Two Timaru secondary schools are taking contrasting approaches to raising funds for their champion drama groups' trips to Wellington for the Shakespeare in Schools Festival on Queen's Birthday weekend.
Mountainview High School is taking the quiet avenue with a silent auction at the school on Saturday from 2pm to 6pm. Items up for auction have been donated by South Canterbury businesses and include everything from three cubic metres of firewood to pet vaccinations.
A medieval fair at Timaru Boys' High School on Sunday should produce more of a racket, with activities from 11am to 2pm that include the test firing of a trebuchet (siege catapult), archery, juggling, fire eating and displays by the school's medieval group that will show how knights are trained and armed. A spit roast, game stew and other medieval snacks will be on offer.
Both schools' drama groups qualified for the national festival after winning different categories at a South Canterbury and North Otago regional competition held at Mountainview High School on April 15.
A group of nine pupils from Mountainview High School will travel to Wellington with drama teacher Elizabeth Grubbe. The group will perform a five-minute extract from Antony and Cleopatra, directed by year 13 pupil Megan Hickey.
Her concept for the performance is ‘‘Antony and Cleopatra through time'', with three pairs playing the same scene in different periods - the traditional period, the 1940s, and a present-day interpretation.
Timaru Boys' High School head of drama Christine Cheesman said eight pupils would travel to Wellington, where they would perform a 15-minute extract from A Midsummer's Night's Dream using the concept of a black and white silent movie.
Both schools estimated they would need to raise about $4000 for their pupils' four-day stays in Wellington, where they would also attend drama workshops.
