Let The Games Begin for school production
Pupils at a Palmerston North School are hoping to teach the audience a few lessons with their new production.
Whakarongo School is this week staging its first production since 2017, with two performances at the Speirs Centre at Palmerston North Boys’ High School.
The show is Let The Games Begin, a story about three siblings who are sent into a board game world and have to compete against the evil Lady Fortune to win their freedom.
Charles Price, Zara Harrison and Gauri Arun play the three siblings Marney, Robin and Vicky.
They play with magic dice owned by their grandfather (Amariah Ngirazi) and are transported to the game world, where they are at the mercy of Lady Fortune, played by Grace Sidey.
Will Luck, played by Kaija Johnson, helps the children.
More than 230 children are involved with the production, and have been working on it for about 12 weeks.
Zara said it had fun being part of the show but stressful when it came to remembering lines.
She said there would be a lot of songs, comedy and lessons for the audience.
Amariah said there was a message in the show. “Video games are great, but they’re not real. Living life is so much better.”
Games including Pac-Man, Super Mario and Monopoly are featured.
One of the organisers, teacher Jane Mayston, said the school first tried to put on the show in 2020, before Covid-19 interrupted. “We started rehearsing in 2021 but had to stop that because of so many restrictions. It’s a whole new set of people.
“These guys won’t have done a senior production before. It’s been a big learning curve for students and staff.”
The show was on yesterday and today, and both nights had almost sold out.