Three Ashburton College drama students are excited to be heading to the national finals of an annual Shakespeare competition over the Kings' Birthday weekend.

The trio's performance of a short part of Richard III in the Aoraki regional competition held in Timaru landed them a spot in the finals in the five-minute excerpt section at the Sheilah Winn Shakespeare Festival.

Nate Woods and Isabel Wang play Richard and Lady Anne, with Luke Rhodes in the role of Henry VI's corpse in an excerpt from act 1, scene 2.

Head of the college arts faculty Jacqueline Hood said they would have a "very full-on" three days with workshops with theatre professionals on the Friday and two days of performances.

Hood said the Court Theatre Jesters were putting on a local performance of Scared Scriptless this Thursday in the auditorium at Ashburton College to raise money to cover the cost of getting the trio to Wellington.

They need the support of about 250 locals for the entertaining and fun 7pm performance to cover the costs of the production and raise about $3000 toward the trip to Wellington, she said.

Tickets are available from the college office and cost $20.

The young actors said they chose Richard III because it was "the most interesting" with lots of emotion and interesting dialogue.

Woods is most excited about seeing the other school's performances, while Wang is looking forward to the performance the most.

Rhodes is thrilled by the opportunity to attend the workshops and a chance to be selected to take part in the National Shakespeare Schools production, but for all of them the whole three-day trip is a dream-come-true level exciting.

By Sharon Davis