The talent of our Performing Arts, Visual Art and Media Studies students was on full display on October 22 at the Arts Awards Dinner at Sorrento in the Park.
There were music, drama and dance performances as well as art works and photography on display and a showing of a brilliant music video.
Reuben Moffet and Sophie Ball, pictured left, were named Dux Artiums at the end of an evening that was MC’ed by Manon Gilbert and Will Poynter.
Reuben is a film-maker and an accomplished dancer and has been part of world champion hip hop crews. Sophie is a top Visual Art student and has won awards for her photography. Performances on the night included Will Poynter and Rafael Bevacqua-Kimi singing Big Black Car by Gregory Alan Isakov; an extract from the Level 3 Drama production of Widows by Ariel Dorfman, performed by Ma’a Pau’u, Danni Sharkey and Akain Karunatillake; a dance item, Matador, pictured below, performed by Harry Bannister, Reuben Moffett, Makaia Quensell and Brooklynn Smith-Boyd; and Olivia Dean’s So Easy (To Fall In Love) sung by Anne-Theresa Napara with Niamh McDowall on keyboards. There was also a screening of Leonna Banzuela’s video for the song Jealous Type by Doja Cat.
During the evening, our Deputy Principal overseeing the Arts, Mrs Cato, acknowledged our former Board of Trustees chairman Greg Moyle for his long support of the school and the arts, and more recently his generous donation of $250,000 towards the new 170-seat Performing Arts Centre at MAGS, which is in the consenting process, with hopes it will be open in 2028.
Apart from the Dux presentations, the other Special Award winners were Ma’a Pau’u for Outstanding Extra-Curricular Representation (Individual), Sophie Ball and Amber Wong for the Bruce Taylor Award for Most Dedicated Arts Student, Manon Gilbert for Excellence in Arts Management, and Will Poynter for Outstanding Arts Service.
