The overall winners of this event held last Wednesday at St Pius X High School, Adamstown were St Clare's High School, Taree.

Dio-Theatre Sports is a high pressure improvisation drama event that sees students from Years 9 - 11 at schools in the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle come together in teams of four to use their quick thinking and creative skills and knowledge to put together a short entertaining performance.

With students only given the topic or title of their performance moments before they get on stage and only ten seconds to put together a performance, students are judged on three sets of criteria - entertainment, plot and technical - with scores for each criteria ranging between 0 and 5.

“The drama students really inspired me with their bravery and willingness to share their performances in front of what could have been an intimidating audience of their peers,” said Sandra Demamiel, organiser of this year’s event who is a teacher at St Joseph's College, Lochinvar.

“Their quick thinking and team work skills were fantastic and their performances were of such a high standard that they could easily take them on a national tour.

“It is a wonderful opportunity for drama students from other schools to mix together and share a like-minded love of drama and also view and appreciate other student’s performances and talents.”

The day consists of three rounds, each with two possible game options and varying time lengths. In the first round, students will be given either a location and prop they must use in their scene or an imaginary product for which they must conjure up a sales pitch within a 50 second time limit.

Round two is made up of 1 minute 20 second sections of either Shared Story Mixed Genre or First Line, Last line. Shared Story Mixed Genre sees the group given a title and each player in the group a different genre, with each player needing to incorporate the elements of their genre into the narrative as they perform. First Line, Last line sees the group given the first and last line of their scene which they must use at the relevant times.

Round three sees students perform sections for 1 minute and 20 seconds in either the Typewriter or Papers categories. In Typewriter rounds, the group is given the title of their narrative while one player sits to the side and acts as the typist, narrating the story for the rest of the group to perform. Papers sees each performer in the group given a piece of paper with a random line. During the narrative players must announce their line and the group needs to adapt their performance accordingly.

"The Theatre Sports competition is one of the highlights of my calendar," said Anna Kerrigan, Artistic Director of ASPIRE and this year's judge of entertainment.

"The standard of the participants was exceptionally high this year. All the scenes had strong plots and the performers were committed and worked incredibly well together in their teams."

Congratulations to all those who took part. Results were as follows:

Year 9

First: St Joseph's College, Lochinvar

Second: St Pius X High School, Adamstown Group 1

Third: ASC, St Peter's Campus, Maitland and St Pius X High School, Adamstown Group 2

Year 10

First: St Clare's High School, Taree Group 1

Second: St Clare's High School, Taree Group 2

Equal Third: San Clemente High School, Mayfield Group 1 and San Clemente High School Group 2

Year 11

Equal First: St Clare's High School, Taree Group 1 and ASC, St Mary's Campus, Maitland Group 1

Third: St Clare's High School, Taree Group 2

Overall Winners

First: St Clare's High School, Taree

Second: All Saints College

Third: St Joseph's High School, Aberdeen