My passion and love for performing, especially Musical Theatre, developed from an early age and has only grown stronger since my time here at Rangitoto College.

For the past two years, I have been a member of the student’s Arts Leadership Team. This has been a very rewarding experience as I have been able to take a leadership role in an area of the school that I care deeply for. As of late, we have collaborated in organising events such as Karaoke and Lip Sync Battles at lunchtimes, which have been immensely popular. We are working towards more events that celebrate and showcase the different areas of the Arts within the college.

So far, in my years at Rangitoto College, I have been involved in numerous aspects of the Arts, more specifically in the Drama and Music department. In my junior years, I was a member of two of the school choirs, specifically one previously named Massa de Voce, a non-auditioned choir, as well as Serenata, an auditioned female voice choir. In 2021, we, Serenata, were selected to compete in the Big Sing National Finale in Christchurch, however this was sadly cancelled due to Covid-19. These choirs were welcoming, and very educational, and fun, nevertheless. I especially enjoyed the annual Choir camps. I have also been a keen student in the school’s music tuition programme, taking vocal lessons. I have found that these lessons have furthered my progress both in school, and in activities outside, in community theatre.

Additionally, I have been partaking in the Drama curriculum since Year 9. I feel passionately about Drama and was very excited at the prospect of furthering my passion in a school environment with experienced teachers. I have been involved in extracurricular Drama within the school as well. I was in the 2023 production of Shrek the Musical, and played the Narrator in the Drama Company’s play, Puffs. For this role, I was nominated for an Auckland Live Showdown Award, the Best Lead in a Play, out of high schools within the Auckland area. It was great and very enjoyable being able to put on full-scale productions.

Having studied Drama at school for four years, as well as my involvement in theatre outside of school, I felt confident enough to audition for the Kiwi All-Stars. The Kiwi All-Stars are a selected group of teenage musical theatre performers from across the country that were chosen to compete and take part alongside some Australians in the Junior Theatre Festival in Sacramento in the United States, earlier this year. I was able to travel to New York City, meet and work with Broadway performers, composers, musicians, and producers. We ended up winning an award for the Most Outstanding Performance. This was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and I am grateful that I spend a lot of time in a supportive environment that allows me to explore and develop my individual skills.

As I still have another year of high school education ahead of me, I am unsure of what the future holds but I am looking forward to making the most of the many Performing Art opportunities that College provides in my final year.