Some of the Upper Clutha’s youngest talent will take centre stage during this month’s Festival of Colour.

Past and present Te Kura o Tititea Mount Aspiring College (MAC) students and teachers have come together to create ‘Elephant Talk’, a play which captures life’s awkward moments.

At the heart of Elephant Talk is the idea of representing normal, everyday moments that people don’t usually want to talk about, Elephant Talk co-director and MAC head of arts Emily McRae said.

“The key thing about it is normalising awkwardness by setting up awkwardness in the scenes that are witnessed and some moments in between,” Emily told the Wānaka App.

Creating Elephant Talk has been a huge team effort across the school community.

It is written by five MAC graduates and produced by another; directed by Emily along with Anna Shaw, MAC’s former head of drama; features actors from a range of year levels; and its music has been composed by the Year 13 MAC music class under the musical direction of head of music Mat Doyle.

Year 10 MAC student Caitlyn Tooley said being part of Elephant Talk has been an “amazing opportunity”.

“I'm grateful that juniors have been given a chance to be a part of a production like this and work with seniors. One of the things, in particular, I loved, was being a part of the workshopping and making of the scripts. I had never done anything like that before and it was a cool experience. 

“It has helped me gain confidence in acting. I have learnt and am still learning all the layers that need to be added to create a scene that is appealing to the audience.”

Emily thanked the Festival of Colour team for giving the students the opportunity to be a part of the festival.

“We are very grateful to the Wānaka Festival of Colour team for their continued support of our young people, enabling them to experience a professional festival environment.”

Tickets for Elephant Talk are available at the Festival of Colour website, along with the full festival programme. Book your tickets here.

IMAGE: Supplied