No less than an astonishing 43 Toi graduates, students and staff members are taking part in this year’s New Zealand International Arts Festival, across seven shows that range from Shakespeare in te reo to world premiere grand opera.

Whether acting on stage (Hohepa, Peninsula, Tu, The Maori Troilus and Cressida), directing and coaching (Peninsula, Masi), script-writing (Frequently Asked Questions), or working behind the scenes as techs and designers (Peninsula, Masi, Michael James Manaia) – our graduates are once again proving that Toi Whakaari: NZ Drama School is absolutely integral to the versatility and excellence of the arts in New Zealand as a whole.

Toi Movement tutor Tom McCrory is particularly busy with Masi, the new show from Production Company The Conch, which he runs with his wife Nina Nawalowalo. Toi Grad and Acting Tutor Nathaniel Lees returns with Taki Rua’s Michael James Manaia; and the much-loved actor and Toi grad Rawiri Paratene (Acting, 1972) is so popular he is starring in no less than three Festival shows – The Māori Troilus and Cressida, Jenny McLeod’s new opera Hōhepa, and the block-buster Stravinsky concert with the NZSO that opens the whole festival on Friday the 24^th.

And not forgetting the number of Toi grads working behind the scenes at the festival itself! Natasha James, Production Manager: Sophie Dowson, Production Assistant; and Marketing Assistant Heather O’Carroll, who also has a part in the Irish Pan Pan Theatre Company production of The Rehearsal, Playing the Dane.

And here is the full list of shows that Toi people are involved in:

HOHEPA

Presented by The NBR New Zealand Opera and the New Zealand International Arts Festival

A powerful story, spine-tingling staging and our finest operatic talent all come together in this new New Zealand opera from acclaimed composer Jenny McLeod.

The tragic true story of Maori chief Hohepa Te Umuroa. In a production of sweeping scale, we travel from the fertile earth of the Hutt Valley and the barren brutality of Tasmania’s Maria Island penal colony to the Whanganui River in the 1980s – the sacred journey and battle to reunite him with the soil of his homeland.

This groundbreaking new work features an outstanding 17-strong cast of New Zealand’s most renowned opera singers, including Phillip Rhodes, Jonathan Lemalu, Martin Snell and Jenny Wollerman, with director Sara Brodie and Marc Taddei conducting the Vector Wellington Orchestra.

OPENS 15 March

WHERE Opera House

TOI WHAKAARI GRADS (ACTING): Rawiri Paratene

THE MAORI TROILUS AND CRESSIDA

Ngākau Toa (New Zealand)

The famous Shakespeare tragedy – in Te Reo Maori.

Set during the Trojan wars, Troilus and Cressida follows the love between a Trojan prince and maiden and features struggles of power, hierarchy and honour between some of history’s greatest characters. Immediately following the festival it will be travelling on to London to represent New Zealand at the international Globe to Globe festival – an unprecedented programme at London’s Globe Theatre of 37 multi-lingual Shakespeare productions from around the world.

Adapted by Ngākau Toa, with a new translation by Te Haumiata Mason and featuring a host of our most respected Maori actors making up the cast. Rawiri Paratene (Whale Rider) stars as Pandarus.

OPENS 9 March

WHERE Te Papa Amphitheatre

TOI WHAKAARI GRADS (ACTING): Juanita Hepi, Waimihi Hotere, Rachel House (directing), Matu Ngaropo, Rawiri Paratene, Maaka Pohatu, James Tito, Calvin Tuteao

PENINSULA

Circa Theatre

Playwright Gary Henderson takes a touching, bittersweet look at life in the 1960s in this beautifully crafted play about a small town community on Banks Peninsula.

Michael Hope is ten years old and sleeps on a volcano. This is his playground, his paradise. But tremors begin to shake his idyll as rumblings in the adult world encroach into Michael’s life, erupting, and throwing his universe into a chaos that will change him forever.

A richly emotional journey that touches on adult issues and events in the midst of childhood. Although the story of Peninsula is fictional, Henderson says the places and some of the incidental anecdotes are real; it is a nod to a time and a place that was a step on the way to here and now.

