STUDENTS from schools as far away as Mount Cook, Rotorua and the West Coast arrive in Wellington this week for the Shakespeare Globe Centre New Zealand (SGCNZ) National University of Otago Sheilah Winn Shakespeare Festival.
Those selected will soak up Wellington’s theatre-scene, and attend workshops and talks, before performing their own works, vying for awards that recognize excellence in everything from acting and directing to comprehension of the text, audience interaction, dance, music and design.
Forty-four teams from forty-seven schools will perform either 15-minute student or teacher-directed scenes, or 5-minute student-only directed scenes, from Shakespeare classics.
Onslow College student Neenah Dekkers-Reihana, 17, gained a place at the national festival, by directing a 15-minute “jumble of multiple scenes” from Macbeth, with a toy box theme.
“My whole impression of [the play] was quite simply that the witches are playing with Macbeth, and making a huge mess of his misfortune. I decided I would play to the strengths of young actors and keep them young by making the witches little girls… Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are their puppets… and the rest of the cast are toys,” she says.  
Dekkers-Reihana, who SGCNZ CEO Dawn Sanders describes as an “exceptional young actor and director”, says she’s “absolutely” found her career path.
“It’s all I want to do,” she says.
She has also been selected to travel to London later this year as a SGCNZ Young Shakespeare Company member, where she will study and perform at Shakespeare’s Globe.
“I’m really nervous but still excited. I just can’t imagine the feeling of standing on the Globe Theatre stage,” she says.
Shakespeare may have died almost 400 years ago, but Dekkers-Reihana doesn’t see his work losing its affect.
“I think Shakespeare will always be relevant. It’s easy to feel tired of it when it seems like it’s all been done, but people at this festival are really doing it differently.
“Trying to do some of the most performed scenes in theatre history, in a way that has never been done … That’s probably the most enjoyable part for me.”
National University of Otago Sheilah Winn Shakespeare Festival, Wellington East Girls’ College, June 2-6.