Thank you soooo much for bringing back what I remember from my youth to the Northland Performing Arts Competitions….We appreciated your expertise and your feedback from the floor. We learned a lot.

The Comps have been dying a horrible death, much to my dismay over recent years and for me, this is incredibly upsetting…. I, personally competed in these competitions every year (we combined it with a holiday with my Nanas best friend) and they were competitions to behold! I want to bring that back and was extremely pleased to have the ‘Park’ family arrive and take out most of the competition as it was that – a competition!! Both of my boys were equally impressed and I hope we have sparked, this year the interest and participation they deserve.

I still hold the title (apparently) for the Rose Trophy awarded to the highest aggregate mark for my performance of ‘The Old Place’ by Hone Tuwhare – this was the last time the Speech and Drama section won this – I am 44 and it is time it came back!!

Thank you for your support and I really hope to see you back again – In the meantime, I will do my best to round up more competition to ensure we are back at the Performing Arts Centre with a programme to behold!

Laurene