Arts News

The end of term is fast approaching and for our seniors this is a crucial time as they look ahead to completing their courses of study. It has been fantastic to see the efforts of students at break and after school working together on rehearsal for shows, Internal catch-ups and External prep. We are super proud of student effort in a year that has challenged us all.

Firstly, Music and the Chamber Group! Wow! Thank you Trina Sellers and Margaret Robertson for treating us to lunch with the Chamber Group and Duvet – Covers Band. It was a thrill to be able to finally see the efforts and hours of rehearsal showcased on stage in our school hall. The Chamber Group performed to a school audience of friends, teachers and whānau who thoroughly enjoyed the live lunch show – we look forward to many more opportunities like this!

Dance and Drama are back in action! Students finally get to utilize the amazing TAPAC stage again with final showcases of senior work starting up to celebrate student innovation and collaboration with performance. Despite challenges this year, students have been incredibly motivated and self-driven with performance finding spaces and places to create scenes and choreography to pursue preparation for class productions. It’s truly fantastic to think that spaces like garages, bedrooms and gardens have been utilized for planning, rehearsal and show preparation.

23rd/24th September – a must see was Re-Collect – Dance Showcase at TAPAC featuring the wonderful work of Year 11, 12 and 13 dancers. Thanks to team Dance for putting on such an amazing range of performance choreography for students and teachers to enjoy in theatre and online. We encourage you to visit the Dance Department promotional GoogleSite for course info for all students and year levels interested in taking dance. You can access the GoogleSite via their performance poster in this edition of the ArtsNews. Thank you to our teachers of Performing Arts Chloe Davison, Samantha Wood Rawnsley, Kayleigh Haworth and Robert Pollock for all your hard work behind the scenes.

Finally… our Art rooms and digital suites continue to be a wonderful hive of activity as senior students are in preparation mode for end of year assessment and External art portfolios as we look ahead to AMT our senior exhibition of work completed in Art, Media and Technology on Thursday 5th November. The Art Department are holding workshops during the holidays to support folio completion and dates/times are noted in Visual Arts news.

Have a safe and happy holiday break ahead of busy Term 4!

Thanks to Ruby Giesen – 13Art Design – for the ArtsNews heading in this issue.

Kirsty Britton – Arts Coordinator


Drama News

 

As I mentioned in our last newsletter, the Year 12 students are exploring the works of Bertolt Brecht and we intend to present these performances in the Ken Havill Centre for Learning.  The performances will take place in week one of Term Four – Wednesday and Thursday, 14th, 15th October, at 6:00 pm. The Year 13 students are looking in depth at a selection of monologues, two-handed and three-handed scenes. These include scenes from Shakespeare and Pinter, as well as the latest plays from young New Zealand playwrights. These performances will take place in week four of Term Four – Wednesday, and Thursday 4th, 5th November, at 3:15pm and 6:30pm.  See you there!!!

HOD Drama – Robert Pollock

Chamber Group gives its first performance of 2020!! FINALLY!!

We tried in Term 1:  We had the fabulous Yuto Tanikawa playing the piano solo for Bach’s Keyboard Concerto No. 5.  Along came lockdown No. 1 and Yuto had to get back home to Japan ASAP. (Keep an eye out for the video we are producing with Yuto’s part recorded in Japan, and the Chamber Group spliced in.)

We tried in Term 2:  We worked to get our mojo/sense of ensemble back in Term 2 as we recovered from lockdown brain and prepared to record several pieces for the KBB Festival, which went online this year.  We were also gearing up for a Musical Showcase Evening event to celebrate our WSCW students’ significant musical talents.  Along came lockdown No. 2.

We pulled it off in Week 8 of Term 3 in our lovely resonant school hall (just before the hall was set for exams/assessments for the rest of the year.) We love the acoustic in the hall, which is perfect for our strings and woodwinds. NB: We could only have audience members from our student/staff bubble, so parents, family and friends outside school, we hope you can come along when we perform again at the Y13 Dance Showcase early in Term 4. You can also check out the KBB Festival 2020 site soon, where a video of our performance will be uploaded.

