Craighead to give 'em Elle
Natalie Holland (centre), 16, will be taking on the role of Elle Woods in the musical Legally Blonde. PHOTOS: CONNOR HALEY
Harvard's beloved blonde is set to take Craighead's Turley Auditorium by glittery pink storm.
Craighead Diocesan School students will share the fabulously funny story of Elle Woods in staging Legally Blonde The Musical JR next week.
Director Lucy Bradley said she selected Legally Blonde as the musical as she wanted something upbeat and that would keep the girls engaged.
"I think for a lot of these girls, they haven't necessarily had that upbringing in musical theatre, especially not the classics.
"Doing something that was maybe a bit more relevant to them, and with Y2K being such a prominent fashion accessory at the moment to them, I thought it would be a really fun one that would get as many girls involved as possible.
"We've got a cast of 50 students from year 8 to 13."
She said a lot of the students were not aware of the musical or the film.
"A lot of them had not heard of it — [though] I think for the drama girls, in inverted commas, it was quite a well-known one. Quite a few said they thought they had seen it on TikTok.
Performing a choreographed number are Delta Nu members (from left) Katelyn Valentine, 14, Maddy Smith, 15, Mea Still, 15, Olivia McLachlan, 14, Elsie Evans, 15, and Emily Jones, 13.
"In terms of them understanding it, I think it's a really important one to do at a girls' school. Elle Woods is such an underestimated character due to her looks, due to her gender and the perceived notions of who she is.
"How she is able to break through that barrier and that stereotype is quite an important message to put out to our girls as well as the audience."
Mrs Bradley said the audience could expect a lot of energy and a lot of pink.
"There will be excellent vocals, excellent choreography and a very engaging storyline. Hopefully they'll leave with the morals, values and lessons the musical promotes."
Student Mea Still said she had enjoyed being a part of the production.
"It's been really fun getting to know lots of girls from other year groups, doing some really cool things and learning about what it's like to work as a team.
"I was never really into drama as such but I came to Craighead and did the last production and now I'm taking drama as a subject."
Student Emily Jones said there had been a lot of laughs and good times working on the show.
"I was so quick to put my hand up to audition because I knew it would be such a blast and ever since then I've absolutely loved it. Every time I saw a rehearsal on the schedule I'd be like, 'yay'.
"I've just loved working with teachers and people. It is going to be an amazing show to watch."
Performances will take place at 7pm on May 14, 15 and 16 — doors will open at 6.30pm.
Tickets can be purchased from the iticket website and are $20 for adults and $15 for seniors, students with ID and children 12 and under.
Door sales will be available.
connor.haley@timarucourier.co.nz
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Otago Daily Times
2 days ago
- Otago Daily Times
Digital whodunnit for the TikTok generation
A New Zealand-produced, 18-part series shines the spotlight on the dangers and growing epidemic of image-based abuse and bullying. The Sender is about a group of prefects who have a final night of debauchery at a bach before taking on their roles and responsibilities in their final year of school. But as the night unravels, anonymous messages hit their phones with secrets and scandals threatening their carefully crafted personas. The series has been shot specifically for social media with the 18 episodes dropping on Instagram and TikTok. The aim was to make a series that resonated with a Gen Z audience, producer Jessica Todd told Culture 101 and getting to grips with that demographic's slang was part of the research process, she says. 'Whilst like Gen Z obviously speak very differently to millennials and everybody else, I think it's also important to remember they're just smart audiences like the rest of us. 'And so from the baseline of starting to write and think about the storyline and think about how we wanted it to sound, we were like, okay, it really needs to sound authentic to Gen Z, and we are not Gen Z, so we're going to need to do a bit of research and figure that out and become acclimatised with the lingo and what's cool and what's not.' Ultimately the story had to be strong enough to carry any audience, she says. 'It's just like any other project. It was just research and connecting with the actual audience and I think also just not pushing it too far out, like I feel some other shows that are trying to connect with a certain audience maybe go too far into the slang or vernacular. 'And we were like, it also just needs to be funny and good.' The fact The Sender is a digital only production presented its own challenges, director Liv McClymont says. 'Gen Z are watching all of their content on platforms like Tiktok, Instagram reels and YouTube shorts, and they're all vertical platforms. 'So we have to write for those specific platforms and what they will allow us to do, because they can be quite restrictive about what we can show, there's certain things that you just cannot put on social media, I think blood, for instance, that is a big no-no.' It also had to be shot in portrait mode, she says. 'We have six lead cast members and how are we going to fit all of them in one frame? It feels impossible, but we managed to do it with some very tricky blocking.' Getting depth in each shot also required some deft framing, she says. 'We wanted to make sure that we had as much depth in every frame so that we could make it feel cinematic, even though we were in this portrait mode.' Often the characters had to be stacked in unusual configurations to get them in shot, she says. 'We get two people sitting on the couch, and then another two people sitting behind them further back on the couch, and then another person standing behind the couch, and then all of a sudden, we've somehow, through height and dimension, got five people in one frame.' The plotting had to be tight to engage with an audience whose attentions needs to be captured quickly, Todd says. 'We knew that we had to start every single episode with something punchy or interesting or absurd or dramatic, and end every episode with hopefully a decent enough cliffhanger to make you want to scroll onto the next one.' The feedback has been positive, she says. 'They're really loving it, and I think are excited that there's a show for them that speaks to the world they live in, the issues that they're going through.'
