MAC Magazine 2015

DRAMA/PERFORMANCE
SHUDDER
This year, the Level 3 Drama class undertook one of the most challenging
live performances to date. A type of theatre that purely relied on
the physicality and multi role play of each character. Shudder was a
performance revolving around the different personalities of Wellington
and how each individual links together through the natural disaster of
an earthquake. This was challenging yet satisfying as there were many
factors of Shudder that we were not familiar with, such as having the entire
cast on stage for the duration of the play. It was an enjoyable experience
experimenting with our bodies and pushing them to the extreme to create
humour, props and multiple characters. The cast was thrilled with the
complexity of the innovatively-styled performance and it was something
different for the audience's eye to witness.
Brynee Wilson
REVENGE OF THE AMAZONS
The Revenge of the Amazons, a play written in 1983 to take a stab at the formal, male heavy,
William Shakespeare play, “Midsummer Night’s Dream,” offered a perfect opportunity to push
ourselves. It was a long hard working process with the difficulty of not being able to practise in the
Lake Wanaka Centre until the day before we were due to perform but we worked together to make
it happen.
This was a first for our class in two ways: firstly, our class tends to lean towards the more serious
pieces to perform so to be able to perform a piece that would elicit laughter rather than a solemn
mood was a pleasant change. Secondly we, as a class, had never worked on a large stage outside
of school performing, some had experience from other performances such as “Like There’s No
Tomorrow” where there was a large audience but it was still in an intimate setting so working in the
Lake Wanaka Centre was an amazing opportunity that we all thoroughly enjoyed.
The Revenge of the Amazons was a great experience, flowing well thanks to our backstage crew,
make up girls, lighting boys, Holly Mercer and of course the wonderful Emily McRae who continues
to put up with the stress of our class. The majority of the class have been together for a few years so
a class play is always an enjoyable way to end a stressful term and school year. I personally enjoyed
the whole ordeal and am looking forward to another chance to work in that setting next year with
the musical.
Lucy Hayes
A WILDE ROMP
Level 1 Drama’s end of year performance involved snippets from ‘The
Importance of Being Earnest’, a piece by Oscar Wilde from the Victorian era,
and ‘A Woman of No Importance’, also by Oscar Wilde. We had done a standard
on Melodrama at the beginning of the year, so we found it easy to utilize those
acting techniques in this performance; pacing our lines, projecting our voices,
using posture to show age and displaying exaggerated facial expressions to
portray emotions.
The characters weren’t easy to perform, with many periods spent trying to learn
how to carry ourselves like characters older than ourselves. We also learned,
with help from Ms McRae, how to project our voices so we could be heard in a
large theatre. Another difficult part of these characters for some were, in fact,
the costumes, which were a little difficult to move in, and definitely not the most
comfortable. Everyone worked extremely hard, and the finished results were
incredible. Everyone enjoyed this experience, and learned a lot from it.
Amy Knight
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