From Aranui to the Globe in London - young drama student rising rapidly

 From Aranui to London, from the rugby fields to the drama stage, Christchurch schoolboy Teone Kahu is rising fast in the world of performance art.

Kahu has been selected to act and train at the Globe Theatre, just along from London Bridge on South Bank, even though he only got into drama just seven months ago. 

Kahu, who recently turned 18 and lives with his family in Lyttelton, is seeking funds to meet costs for the big trip. 

His Aranui High School teacher Robert Gilbert said Kahu has the drama world at his feet.

 Kahu has won the top awards in school productions, won the regional korero speech competition - and came third at the annual NZ korero event. He has a television acting contract, a re-call audition to Toi Whakaari: NZ Drama School, and has just been selected to perform at The Globe Theatre in London in April next year: not bad for a young man who first walked on stage seven months ago.

 Kahu was Aranui’s rugby player of the year and then joined the school’s Theatre Academy in April in the hope he could develop some acting skills and pursue a long-held dream of becoming an actor. Little did he know that dream would come true and he is now on the threshold of something special.

 Earlier this year he was cast in the lead role of the school’s production of Macbeth and entered into the Regional Sheilah Winn Shakespeare Festival just before Easter.  He won the award for excellence in acting, a special award from the Canterbury Shakespeare Society for his role as Macbeth and direct entry to the National Schools’ Shakespeare Production in Dunedin last month.

 At this event, the country’s 40 top high school Shakespearean actors spent a week attending workshops and rehearsals before presenting their final pieces to the public.  Organisers chose just 20 to go on to perform at The Globe Theatre in London next year.  Kahu has just learned he was one of the chosen 20. 

 He has been snapped up by the TV production company, Whitebait and has roles in The Erin Simpson Show, What Now, and more recently, IAMTV.

 ``Teone has a great future and he is capable of going places,’’ Gilbert said.

 Christchurch businesswoman and St George’s Hospital director Cilla Glasson has been mentoring Kahu for three years and she believe he had the potential of a big future.

 ``I have faith in him and that’s why I try to keep him moving forward, looking ahead to goals he can achieve,’’ she said.