Our programme:

Fingal’s Cave from Felix Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture.  The ‘eerie’ echoes that Mendelssohn heard in Fingal’s Cave, when he visited the island of Staffa in Scotland in 1829, can be heard in the fragments of melody that pass from one instrument to another, giving all sections of the orchestra their ‘solo’ moments. Our sole clarinettist, Antonia Lloyd shone through in her moment as did cellists Veda Di Fulvio, Keir Maxwell-Stewart and George Walker, while Pip Owles, on Double Bass provided spooky bass notes, adding to the sense of mystery. (Pip was also our friendly MC.) Antonio and Zylah Vivace have valiantly shared viola parts with Antonia as we have no violas! Not an easy ask when you see how high those notes are on cello.

Cinema Paradiso by Ennio Morricone (we honoured Morricone, who passed away aged 91 in Rome this year.) This lush and gorgeous piece is just the ‘feel good’ music we need this year.  Our stunning first and second violins and flute were showcased (First violins: Max Burton, Sophie Houghton, Theo McIntosh, Lotta McNamara.  Second violins: Oliver Burton, Arthur O’Callaghan, Trinity Black, Charmagne Ocdao. Flute: Bella Benson

Salut d’amour by Edward Elgar, led from the cello by our talented soloist Antonio Hookham Scotter. Antonio has been studying performance cello at Auckland University this year, along with his Y13 studies.

Antonio, George and Max ‘wrapped up’ our lunchtime concert with their covers band Duvet – George swapping his cello for electric guitar. Duvet enjoyed a very warm reception with numbers such as Mama Mia…

 

 

And a huge THANK YOU! and CONGRATULATIONS to Trina Sellers for the wonderful work she has done with the Chamber Group this year.  Trina even managed some of this with two broken arms.

 

 

 

 

Margaret Robertson – HOD Music

 

                                    Greetings from Rangitoto!                                                                 

At the time of writing it’s the last week of term three and there is a hive of activity brewing; juniors are well under way with their painting, Art Historians are practising for the external and seniors are busy making their folio boards and completing internals. With time missed through the lockdowns, it has been great to see a number of students come in during lunchtimes and after school to catch up on their work. This bodes well for their final assessments and reflects the value and self-agency students have developed and refined during these challenging times.

To further assist their extension – the department has committed to hold holiday workshops for students with staff available on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday between 11am-1pm for both weeks.

 TIC Art Design Kirsty Britton will be in for the first week only Tues/Wed/Thurs

TIC Art Photography Ashley Heelam will be in the second week only Wed/Thurs

TIC Art Painting Lily Laita will be in both weeks only Tues/Wed

The following term four dates are our staggered deadlines for provisional grades of senior folios:

Level 1 is due Friday 23rd October

Level 2 is due on Friday 30th October

Level 3 Art Design & Level 3 Art Photography is due on Monday 2nd November

Level 3 Art Painting is due Wednesday 4th November

Level 3 Art Scholarship due on Tuesday 10th November to TIC’s Art Design, Photography and Painting.

We are still planning to hold the AMT exhibition with the Media and Technology departments on the 5th November (dependent on the Alert situation) so keep an eye on notices for confirmation of the senior showcase.

Lastly, if anyone has any small screw top containers (plastic or glass) they no longer need – can you please drop off them off to the school.  We have been utilising old vanilla essence bottles, vitamin/pill bottles to enable students to take small amounts of ink and/or paint to help complete their work at home.  Also, big thanks to the newspaper ‘fairies’ (Chloe and Sharda) who are keeping us topped up throughout the year.

 

Year 11 students working on External portfolios in 11 Art      

Ia Manuia      –      Lily A Laita – HOD Art

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