What position do you hold at the University of Auckland? What has been your career path so far?
I’ve recently finished my Ph.D. in Drama, which examined the overseas performances and journeys of New Zealand theatre – what plays have represented New Zealand internationally, and how have they been received? It’s an exciting time as I have the satisfaction of completing this odyssey and looking at opportunities as to where I can go next in my academic career.
While I’ve been studying the Drama program and University have also given me a lot of teaching opportunities. One of my favorites is the ‘Performing Medicine’ class that I’ve taught for three years as part of the Medical Humanities program.
I take a class of third-year doctors-in-training and throw a whole lot of medically themed drama exercises and plays at them. They love being able to do something active and creative that is quite different to their usual studies. This Semester I’m also leading “Taking the Stage: Performance and Presentation Skills” which is a brand new Drama course that takes students through public speaking, acting and inhabiting a character, and devised group performance.
One thing that Drama teaches you is that you have to be resourceful. There is no one clear career pathway, and you have to make a lot of your own opportunities. I produce and direct for my Theatre Company Theatre of Love, I run a devising group for members of the University drama club, and I’m also a theatre critic. All of these different areas feed into my academic and professional practice.
Why is doing Drama so valuable?
I actually think everyone should be exposed to drama! One of the things I love is the mix of the intellectual and theory and the heart and the practical. As actors, you literally walk in other people’s shoes and gain insight into other perspectives (and learn a bit more about yourself in the process). In Drama we talk about big human themes, desires, and issues.
I also think that the skills you learn in Drama, like being able to creatively adapt, work together, and tell great stories, are skills you need to survive in an age of precarity and increasing automation. You don’t know what jobs will look like in the future, but being imaginative, creative, and confident will help prepare you for anything.
I am especially passionate about devised theatre, which you will get to explore on the Drama Tools course, where the team explores an idea and concept together, working out what the story is and how to best tell this theatrically – all sorts of unexpected, wonderful moments can emerge!
What does your country’s culture value that is taught in your program?
In some ways, New Zealand is one of the best countries in the world to make theatre. While sustaining a career is always difficult, there aren’t many barriers if you want to put a team together, get programmed by an affordable theatre, and put on a show. From New Zealand’s rural background we get the concept of the ‘number 8 wire’ mentality – we are flexible, and can do great things with not very much.
As an ex-British colony in the South Pacific, we have been exposed to a range of different theatrical cultures and traditions – and have also developed our own. New Zealand makes incredibly strong local theatre - you will learn about some of the unique New Zealand and Pacific approaches to theatre, and get to see some of it!
Did you study abroad?! If so, where and what inspired you to go?
As my Ph.D. was on New Zealand Theatre’s Overseas Experience, I was determined that I would also get to travel as part of it! I received some funding to go to London in 2015 to see a New Zealand show (Generation of Z – about a zombie apocalypse!) that was playing there at the time and also interview some artists.
I love going to different countries and sampling their theatre – what they are performing can give you a lot of clues into the psyche of a particular place! I’d be very keen to hear what visitors coming here make of ours.
Describe a time when you felt especially proud to be a part of the University of Auckland team.
There’s lots to be proud about. I love it in class when students make discoveries about what they are capable of as performers. I’m always proud when I see students come through the Drama program and go on to get work on TV and stage. I’m probably proudest when I see them making or writing their own work and getting it staged!
Tell us about one of the shows that you’ve made.
For the 2017 Auckland Fringe I challenged the Devising Group to make an interactive choose-your-own adventure theatre story. We called it “Are You Sure?”.
Audiences began in a huge concrete silo at Wynyard Quarter by the harbor (a must visit destination if you’re coming to Auckland!) where they meet three characters who are part of a rebel group called the seekers. The audience chooses to follow one of these characters, and they are taken on various missions around the location and local streets.
There are surprises and double-crosses, and it ends with a Kayak chase on the water! But the trick was that because the outcome is determined by the choices the audience make during the show, none of our endings were ever exactly the same! It was highly demanding on our actors who had to be ready for anything, but they pulled it off brilliantly.
