Agnes of God Team, in New Zealand

​DAY TWO – Saturday 16th September
The wind has gone and it’s a bright, clear day – perfect for a walk. We decided on a late breakfast and discovered a great local café which interestingly had the most amazing menu including “boozey shakes” like Silky Johnston (Dark Rum, Salt Caramel, Vanilla and Honeycomb). It’s way too early for a piratical diet but maybe we’ll get a chance to try one of these amazing drinks before we leave?
We have been enrolled into afternoon workshops at the Whitireia Performance Centre and Ashley and I head off to our “STAGE COMBAT” workshop as Richard heads off to Analysing the Text and Deborah joins Improvisation. Our workshop coach Allan Henry has worked on movies and TV shows as well as stage and takes us through how to stage fights and falls and stay safe while telling a story. My attempts at throwing him end in near disaster – as I’m falling and he’s falling all I can think of is how I can deliver my lines as Martha Livingstone from a wheelchair. But all’s good – I survive the workshop and we head back to the hotel to get ready for our evening at The Hannah Playhouse.
Richard has a gift from Sunshine Coast Live – a traditional gift from the Gubbi Gubbi tribe in Australia – to present to the Maori Elders to open the event and then we sit back to enjoy 4 of the finalist plays. There are 2 youth plays and 2 open plays. I am exceptionally moved by a play written by a NZ local called “Bittersweet Love” a script that I would like to be able to take back to our theatre and also enjoy “All My Love Paul” – which I have seen before on the SE Qld Circuit at the Sunshine Coast in 2015 and where it took out a number of awards. This production was also extremely well executed and enjoyable. It’s interesting to see that we share good scripts across the ditch.
 - Madeleine Johns.