Olivia Gammie, Ramali Madagammana & Victoria Mills.

Top Speech & Drama Students Honoured

Some of their exams were over a year ago but for eight speech and drama students the sweetest part has been only just learning their results topped the city and the country.

            The students were formally acknowledged at a recent Trinity Honours Concert for their exceptionalTrinity Guildhall examination results in 2007 and 2008.

            Olivia Gammie and Lucy Johnson achieved the highest marks in New Zealand for Initial Speech and Drama in 2007, Victoria Mills for Grade 3 Speech and Drama in 2008, Ramali Madagammana for Grade 4 Communication Skills in 2008 and Lucy Diver for Grade 4 Speech and Drama in 2007.

            Georgia Marris achieved the highest mark in Auckland for Grade 2 Speech and Drama in 2007,Alexandra Cole for Grade 5 Speech and Drama in 2008 and Ishika Jayasinghe for Grade 7 Speech and Drama in 2008.

National Young Performers

Esther MacIntyre, Lydia Randell and Chaturika Jayasinghe competed at the National Young Performer Awards in October, with Esther winning fourth place.
Competitors in the speech and drama section of the competition prepare a 15 minute showcase of poetry, prose and acting. Chaturika and Esther MC’d the College’s Shakespeare Soirée, and in 2007 Chaturika and Lydia were both members of the Performing Arts Committee, which plays a large role in organising some of the College’s drama productions.

Shakespeare

Four St Cuthbert’s College students won gold for having the best connection between actors and silver in the teacher-directed play section at the Auckland region Sheilah Winn Festival of Shakespeare.
Shaan Antunovich, Edith Poor, Emma Fenton and Jessica Taylor performed their 15 minute anthology of scenes from Antony and Cleopatra at the College’s Shakespeare Soirée before taking it to the Festival.

Public Speaking

St Cuthbert’s College student Jane Nelson has been selected to represent New Zealand as a Junior Ambassador in Japan later this year.
Eleven year old Jane is one of four winners in the Eastlock International Junior Ambassador Programme 2007 Public Speaking Competition. 
She travelled to Tokyo, Japan for 12 days in September to speak to students studying English at a Japanese University, see the sights and visit Disneyland Tokyo.
The theme of the speeches, which had to be between four or five minutes long, was “New Zealand… so much to see and do.” “I spoke about the colours you can see in the different seasons and the colours which are unique to New Zealand. I was dressed up in bright colours from head to toe to really get the message through to them,” laughs Jane.