OPENS 25 February

WHERE Circa Theatre

TOI WHAKAARI GRADS (ACTING): Michele Amas, Paul McLaughlin, Jane Waddell (directing)

TOI WHAKAARI GRADS (TECH): Alana Kelly, Ellis Thorpe

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

TO BE OR NOT TO BE, ETC.

Royale Productions (New Zealand)

Celebrated actor Michael Hurst joins forces with two of New Zealand’s freshest young writers in this innovative new solo work, set in the Shakespearean afterlife.

In Frequently Asked Questions an insomniac called Hamlet discovers a script documenting the end of his life, and begins some serious late-night soul-searching. ‘What a piece of work is a man?’ ‘To be, or not to be?’ These are his FAQs. And Hamlet can’t sleep until he knows.

WHEN 2 – 11 March 2pm & 8pm

WHERE Downstage Theatre

TOI WHAKAARI GRADS (ACTING): Natalie Medlock, Dan Musgrove (script-writing)

MICHAEL JAMES MANAIA

Taki Rua (New Zealand)

20 years after it burst onto the stages of the world, writer John Broughton’s iconic piece of Kiwi theatre returns for its Festival encore.

Michael James Manaia is a poignant story about a New Zealand man who, after returning from the Vietnam War, finds himself at odds with his culture, his history and his memories.  Directed by Nathaniel Lees and starring Te Kohe Tuhaka in the title role, this new vision of the story crosses the generations.

WHEN 25 – 4 March

WHERE Downstage Theatre

TOI WHAKAARI GRADS (ACTING): Te Kohe Tuhaka

TOI WHAKAARI GRADS (TECH): Amber Maxwell, Nathan McKendry, Daniel Williams

TOI WHAKAARI STAFF: Nathaniel Lees, Lisa Maule

TU

Tawata Productions (New Zealand)

Patricia Grace’s award-winning novel is the inspiration for this powerful return to the stage by celebrated playwright and director Hone Kouka (I, George Nepia, Waiora, The Prophet).

Weaving together text and image, Tu is an epic tale set against 1940s Wellington, the battlefields of Monte Cassino and post-war Te Tairawhiti on the North Island’s East Coast. With Kirk Torrance starring as Tu, this is a majestic story of love, redemption, whānau and brotherhood.

WHEN 1 – 7 March 2pm & 7pm

WHERE Pipitea Marae

TOI WHAKAARI GRADS (ACTING): Tina Cook, Erina Daniels, Ahi Karunaharan, Tola Newbery, Jarod Rawiri, Jason Te Kare, Kirk Torrance, Matariki Whatarau, Aroha White

MASI

The Conch (New Zealand/UK/Fiji)

The Conch Theatre’s much-anticipated follow up to the international hit Vula, Masi grows from a unique collaboration between artistic director Nina Nawalowalo, legendary British illusionist Paul Kieve (the only magic advisor to the Harry Potter films), and an explosive ensemble of six male Fijian dancers.

In 1950s New Zealand a young nurse, the daughter of Cambridge-educated public schoolmasters, met and fell in love with a Fijian high chief from the island of Kadavu. These were Nawalowalo’s parents. Their romance was captured by then budding photographer Ans Westra: and Masi is a love story in black and white, interweaving the meaning of Fijian Tapa cloth with their remarkable story. A rich journey exploring the themes of loss, memory and the tracing of the lines that make us who we are.

WHEN   2 – 6 March

WHERE Soundings Theatre, Te Papa

TOI WHAKAARI GRADS (ACTING): Victoria Abbott, Salesi Le’ota

TOI WHAKAARI GRADS (TECH): Lucie Camp, Pat McIntosh

TOI WHAKAARI STAFF: Lisa Maule, Tom McCrory, Tony Toufexis

TOI WHAKAARI STUDENTS ON SECONDMENT: Zarn Borgers, Lucinda Hare, Oliver Morse, Joe Newman, Manuel Soloman, Tameka Sowman, Alex Tarrant

For more information see festival.co.nz

James has been on the board of Toi Whakaari since 2007. Chairman of Partners at Wellington-based law firm Rainey Collins and former Chair of the New Zealand Law Foundation, he is a lawyer with  expertise in commercial and business law and has extensive experience in Treaty of Waitangi Settlement Negotiations and governance. He holds a number of positions including Lead Legal Counsel for the Ngati Porou negotiations with the Crown, Advisory Trustee for the Porou Ariki Trust, and is an external Specialist Advisor on to the Ministry of Justice Legal Aid Services Group.

