Hero photograph
 
Photo by Lynley Gibson

Junior Theatresports Competition

Maureen Gaffaney —

On a sunday afternoon in a sweltering and full Court Theatre the team: Cormac Gallagher, Daniel Fogarty and Eli Muir, competed against the winners of all Canterbury heats and the winner of the Marlborough section.

As the first round is run in alphabetical order STC is always last which is quite nerve-wracking for the boys but their shared story about a puny duckling called Duncan who wanted to be like his big brother, Darren, and make the duck rugby team to play in the annual match against the geese (starring the biggest honker ever seen) got a great audience response and was awarded the highest marks for the round. 

The second round saw them again perform last as leaders and they chose to play Slide Show on the topic suggested by the audience of Whale Diving. Cormac knew nothing much about the subject but gave a spirited description of the poses the other two took including a non-PC reference to sharing a bowl of blubber. 

After receiving highest marks again they went into the final round as the last act of the day, knowing they had to hold on to their lead. 

Their selected game was English/Gibberish Switch where they have to act in both English and a made up language while telling a coherent story. They were challenged by Motueka High School to include a small New Zealand town in their story – and chose Motueka. They performed brilliantly and their winning margin was clear and decisive. 

This is the fourth time in the last 10 years the Juniors have won the competition (every time an election year!) and they are rightfully very proud. They were strongly supported by parents, siblings, grandparents, Margaret Guerin and John Gaffaney and 4 of the 6 Senior team members. Pawel and Romek Gall, Jacob Brown and especially Paddy Hansen have been incredibly generous with their time to assist the juniors, even coming in to school since going on exam leave.