See Jessica's film Pandemonium's Theatre of Grand Emotions and read her reports on Melodrama and the National Barbershop Competition 2003.

Lynne Cardy's one-day workshop that focused on melodramatic themes and classic storylines, exploring performance, story and song.

On the first Sunday of the Youth Arts week, I was required to be at Capital E by 9am! Well, I'm not sure how many of the other students were feeling the effects of the Bledisloe Cup win the night before, but I sure was! And so it seems were Lynne and Margaret Mary who were running the workshop. They missed their flight from Auckland to Wellington. Tsk tsk.

Never mind, the dramatists stood around socialising and chatting while I waited for my mum to bring me some videotape because Garth had intelligently informed me I didn't need it. Cheers Garth. Moral of the story? Never trust technicians.

Moving on, it was straight into introductions when Lynne and Margaret Mary (MM) arrived. The workshop began to focus once everyone had loosened up a bit and relaxed. First up was a quick discussion of what melodrama was. Malca likened it to silent films; bad piano music, girl tied up on train tracks, and a bad guy with a mo. While others described it as "in your face" acting, really obvious and tragic. Lynne gave us examples of melodrama seen on television today such as Shortland Street, Moulin Rouge, and Titanic.

Then there was the practical side: actually acting. Lynne dreamed up a handful of scenes and got various people up to act them up. Everyone had at least one part to play in every scene. Some examples of scenes that we acted out are:

• an emotional reunion at a train station only to discover the characters are about to be separated due to the Great War, and
• a firing squad.

The one that brought out the best acting in everyone who performed was set in revolutionary times and they had to play a prisoner about to face their death.

After all this, the students were getting rather hungry so off we toddled to lunch. I went around and talked to a group of 11-13 year olds from St Cuthbert's School in Auckland. When I asked them if they were having fun I got such a reply I couldn't actually make out words. However, I got the gist of it: yup they were having a fantastic time! The girls were really enjoying themselves and this was really the essential part of the session.

Once everyone had been feed and watered, it was time to split the students up. They were told to work out a melodramatic storyline, no longer than a few minutes, by 2pm. So no pressure guys! But the students bounded away full of ideas and energy.

Whoosh! And what storylines. Lynne and Margaret Mary went around offering ideas and direction for the dress rehearsal. Strong themes emerged such as anger, hate, and grief, which were really quite ideal, as most melodramas are tragedies.

Bullying, school shootings, death, and prostitution were the order of the day, with most resulting in someone getting kicked out of the family home. But thankfully, there was one happy scene – a reunion between mother and daughter. Good times.

Now it was off to the Ilott Theatre at the Town Hall to do it for real. There was a decent amount of people in the theatre to watch. The performers performed their performances brilliantly. Not a hiccup anywhere. They got a few laughs and they all showed off their talents to a loving audience. Well done guys you were fabulous. Click onto the window to see two of the performances.

It's official. Tawa College from Wellington cannot be beaten at barbershop. The National College Barbershop Competition was held on the 18th of August at the Town Hall and Tawa College ended up taking home all the spoils thanks to incredible performances of their four groups entered.

Barbershop is a fun, lively, and unaccompanied style of singing. It is characterised by harmonic four part chords for every melody note. The melody is not sung by the highest voice (soprano or tenor) as usual. Instead, it is sung by the second highest voice. This is called the lead. The tenors are a third above, the basses an octave below, and the baritone pick up the fourth note to make up the chord.

The National Barbershop Competition is held in tandem with the National Choral Festival and is growing in stature every year. A quartet from Hawaii even came over to compete, as Hawaii has no barbershop contest like this.

This year's competition is made up of nine male quartets and 13 female quartets, and 16 choruses, separated into male and female. To get into the Nationals, quartets and choruses must first come in the top three at Regionals. The regions involved were Auckland, Waikato/Bay of Plenty, Wellington, and Christchurch.

There were seven judges in total. Four for the female sections and three for the male. The judges were looking for specific factors to be present in all performances such as ringing chords, good vocal quality, suitability of the song to the ability of the group, artistic performances, singing from the heart and the ability of the group to "involve" their audience in the song lyrics.

Though the contest took the whole day with a break for lunch, it certainly wasn't short of entertainment, not only from the singers themselves but also from MC, Kaye Vaka'uta. Kaye got everyone involved by creating Mexican wave style applause and urging more and more noise when the singers came out.

Not yet satisfied by coming first in all sections at regionals, Tawa College dominated at Nationals. They took first place in both male and female quartets, with the Musical Island Boys (MIB) and Take Note, and in both male and female choruses with the Acafellas and Maiden Tawa, all directed and coached by Ms Charlotte Murray.

While competition was tough in the female sections, it was obvious that the MIBs would be unbeatable by the time they finished their first song, Best Dressed. That song was quite appropriate as the guys, dressed all in black, looked incredibly smart and were indeed the best dressed. After the next song, "Bill Bailey Medley", Tawa students just went nuts at the back of the hall.

Although the Three Big Macs and the Small Fries from MacLeans College and Johnnies Angels from St Johns College all had awesome performances, the MIBs, having just won third place in the national men's contest, stood out and were a crowd favourite. So were Acafellas, the male chorus group complete with choreographed moves.

With around 100 students singing for Tawa they didn't find it difficult to create a huge racket. With each announcement of first place the back of the hall erupted with cheers, yells, whistles, and woohoos.

All in all, it was a terrific display of young New Zealanders musical talents and the effort put in, by not only the singers themselves but their coaches and directors as well. Well done everyone who sang and congratulations to Tawa College for once again setting the standard for barbershop singing.