Ruth Hare of Raglan theatre Academy has been working with students at Raglan Area School…
I hear Raglan Area School students came runners up at the recent Waikato Secondary Schools Theatre Sport finals.
Yes, the team came second place, only one point behind first place, so a fantastic to develop their effort! It’s only our second year of entering and this year they were defending champions as they took out first place last year – so Raglan is definitely showing the region what we are made of!
Who was involved?
The teams are made of four actors in each. Raglan starred Connor Marquand, Zoe Oliver, Summer Maybee-Waitere and Iemaja Hassell.
What preparation was required?
Although you can’t practice exactly what will come up as its totally improvised, actors work towards being in the moment, going with the flow, listening to each other, accepting offers and keeping a story line going, all the while finding moments of physical action and comedy – so a lot goes into it!
We practice the games that they could get asked twice a week at lunchtimes and then more leading up to a game. The more they do the better they become at creating on the spot.
What were their strengths?
It varies between games, each individual has a different strength that they bring to the scene, which means that together they create an entertaining piece. Essentially, it’s about having a team that gel well together, can bounce off each other from moment to moment and make it appear seamless.
What does RAS offer in terms of Drama as a subject
Drama at Raglan Area School is a fully-fledged subject. Year 7 & 8 take it as one of their term options so it’s a taster course. In year 9 & 10 students can take it as a full year course where they begin to form a basis that then leads them into NCEA level 1, 2 and 3, which again is a full year subject. It is a course that offers a range of growth and experience for our Drama students. Other than the opportunity to become part of the theatresports team; students prepare, rehearse and perform a play for our annual mid-year public performance. We attend a number of professional live theatre performances through the year, and for the first time this year, students performed in the regional annual Sheilah Winn Shakespeare Schools Festival – a tradition we plan to keep on going.
RAS is going from strength to strength as a school and creatively with both music and drama being offered, providing great opportunities for our tamariki.
Raglan Theatre Academy will no doubt be busy preparing for their end of year production. What delightful treat can the community expect this Summer.
Haha yes, no rest for the wicked! So, as well as running the drama department up at RAS I also run Raglan Theatre Academy which offers students from 6 – 18 years old from the wider community the opportunity to further deepen and extend their skills and techniques, and work towards performance in after school classes. We culminate the year with our annual well-acclaimed full-scale production. This year get ready for an explosion of performance with our rendition of Alice in Wonderland, hitting our Town Hall this year in December.
