Those and many more stories were told in emphatic style to an almost sellout crowd at the Regent Theatre in Dunedin last night as part of the Mission On Stage Challenge.
Weeks of practice by pupils in 12 schools from Dunedin, Waimate, Oamaru, Balclutha and Wanaka led to slick performances which were praised highly by the three judges.
The event was won by St Hildas Collegiate, with Kings High School second and Otago Girls High School third.
Stage Challenge has been run in New Zealand for 17 years and according to organisers provides high school pupils with the opportunity to "experience the natural high of being a part of a team". The event is a strictly, tobacco, alcohol and drug-free environment.
Each performance must run for between five and eight minutes, set to a medley of music and with up to 140 participants.
Otago Boys, with its theme of Icarus, showed boys really can dance; Mt Aspiring College's performance about individuals and how they are influenced was striking; Columba College told the story of power, slavery and corruption through Exodus; Queens High School went for an Arabic theme in telling the love story of Scheherazade; Otago Girls High School made the audience think about commodities versus the lives of people in Third World countries; South Otago High School did a modern take on the Wizard of Oz; Kaikorai Valley College showed appearances can deceive and the importance of being drug free; Kings High School told of temptation and revelation in Las Vegas; Logan Park High School told the story of the children of India; St Kevins College showed the evolution of humans through a revolutionary time traveller; St Hildas Collegiate showed the audience what goes on at a museum at night and Waimate High School forced the audience to confront the difficult choices young people sometimes have to make.