1News
7 days ago
- 1News
Combs paid to hide Cassie beating video because he feared career ruin
Soon after viciously attacking his long-time girlfriend Cassie in a hotel hallway, Sean "Diddy" Combs sought out a security guard and predicted accurately that his career would be ruined — his image as the affable, successful "Puff Daddy" destroyed — if video of the beating ever became public. Eddy Garcia, 33, testified Thursday that the hip-hop mogul made the comment repeatedly before giving a brown paper bag stuffed with US$100,000 (NZ$166,700) in cash to the then guard, in order to buy what he hoped was the only copy of surveillance footage of the March 2016 assault. Prosecutors at Combs' sex trafficking trial in Manhattan have made the footage of Combs kicking, beating and dragging Cassie at the Intercontinental Hotel in Los Angeles a centrepiece of their federal case against him. They contend it supports the claims of three women, including Cassie, who allege the Bad Boy Records founder sexually and physically abused them over two decades. Prosecutors say Combs' persistent efforts to hush up the episode fit into allegations he used threats and his fortune and fame to get what he wanted. Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to sex trafficking and racketeering charges. ADVERTISEMENT 'Something like this could ruin him' After the attack, Garcia said, he spoke several times to Combs' chief-of-staff, Kristina Khorram, telling her he couldn't show her the recording but "off the record, it's bad". He said during one phone call she put a "very nervous"-sounding Combs on the phone, who "was just saying he had a little too much to drink" and that, as Garcia surely knows, "with women, one thing leads to another and if this got out it would ruin him". Winter's here, supermarket spying, and TikTok's new feature. (Source: 1News) Garcia added: "He was talking really fast, a lot of stuttering". In the evening, Garcia said, he became nervous and scared when Khorram called him on his cell phone — the number for which he had not provided — and she put Combs on. "He stated that I sounded like a good guy," Garcia testified, adding that Combs again said "something like this could ruin him". ADVERTISEMENT When he told Combs he didn't have access to the server to obtain the video footage, Combs said he believed Garcia could make it happen and that "he would take care of me," which Garcia said he took "to mean financially". Garcia said he checked with his boss and was told he'd sell it to Combs for US$50,000 (NZ$83,300). Sean Diddy Combs, left, stands as his defense attorney, Teny Geragos, gives her opening statement to the jury on the first day of trial in Manhattan federal court. (Source: Associated Press) When he told Combs, he said the music producer "sounded excited". "He referred to me as 'Eddy my angel'," Garcia said, adding that Combs told him: "I knew you could help. I knew you could do it." Within two days of the attack on Cassie, whose real name is Casandra Ventura, Garcia gave Combs a storage device containing the footage in exchange for US$100,000 (NZ$166,700) in cash — with Combs feeding bills through a money counter and putting them in a brown paper bag. Garcia signed a confidentiality and non-disclosure agreement, shown in court, that required he pay US$1 million (NZ$1.6 million) if he breached the deal. At the time, he said, he was making US$10.50 (NZ$17.50) an hour working hotel security. ADVERTISEMENT Garcia said he signed a declaration swearing that there was no other copy of the video. He said he signed the papers in an office building with Combs' bodyguard and Khorram present. Garcia said he didn't fully read the documents, explaining that he was nervous and "the goal was to get out of there as soon as possible". After signing, he said, Combs asked him what he planned to do with the money and advised him not to make big purchases. Garcia said he took that to mean he shouldn't do anything that would draw attention. This frame grab taken from hotel security camera video and aired by CNN appears to show Sean "Diddy" Combs attacking singer Cassie in a Los Angeles hotel hallway in March 2016. (Source: Associated Press) Garcia said he gave US$50,000 (NZ$83,300) to his boss and US$20,000 (NZ$33,300) to another security officer. He pocketed US$30,000 (NZ$50,000) and used some of it to buy a used car, he said. He used cash and, avoiding a further paper trail, never put the money in the bank, he said. A few weeks later, Garcia said, Combs called him and asked if anyone had inquired about the video. Garcia said no, recounting Combs' ebullient greeting: "Happy Easter. Eddy, my angel. God is good. God put you in my way for a reason." Garcia said he asked Combs if the rapper might have future work for him, and Combs sounded receptive. But Combs never responded to his later inquiries, the witness said. Last year, CNN aired footage of the security video. Another hotel guard has testified he recorded the footage on his phone so he could show it to his wife.
NZ Herald
03-06-2025
- NZ Herald
New TikTok features will let you control your feed more, and maybe sleep better too
It just got easier for Kiwis in the depths of winter to avoid 'European Summer' content. Social media platform TikTok has today introduced new features designed to give users more control over the content they see. The platform tools allow people to dial up content they want to see more
