It’s been five years between major shows, but Musical Theatre Ōamaru (MTO) is back with a bang, bringing family favourite School of Rock to the stage.

The Covid pandemic has meant a major musical has not been put on by the group since Mamamia in 2018, MTO president and School of Rock production manager Melissa Yockney said. 

“We try to do one every two or three years, it just got too hard, basically, trying to deal with Covid. I mean, we’re still trying to deal with it now, but on a slightly different scale.

“Obviously School of Rock is a great show for the kids, but also the adults who have been crying out for a major production.”

The musical is based on the hit movie starring Jack Black, and follows Dewey Finn, a wannabe rock star who decides to earn an extra bit of cash by posing as a substitute teacher at a prestigious prep school. 

He turns a class of straight-A pupils into a rock band, and attempts to get them to Battle of the Bands without their parents and the school finding out.

Auditions were held in March, and rehearsals for the cast of 14 children and 19 adults “kicked off” properly in April school holidays.

“Obviously a lot of background goes on months and months prior,” Melissa said.

School of Rock was chosen, after members of MTO saw it performed in Queenstown last year.

“We thought that was a really neat one to incorporate the kids - particularly our youth theatre, which we’ve had going for 10 years now - bring them in to do a major production.” 

Timaru director Alice Sollis has been travelling south regularly to attend rehearsals. 

Originally from Otematata and Twizel, she spent her high school years boarding at Teschemakers, and her late parents retired to Oamaru from Twizel in 1985.

"So Oamaru is like a second home town to me," she said.

Alice was first on stage as a dancer with the South Canterbury Drama League in the 1980s, directed her first show in the late 90s, and has more than 70 major musical productions under her belt.

"This is my first time directing for MTO, and they have been so supportive and professional, understanding the demands and challenges of putting together a major musical," she said.

Playing the part of Dewey Finn, is Waitaki Boys’ High School performing arts teacher Uatesoni Felikitonga. Uatesoni trained at Wellington’s Toi Whakaari New Zealand Drama school, Melissa said.

“So we’re really excited to have him on board.” 



There is other “fantastic local talent” who have been involved before, plus a lot of new faces, including children.

“So this is the first time we’ve had proper auditions for the children, so for youth theatre previously, they haven’t auditioned per se, but this was an open callout for auditions, and we’ve got some great new kids we haven’t met before, which is wonderful.”

Melissa said the children were doing “brilliantly”.

“It has been intense, I think . . . We’re in a good place, rehearsal-wise, which is fantastic. They’ve put in a lot of work.”

Regular rehearsals at the Opera House allowed everybody to get used to the space, and meant everything could run more smoothly come opening night.

“It’s still exciting, yes, but that intense excitement has already happened, because they’re already used to the space, and it also means when it comes to doing our dress rehearsals and things like that, they’ll know how long it’s going to take them to get from their changing room to the stage and all that sort of thing. 

“So, it’s been really wonderful of the Opera House to give us this opportunity to have access.”

Ticket sales have been steady, and Melissa encouraged people to get in quickly to secure good seats and avoid missing out.

“We’re happy with how sales are going. It’s important for locals to support the locals doing this, because it’s a lot of hard work - a lot of time, hours, blood, sweat, tears.”

There are still finishing touches to be added to the set, and Melissa said if there were people who wanted to help volunteer backstage, they were always on the look out.

“It’s a small group of people doing a lot of stuff.”  

The band is made up of seven local musicians, many who had been involved in previous musicals, and are “brilliant”, she said.

The show promised “high energy, great rock music, but some beautiful poignant moments as well”.

“Great fun for the whole family - kids and adults alike. The children are definitely the stars of the show, but it’s not a kids’ show.”

School of Rock is on at the Ōamaru Opera House from July 5 to July 8. Tickets are available from the Ōamaru Opera House website.