• Weta Workshop.
  • Elise Beavis holding the America's Cup.
  • Adventures in the Kristin Wilderness.
  • Adventures in the Kristin Wilderness.

Kristin students unleashed at Weta Workshop

Kristin School News

Our International Baccalaureate (IB) Theatre students were fortunate enough to take the new ‘Weta Workshop Unleashed’ tour in March, where they were invited to unleash their creativity through exploring the amazing world of Weta Workshop.

The tour is an interactive journey through the work that Weta does, including glimpses into the amazing practical effects that they are so well renowned for.

Students were invited to interact with displays, gizmos and set pieces from the worlds of horror, fantasy and sci-fi. They were able to try out crafting techniques, interact with real props, see the process of creating movie magic up close and wonder at the detail and creativity they saw. The whole tour was very cleverly and creatively constructed in order to immerse visitors in the worlds they visited. Some students found it so immersive that their responses to their experiences were a delight to see.

The visit was an excellent way to kickstart their own creative processes as they begin the task of generating directorial ideas for staging a play of their choice. Next term, all Year 10 drama students will also take the tour in order to unleash their creativity too. All of the students who visited last week thoroughly enjoyed their experience and are keen to put their experience to good use!

Leigh Sykes

Curriculum Leader Drama

Elise Beavis from Emirates Team New Zealand at the Middle School Sports Awards


Elise Beavis, Kristin Alumni (class of 2012), who is Performance Engineer for Emirates Team New Zealand (ETNZ) inspired our Middle School students at a recent Sports Awards Assembly, sharing her insights on some of the experience and drive required to reach big goals – whether sporting or academic. 
Elise spoke to students about the value of team work in sport and in life, and the benefits of building a team with diverse skills, who together can achieve incredible results. She explained that ETNZ was a team of around 130 people who combined unique talents and efforts to achieve a single-minded goal – winning the America’s Cup.
Elise also reflected on the variety of school subjects she drew on in her role as ETNZ performance engineer – from trigonometry, statistics and scripting through to English and CAD design. Elise shared that it took a lot of tenacity and several approaches to secure her dream job at ETNZ; reflecting that at Kristin, students are given so many opportunities to pursue, but beyond school the challenge is to create our own opportunities.
Thank you Elise for sharing your inspiring story with our students! We’re looking forward to following your progress as Team NZ gears up for the next America’s Cup campaign. 

Adventures in the Kristin wilderness!
On the 8th of April the whole of Year 6 headed down to the back of the school for a day full of fun and adventure in the wilderness of the Kristin bush. Craftlab was onsite for the day and ran a number of hands-on activities that we rotated around.

The activities included starting a fire to cook our very own home-made donuts, crafting with harakeke, creating and launching rockets, and geocaching around the Kristin campus.

The highlight of the day was when we used all our mahi to prepare and cook our very own hangi, which we then shared together at the end of the day. We had to collect an assortment of materials from the bush to heat the rocks. We foraged for bits of wood, old manuka branches and logs. Others prepared the kai and dug the hole where the food and rocks needed to be placed.

The process of the hangi was the best experience and tasted absolutely amazing! We would like to thank CraftLab NZ, our Year 6 teachers and parent helpers for putting this all together for us.

Suhjung Kim and Karishma Sharma-Barrow (Year 6) 

 

Kristin Productions 2021

Kristin has an unmatched national and international reputation for providing excellence through the performing arts, and in particular through our renowned annual major productions.

Delivering three high quality musical theatre shows a year caters to our performers, technicians and musicians from across all three schools, and facilitates an amazing journey for each student within the walls of our auditorium. In all processes, Kristin students are offered the opportunity on and off stage to learn professional practice, while challenging themselves to step outside of their comfort zone; learning technical and performance specific skills in an uplifting, supportive environment. Each student is supported through their experience by our highly skilled production teams – all of whom are at the top of their fields. It is this nurturing education, given through the art of live theatre, that provides the basis for the successful delivery of each stunning production on our campus.

While the global pandemic continues around the world, theatre has suffered immensely at the hands of quarantines and social gathering limits. Here in New Zealand, we are in a position to produce theatre when many others unfortunately cannot. Even with the disruptions of 2020, Kristin was still proud to produce two live theatrical productions ('Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat' and 'Annie'), in between lockdowns. These two shows were so important in uplifting and reinvigorating the spirit of students and the Kristin community, and affirms our collective belief in the power of the arts, especially in times as troubling as these.

As we look forward to a new chapter, and raise the curtain on a new decade, Kristin is excited to present an extremely diverse range of theatrical offerings as part of our 2021 productions season. We kick off with our Senior School production: the hauntingly beautiful story, 'Blood Brothers', from May 19th-22nd. Following this tragedy, our Middle School presents the classic Dickens tale 'Oliver Jr.', from September 17th-18th. Finally, our Junior School transports us to the barnyard in bringing to life the story of the 'Ugly Duckling: Honk Jr,' on November 19th.

Blood Brothers is the West End’s third longest running musical and is regarded as the ultimate nature versus nurture story. Centred on the Johnstone twins, these two boys are separated at birth and brought up at opposite ends of society in contrasting worlds. Equally gripping, funny and heart-rendering, this promises to be another Kristin Production epic, not to be missed.

We look forward to welcoming you to the Kristin Auditorium in 2021!

Hamish Mouat

Artistic Director of Major Productions

Tickets for Blood Brothers on stage at Kristin from Wednesday 19th – Saturday 22nd May are available at iTicket.co.nz – SEE YOU THERE!