal then we would have to be in bed by 9.30pm. As you can see our days were very busy!! But never once did I mind as every minute of it was fun!!! It was such a great experience as everyone in the program was as into it as me. There was never anyone complaining about when the class was going to be over or somebody continuously talking over the teacher as everyone wanted to learn as much as they could! At the end of the 3 weeks, we had a performance where we performed cuts from all the songs we had learned! I was one girl out of 2 girls who were given a singing solo (honestly I'm still wondering how I got that because there were so many girls there who were better than me!) During my time here I learned so much and made some amazing friends. It was incredible to be around such like-minded people! My time at Interlochen has been the best 3 weeks of my life!!!

Billie Leiataua: Mind
Follow this link to hear Billie’s recently released single, Mind: Listen here on Spotify

A Strong Showing from Y9 & 10 Debaters at Junior Regionals
St Margaret’s fielded two novice teams at the CSDC Junior Regionals Debating Tournament recently, debating a range of topical issues with other Middle School debaters from across Christchurch.
Motions debated during the day ranged from whether or not Donald Trump regretted involving himself in the A$AP Rocky trip in Sweden, whether we would encourage participation in e-sports in schools, alongside traditional sports, and whether we would prefer to be born with average intelligence or be a genius.
Our Year 10 team of Emily Hodges, Lauren Healey and Sara Gillman had two wins from their three debates and their loss was to the eventual winning team.
The Year 9 team of Anita Avia, Hannah Wylie and Claudia Hundleby won all three rounds and broke to the finals, where they were up against a very strong Year 10 team from Cashmere High School. They argued valiantly a very tough moot about not regretting internet piracy, and, whilst the Cashmere team took out the trophy this year, these girls will be a team to watch in the future.
Well done to all six girls on a great day of debating. Thank you also to Year 12 debaters, Hattie and Lucy, who have coached the girls previously and also gave up their Saturday to shadow adjudicate and provide moral support in the final.

Jenni McLaughlin, Teacher in Charge of Debating

Speech Competition success
Congratulations to Holly Fairclough, Year 10, who won the Jubilee Cup for her speech presented at the Christchurch Competitions held recently by the New Zealand Competitions Society.

Timeline Photography
A selection of work from this year’s Photography Club students is on display next to the helpdesk in the library: come and check it out!

Year 11 Drama Makeup
This term our Year 11 Drama students have been devising and adding in twists to an original children’s story. These fantastic children’s stories will be presented later in the term to the Junior School as part of Arts Week. To support their performances the students have been learning about stage makeup with Makeup Artist Rose Tothill. The faces have been based on characters from the senior production of Grimm Tales. We have had eyeliner errors, foundation flaws, leaning lipstick and many laughs. The students have learnt about makeup products and application techniques.

Visiting shows & workshops Years 1-8
Our Year 1-8 girls have some treats in store for them this term as part of their Performing Arts programme in the form of two visiting shows. Fergus Aitken, based in Wellington, is a physical theatre and mime specialist and will be bringing his show Mr Fungusto the Charles Luney Auditorium for our Year 1-8 girls period 6 Friday, August 30. Year 7-8 girls will also enjoy a workshop with Fergus before the show (Year 7 period 3, Year 8 period 4.) Costs will be on-charged to the girls’ accounts as per letter sent home to parents/caregivers. www.fergusaitken.co.nz
Kaboom Percussion, a freelance percussion company based in Perth, Western Australia, will be presenting their schools’ touring show Kaboom to our Year 1-6 girls in the Charles Luney Auditorium 1:50-2:40pm Monday, September 16. There will be a workshop following the show for our Year 4-6 girls. The cost will be added to the girls’ accounts as explained in the letter sent home to parents/caregivers. www.kaboompercussion.com
If your daughter has a Music or Speech & Drama class scheduled during these times, please let her teacher know in advance so that other arrangements can be made.

Christchurch Schools’ Music Festival
The St Margaret’s College Year 5 - 7 girls and any Y8 students that choose to will be participating in the Christchurch Schools’ Music Festival again this year. This is an annual event that we participate in, which runs over four nights in early November. Teachers have been working in class and in Choir with the girls on the items to be performed by the massed choir, and the performance night is always a great opportunity to come and see your daughter performing in large-scale musical production. Please refer to the festival website for further information: www.musicfestival.school.nz.
Our performance night this year is Tuesday 5 November in the Town Hall Auditorium, with the concert commencing at 7.00pm. In preparation for this, we have an initial massed choir rehearsal on Monday 2 September at Avonhead School, from 9.45-11.45am. In addition, there will be a full rehearsal on the morning of Tuesday 5 November at the Town Hall. The girls will be travelling by bus to and from both rehearsals. The cost of transport will be charged to your account as explained in the letter sent home. You will be responsible for transporting your daughter to the Town Hall on the evening of the concert. We hope that you will be able to attend the concert. Tickets may be purchased from Ticketek and are expected to sell out quickly, so please do not delay purchasing tickets to avoid disappointment. We are really looking forward to the Music Festival evening in November. Please do not hesitate to contact Sarah Hickford (sarah.h@stmargarets.school.nz) if you have any questions or concerns.