 As a former Youth Advocate James also has a particular interest in youth justice and restorative justice principles, particularly as they pertain to young Maori, and has spoken about that to the United Nations as well as training Youth Court judges.

Of Ngati Porou descent and originally from Gisborne, he also has a strong sporting background, being a talented swimmer and rugby player and also involved in rugby coaching and administration.

James is passionate about Toi Whakaari and its place as New Zealand’s pre-eminent drama school. He has found serving on the board to date an interesting and rewarding experience, and says of his appointment as Chair: “I look forward to working with the Board and Director Christian Penny to oversee the implementation of the recently completed Strategic Plan”.

We are delighted to have his experience and expertise at the helm of Toi.

Currently lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Auckland, she burst onto the scene at the age of just 26 with her first collection of stories, Not her Real Name, which went on to win Best First Book at the Montana Book Awards and the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize in the UK. She has since written a variety of novels and short fiction, and hosts the book review programme The Good Word on TVNZ7.

Click here for the full story on the Arts Foundation website.

The awards ceremony was held on Sunday 4 December at Wellington’s Opera House, and Toi grads featured large among them including Jason Te Kare who won Toi Whakaari’s own award (in conjunction with Victoria University of Wellington) for Most Promising Director of the Year. His show I George Nepia, about the Kiwi rugby legend, also swept up the Chapman Tripp Award for Production of the Year and awards for other Toi graduates Jarod Rawiri and Hone Kouka: Jennifer Ludlam won the Chapman Tripp Actress of the Year and Michele Amas the EAT Wellington Accolade for Outstanding Performance, for their roles in the dysfunctional family drama  August: Osage County; and Simon Leary was pronounced the Most Promising Male Newcomer of the Year for Mates & Lovers, based on Chris Brickell’s history of gay male New Zealand.

Congratulations to all our graduate winners:

Toi Whakaari: NZ Drama School & Victoria University of Wellington Award for
Most Promising Director of the Year
Jason Te Kare – I, George Nepia

The Museum Hotel Award for Director of the Year
Jason Te Kare – I, George Nepia

The ProActors and Gail Cowan Management Award for Actor of the Year
Jarod Rawiri – I, George Nepia

Chapman Tripp Theatre Award for Actress of the Year
Jennifer Ludlam – August: Osage County

Downstage Theatre Award for the Most Promising Male Newcomer of the Year
Simon K Leary – Mates & Lovers

Emerging Artist Trust Wellington Accolade for Outstanding Performance
Michele Amas – August: Osage County

Chapman Tripp Award for Production of the Year
I, George Nepia – Tawata Productions co-founded by graduate Hone Kouka.

For the full list of Toi nominees, please click here.

Not only that, but two of his plays are short-listed in the “Best Play” category in the Script Writers Awards of New Zealand 2011 – Sheep, and On the Upside Down of the World, based on the memoirs of the intrepid young wife of New Zealand’s first chief justice, Lady Mary Ann Martin.

The Bruce Mason Award, named for New Zealand’s most famous playwright (The End of the Golden Weather, The Pohutakawa Tree), was founded by the Bruce Mason Estate in 1983, a year after his death, and has since become one of the most coveted script-writing awards in the country with past winners that include many other Toi grads also – David Geary, Hone Kouka and Michael Galvin among them. Set up specifically to recognise early success in the winner’s career and encourage continued exploration of the theatre medium, it grants a $10,000 cash prize and is decided by a panel of leading Artistic Directors and Script Advisors throughout New Zealand.

The judges recognised Meek’s dedication as a playwright and the quality of his work, that ranges from The Cottage of 2006 (set in the toilet stalls of a scandalous local gay club) and On the conditions and possibilities of Helen Clark taking me as her young lover, to Charles Darwin: Collapsing Creation  for the worldwide 150^th anniversary celebrations of  On the Origin of Species and the hugely popular  On The Upside-Down of the World.

