A group of Dunedin secondary school students discovered the answer was a sweep of awards at a national acting competition.
Last weekend, students from Trinity Catholic College headed to Wellington to perform after winning the five-minute scene category of the Shakespeare Globe Centre New Zealand Victoria University of Wellington Otago regional finals in March.
They performed act 1, scene 1 of the Shakespearean tragedy King Lear. However student director Esther Koudayah, 17, said they added a modern twist.
The end product was basically if Keeping Up With The Kardashians was set in Shakespearean England and they went on Family Feud.
‘‘We just wanted to put like a nice twist on it, so something different and a bit more modern,’’ Esther said.
The original scene was naturally a little ‘‘dry’’ as it was the first scene and was establishing the story, so it was a fun challenge to take on.
Esther said she was really proud and happy with how they performed, and for the results they got when it came to awards.
‘‘We didn’t have that many practices coming into it after winning the regionals — I believe that was like the best one we’ve performed.’’
The team collected two awards, one for Esther for ‘‘most innovative interpretation’’ for her take on King Lear, and another for Ziva Curtis, 15, who played the ‘‘boom mic operator’’.
Ziva won the ambassador award for having the ‘‘best mic drop moment’’, specifically for when she dropped her boom mic on to someone’s head.
She said she was shocked to have won an award.
‘‘I played a really minor role, and so I was really surprised... goes to show there is no small roles, only small actors.’’