Bold Moves at the Isaac Theatre Royal
Our Year 11-13 NCEA Dance students, Senior School and Middle School Dance Companies have the opportunity to see the Royal New Zealand Ballet Company’s production Bold Moves in the Isaac Theatre Royal September 5. The programme includes iconic work from renowned choreographers George Balanchine, William Forsythe and Andrea Schermoly, and represents concepts from three different continents. As this is a formal external theatre booking, there will be no refunds if your daughter is unable to attend. The cost of approximately $17 (depending on booking fees) will be added to the girls’ accounts.

Middle School Production: The Wizard of Oz
Tickets are now on sale for this magical show that promises to delight audiences of all ages. Bring the whanau young and old and join Dorothy and friends as they skip through their adventures in Oz, beautifully framed by the large Pixel screen we enjoyed for Alice! September 9, 10 & 11 in the Charles Luney Auditorium. Please note that all members of the cast and crew will be rehearsing Friday, September 6 here at school from 8:30am-4pm. https://www.eventfinda.co.nz/2019/the-wizard-of-oz/christchurch

NCEA Dance Night
Saturday, September 14 our Dance department presents Momentum, a showcase of dance pieces featuring choreography from students and teachers. Our senior dancers will perform NCEA assessment pieces alongside guest performances from our Senior and Middle School Dance Companies and Jazz Dance group. Koha on the door.

Senior Arts Awards
All girls who have applied for Senior Arts Honours will be notified of the results this week and successful recipients will be presented their awards at our Senior Arts Awards Assembly scheduled for the last week of term, Tuesday, September 17. Unsuccessful applicants are able to appeal to the Executive Principal before September 3.
Later this term there will be an opportunity for Year 7-10 girls to apply for Middle School Arts Awards (Badges and Colours.)

Performing Arts Showcase 2019
Tuesday, September 17 we will be holding our annual Performing Arts Showcase in the Charles Luney Auditorium at 7pm. This is a wonderful occasion for the community to gather and be entertained by our singers, dancers, musicians and actors involved in our school performing arts co-curricular groups.

St Margaret’s The Musical
The St Margaret’s College Arts Soiree is an event that runs annually to celebrate the arts one last time in the form of a ticketed dinner before our seniors go on study leave. We gather together to acknowledge the girls’ achievements from throughout the year alongside our Pocket and Honours recipients, and to celebrate our girls with staff and whanau in a more informal setting. Guests are encouraged to dress to the theme (follow the cast list: there will be prizes!) and to enjoy the three-course buffet dinner, bar, photo booth and entertainment provided by our musicians, dancers, actors and artists.
The Arts Soiree is a fun event put together by our student Arts Council, a wonderful group of creative organisers who work hard to present this engaging evening for our community during Arts Week, the last week of Term 3. We would love you to join us for this year’s Arts Soiree and dinner, in order to celebrate your daughters’ valued contribution to the arts at St Margaret’s. Open to all year 9-13 girls and whanau. Final day for tickets is Friday 13 September.

St Margaret’s The Musical
Thursday, September 19th, 6-9pm
St Margaret’s dining room
Tickets $50 from Maggies

Secondary Schools’ Orchestra Festival
Our St Margaret’s and Christ’s College orchestral players will once again be participating in the Christchurch Schools’ Orchestra Festival at the end of this term. This year the festival will be returning to the Christchurch Town Hall Auditorium. This is very exciting as it allows sufficient space for the performance of massed items, combining players from all the participating orchestras. These items will be the opening of Strauss’ Also Sprach Zarathustra from 2001 - A Space Odyssey and John Williams’ Imperial March from Star Wars, conducted by the Chief Conductor of the CSO, Benjamin Northey. Information about rehearsals and concert details is to be found in the letter given to our orchestra members this week. The final Showcase Concert will take place in the Town Hall Auditorium Sunday, September 22nd at 3:30pm.

The Father at The Court Theatre: Cara Donaldson
I had the privilege of going to see The Father at The Court Theatre as a part of the Court Ambassadors and would love to share this fantastic piece of theatre with you!
The Father is a hard-hitting and emotional play about a man experiencing dementia, and the effect it can have on both the person and their family. The scriptwriter (Florian Zeller), wrote this play through his perspective when experiencing dementia, and this gives the audience an insight into how dementia patients experience life. One of New Zealand's most well-known theatre actors, Mark Hadlow, plays the lead in this piece and brings a lot of emotion and audience connection, giving a very realistic and moving performance. Some pieces of theatre open your eyes, some change the way you think, but The Father does both, and for this reason, I would highly recommend it. Without giving too much away, The Father definitely makes the audience experience a lot of heightened emotions, which I think would be much appreciated by a mature audience. I really enjoyed watching and would love to promote The Court's hard work! The Father runs most nights at 7:30 pm and the season closes on Saturday 24th August. The link for more information and tickets is: https://courttheatre.org.nz/whats-on/the-father/

Performing Arts trip to New York 2020
Parents of girls interested in this exciting trip scheduled for September 20-October 3rd next year must email Head of Performing Arts Faculty Amanda Woods amanda.woods@stmargarets.school.nz by September 1st to secure a place.

Grimm Tales photos
Please follow this link to purchase your photos: https://petramingneau.smugmug.com/PRODUCTION-2019-GRIMMS-TALE/n-rmJML9/