Showquest Waikato: Te Awamutu Intermediate move on to national finals

Four months of hard work and rehearsals culminated in a raft of awards and top placing for Te Awamutu Intermediate’s crew taking part in the Waikato regional final of the Showquest Performing Arts competition held at Claudelands Events Centre in Hamilton.

Showquest is Aotearoa’s biggest performing arts competition for schools.

The challenge is to create a performance centred around a theme that combines elements of art, music, dance, drama, culture and technology, such as live music, soundtracks and a video wall, to create a show like a mini-Broadway production.

Students are given opportunities to show leadership in various roles, such as stage manager, lighting and music performance, alongside those performing on stage.

The competition is split into Senior (Year 9-13) and Junior (Year 1-8) categories and Te Awamutu was up against Hamilton’s Fairfield Intermediate and Southwell School in the Junior Section.

Te Awamutu Intermediate’s team of 60 students, under the guidance of Sarah Carroll and Maddy Hogan, combined the theme of The Hunger Games with their school values SHINE to create The SHINE Games.

Every year new ‘Tributes’ start their Te Awamutu Intermediate journey and aim to SHINE by Showing respect, Honesty, Including others, Never giving up and seeking Excellence, for which they earn value bands, leading to a Shine badge.

The “Tributes” earned the value bands by participating in arenas based on culture, the virtual world, creativity, sport and academics, culminating in a celebration as one tribute gained her Shine badge by the end of the eight-minute performance.

Te Awamutu won awards for Best Choreography, Best Live Music, Best Drama and Best Props, and won their section.

Carroll said the school is proud of the achievement of the students and looks forward to the next stage as they have qualified for the National Showquest Finals, expected to be held in late July.

Te Awamutu will then be up against other regional winners in a live-streamed digital final.

A video of the winning regional performance will be screened and a panel of celebrity judges from the performing arts sector will decide and announce the national results.

The Waikato regional event took place on May 21.

Showquest was launched in 2018 by the team at Rockquest Promotions, which is the organisation behind the music competition Smokefreerockquest.