Newspaper Article 2017 – Teacher bows out from stage productions

Teacher bows out from stage productions

By Ruby Harfield
[email protected]

A Hastings school theatre dignitary will be on set for the last time this week.

Hastings Girls’ High School history teacher Alan Powdrell is directing his last school production, Oliver, which starts tomorrow.

Mr Powdrell will be retiring from his 40-year-long teaching position at the end of the year which also means he will be ending his long involvement with school productions.

The Napier-born man has spent at least 30 years immersed in theatre at the school and has directed the biennial school musical with Hastings’ Boys High School for the last six or so years.

Mr Powdrell said he would miss the feeling of accomplishment and enjoyment of working with young people in theatre.

“I’m going to miss that hugely.

“Young people are so much more interesting than old people.”

In theatre, the development of a student is much more noticeable than throughout their five years at school, he said.

A production is a short period of time where a student go [goes] from stumbling through their lines and looking lost on stage to being fantastic in a show, Mr Powdrell said.

“It’s incredibly exciting to see that development.

“It’s just incredibly rewarding, you get so much out of it. They really do appreciate the chance to be in it.”

Mr Powdrell may not completely leave theatre, as he is considering becoming involved in some way with youth theatre when he leaves the school at the end of the year.

“That is something I am interested in, that would be one way of keeping in contact with young people,” he said.

The history teacher first “got the bug” for drama about the time he started teaching, and joined the Hastings Light Opera Company, which no longer exists.

“It’s just incredibly rewarding, you get so much out of it. They really do appreciate the chance to be in it.”Hastings Girls’ High School teacher Alan Powdrell

He then had a 25-year involvement with Hastings Group Theatre, which amalgamated with Playhouse Theatre – which is now Theatre Hawke’s Bay.

He was also one of the founders of National Youth Drama School and only stopped being part of it four years ago.

“I spend [spent] a lot of years involved with that, it was a big part of my life.”

His attraction to the theatre was sparked from a need to have a creative outlet.

“I became very passionate about it, I became overzealous, really over-the-top.

I have calmed down, although the girls [students] don’t think that.”

Mr Powdrell has been part of countless school productions, mainly as director or producer, and each one has been memorable.

“There’s always something about a show that stands out, an actor or scene or song,” he said.

Oliver will be great this year due to a lot of standout students who have been doing some “pretty amazing” things, the director said.

Although he will not be involved in the next musical he hopes to have front-row seats to watch it.

Mr Powdrell decided to retire at the end of the year so he can spend more time with his wife at their home in Havelock North, and he hopes to walk the 700km El Camino de Santiago in Spain (or at least some of it) with her.

Oliver is being staged in the Hastings Girls’ High School hall from tomorrow until Friday, at 7.30pm.

Photo captions –

GOODBYE: Director Alan Powdrell on the set of Hastings Girls’ and Hastings Boys’ high schools’ production Oliver, which will be his last.
PHOTO/Warren Buckland

FAREWELL: Nancy (Neve Duff) is carried out by the cast, during a dress rehearsal last night for the musical Oliver, being performed by Hastings Girls’ and Hastings Boys’ high schools this week.    PHOTO/Warren Buckland