2015 HNHS School Magazine | Page 38

Another year chock full of challenges (of the exciting kind) for the drama department began in term one with the staging of Beauty and the Beast, which showcased both the dramatic and musical talents of our students and the skills of our technical crew. The quality of the production was recognised by the six golds and eleven blues awarded to the cast and crew at the midyear blues assembly. The expansion in numbers taking drama this year saw the welcome return of a former colleague, Mr Daniel Betty, who took on teaching one of our Year 11 classes. Mr Betty’s involvement in extracurricular drama initiatives has meant that our stude nts were given opportunities to perform in such productions as the commemorative ANZAC drama Over The Top, the Sheila Winn Festival of Shakespeare and the Hawkes Bay Youth Theatre’s production of The Laramie Project. Mr Tim Walton continued his valuable service to the department by teaching the Year 12 drama class and directing their production of Living with Lady Macbeth in term three, as well as teaching four junior drama classes. A new initiative at Year 11 was the Drama-rama, a collection of skits, songs and puppetry that was performed by Mr Brebner’s class at Te Mata and Havelock North Primary schools to enthusiastic audiences as part of the students’ Theatre Form achievement standard.