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Performing Arts Academy 2015

2015 has been a busy and fulfilling year so far for the PAA- this has been my first year coaching them and it has been an honour to work with such gifted students, and students with such diverse talents!

Our year has been structured into four parts:

• :Attending professional performances outside of the college.
• :Masterclasses and workshops within the college.
• :Full student organisation of two lunchtime concerts.
• :Selection, preparation and rehearsal of our group items¬†

In February the students had a workshop about Teaching as a Profession by Music HOD Wendy Sutherland. In March we attended Othello, The Remix, a hip-hop version of the Shakespearean tragedy, and also Don Quixote, the classic ballet performed by the Royal New Zealand Ballet.

In April we had a dancer from the Royal New Zealand Ballet come to the school and give the PAA dancers, and other dancers within the college, a workshop based on Don Quixote, which was a treat.

May was a classical month, with trips to the Auckland Philharmonic Orchestra to hear Elgar’s Enigma variations, and then the highly entertaining La Cenerentola performed by New Zealand Opera- which, being the story of Cinderella, was popular since it echoed the theme of this years’ Senior Production, Ever After.

In May we also performed our first lunchtime concert at Mahurangi College, and all students were involved. The hall was packed and they received masses of cheers!

Anthony Macleod visited the group in July, to give them a special workshop about writing songs, and at the end of the session each student had performed in their own original, freshly composed chorus.

August took us to the Auckland Theatre Company and Lysistrata, which was an incredible production. We were also very lucky to have the production team visit Mahurangi College the week after the show to do a workshop on Greek Theatre with those students who had attended the show.

The students are fresh from their second lunchtime performance of the year, which went extremely well. The students are now confidently able to run all aspects of their own concerts without any teacher help, which was one of our aims from the beginning of the year.

In September we look forward to a stage makeup lesson, brought to us by a professional from The Makeup School in Auckland, and we have one more theatre performance to attend, Guys and Dolls, in November, as well as a directing workshop, theatre sports session, and group performance at the Cultural Blues night.

They are a fantastically talented and keen group of students, and the more we have bonded as group the more constructively we have been able to work.