In association with The British Council of New Zealand and the Pacific, St Cuthbert’s College Drama Department welcomed a very special visitor last week. Sir Gregory Doran, former artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, is on our shores visiting the First Folio in Auckland Library and researching versions of Romeo and Juliet from across the globe.
With students from kura across Tāmaki, we dissected the Prologue, where Sir Gregory demonstrated his incredible talents by reciting it in just 33 seconds! This illustrated exactly how fast the actors would need to speak if the play were truly performed in two hours, as the prologue claims. We then workshopped the Te Arawa love story of Hinemoa and Tūtānekai, and finished the day with a brilliant performance of Romeo and Juliet by The Barden Party.
It was a fabulous day and a unique opportunity for our students to learn from a global expert on Shakespeare and explore their own stories from this whenua.
You can hear more from Sir Gregory Doran on Radio NZ, click here.
