Latest news with #NationalShakespeareSchoolsProduction
Otago Daily Times
20-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
Chance to perform at the Globe ‘insane'
Former Trinity Catholic College student Phoebe Harris (left) and student Meadow Stewart, exchange tips on Shakespeare. PHOTO: PETER MCINTOSH Last year, in front of school mates. This year, treading the boards at the Globe Theatre in London for the Bard. Former Trinity Catholic College student Phoebe Harris was the only student south of Canterbury to be selected among 24 high school actors from last year to perform at the prestigious theatre for the Young Shakespeare Company. She returned to Dunedin earlier this week after an "amazing" time in London. "It was one of the best experiences of my entire life," she said. "When we got there, I was like this is exactly where I'm supposed to be and it was insane that I got to perform on the Globe stage after watching all the professional actors perform there." It gave her the confidence to go back and do it again. "It just made me want to be a professional [actor] even more." The Company spent two weeks rehearsing with different tutors at the theatre and put on a midnight matinee of Romeo and Juliet. The actors learned how to project their voices and make eye contact with the audience at the theatre. Miss Harris was at the Ara Institute of Canterbury National Academy of Singing and Dramatic Art this year. Former classmate Meadow Stewart, 17, was one of the 48 students selected from the National Shakespeare Festival to take part in the National Shakespeare Schools Production this year. Meadow was hopeful she would impress three leading New Zealand directors to be a part of the 24 actors selected to go to London next year. "It would be such a big step for me and a starting point for me to get into the industry because I am hoping to get into performing arts after high school." King's High School year 13 student Ethan Shaw-Wood, 18, was also selected to take part in the production this year.
Otago Daily Times
11-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
Barbie-inspired Shakespeare wins awards for actor, school
Glenn Ericsson may not be plastic, but he is certainly fantastic playing a beat-up, toddler-maimed Shakespearean Barbie. The 17-year-old John McGlashan College student recently won the outstanding individual comic role award at the Shakespeare Global Centre New Zealand National Festival, in Wellington, for playing Katherina Minola in McGlashan's production of The Taming of the Shrew. The school also won the outstanding presentation from a comedy award. "We did Taming of the Shrew ... but we did it in more of a Barbie style," he said. "Two of us were like Barbies — the rest were Kens. "We didn't really change anything from the actual Shakespearean script itself, but our costumes and our set was very heavily inspired by the Barbie movie. "The way we moved was more like Barbie dolls — it was all very stiff." He said the movements added to the humour of the play. While he was delighted with the awards, he said playing a Barbie doll had its cons — particularly the amount of glitter and makeup he had to wear. It took ages to get off again, and in the case of glitter, some of it stayed stuck to him for days. John McGlashan College students (from left) Glenn Ericsson, Tim Stevens and Harper Milne perform a scene from their Barbie-inspired adaptation of The Taming of the Shrew. Glenn recently won the outstanding individual comic role award at the Shakespeare Global Centre New Zealand National Festival in Wellington. Photo: Peter McIntosh "It goes everywhere," he said. "The rest of the boys seem rather amused by it, to be honest." Glenn said he had been acting in theatre productions since primary school, but had been taking it far more seriously in recent years. The thing that attracted him to acting was being able to socialise with people he might not normally talk to. It was also an opportunity to step out of his comfort zone and be somebody different. "It's a form of escapism. It takes your mind off the troubles of your day, just by doing something completely different." He is considering pursuing acting as a career in Wellington, but it was still early days, he said. Glenn is now hoping to get a date — with destiny. He hoped his role as Katherina/Barbie would earn him one of 46 places in the National Shakespeare Schools Production later this year. Of those students, 24 would be chosen to travel to the Globe, in London, and to attend a two-week course in Stratford-upon-Avon. "Fingers crossed, I get selected."
