Year 10 student, Abby O’Donoghue, recently travelled overseas to represent New Zealand in an international musical theatre festival held in Newcastle, Australia.  Abby was chosen as part of a group from Northern School of Performing Arts where she is a dance, voice and theatre student.  They performed a 15 minute excerpt from ‘ELF the Musical’ as well as showcased a yet to be released Broadway Junior title for an audience of more than 2,000 musical theatre students from across Australia and beyond.  In addition to their adjudication performance, they attended challenging singing, dancing and acting workshops taught by industry professionals from Disney, Broadway and the West End.

It was a huge honour and wonderful opportunity to learn from the best and make new friendships.  Abby’s group was the first to represent NZ at this event and they have set the bar high – coming home with the top prize of Outstanding Production.