He is also busy as an actor, working on The Almighty Johnsons; Nothing Trivial and Underbelly, and currently shooting a guest-starring role in the fourth season of TVNZ’s Go Girls.

See below for the full list of past winners of the Bruce Mason Award, and here for the full media release from Playmarket.

*Image: Wallace Chapman

BRUCE MASON AWARD: PREVIOUS WINNERS

1983 Fiona Farrell

1984 Simon O’Connor

1985 Stephanie Johnston

1986 Rosie Scott

1987 Sarah Delahunty

1988 Stuart Hoar

1989 James Beaumont

1990 John Broughton

1991 David Geary (Toi Whakaari Graduate)

1992 Hone Kouka (Toi Whakaari Graduate)

1993 Vivienne Plumb

1994 Duncan Sarkies

1995 Briar Grace Smith

1996 John Vakidis (Toi Whakaari Graduate)

1997 Jo Randerson (current Toi Whakaari student)

1998 Oscar Kightley

1999 Toa Fraser

2000 Stuart McKenzie

2001 Victor Rodger (Toi Whakaari Graduate)

2002 Mitch Tawhi Thomas (Toi Whakaari Graduate)

2003 no award

2004 no award

2005 no award

2006 Albert Belz

2007 Michael Galvin (Toi Whakaari Graduate)

2008 Paul Rothwell (Toi Whakaari Graduate)

2009 Pip Hall

2010 Eli Kent

2011 Arthur Meek (Toi Whakaari Graduate)

Toi Whakaari acting student Alex Tarrant is the recipient of the 2012 Museum Art Hotel Scholarship in association with Shakespeare Globe Centre New Zealand, awarded every year to an acting student of Toi Whakaari who has also participated in the Shakespeare Festivals organised by the SGCNZ. Alex, 20, has just completed his second year of study in the Bachelor of Performing Arts (Acting) at Toi Whakaari: NZ Drama School, and joins an illustrious list of past winners that include Dan Musgrove (Underbelly: Land of the Long Green Cloud) and Brooke Williams (Shortland Street), as well as Dan Caddy (Reservoir Hill) and Angela Green (Associate Producer at Downstage).

Alex himself hails from Morrinsville, and is of Nuiean, Maori and Samoan descent. His passion for acting developed at Hamilton’s Fraser High School, and blossomed at the SGCNZ Regional and National Shakespeare Festivals before he decided to audition for Toi Whakaari in 2009, performing recently in such productions as The Roaring Girl and the Toi Cabaret Season of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.

The award will cover his third-year course fees and a contribution towards living costs, totalling almost $6,500, and Alex is ecstatic about it:

“This award only makes me more determined to reach my full potential. It’s like a push on my back.”

Chris Parkin, of the Museum Hotel, is equally delighted. He has sponsored the award for eleven years now and says of the recipients, all of whom have since forged a career in the drama world: “I look forward to seeing their name in lights, knowing I have helped them on their way.”

For Alex, that means spending the summer as an intern with The Conch Theatre Company in Auckland, before going on to perform in their production for the 2012 New Zealand International Arts Festival, Masi. One to watch!

Photo: Alex Tarrant, Dawn Sanders (SGCNZ) and Chris Parkin (Museum Hotel) at the presentation of the award at the Toi Whakaari: NZ Drama School Graduation Ceremony on Thursday 10 November.

The Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards honour Wellington’s best on and off stage talent, their contribution to the arts and the community. Established in 1992 and sponsored by law firm Chapman Tripp, the prestigious awards are the main highlight of Wellington’s art and social calendar. The annual presentations also recognise important contributions to the arts and the community. The winners are selected by a panel of Wellington theatre critics and the awards are presented at a glittering ceremony in at the Wellington Opera House, Sunday 4 December 2011.

Toi Whakaari graduates number almost half of the total of 52 nominees, and congratulations also to Teina Moetara, Head of Context and Practice, whose show Hear To See (written with Sara Brodie), which ran at Capital E over March 2011, has been entered in two categories: Brancott Estate Award for Most Original Production of the Year and Constance Scott Kirkcaldie Award for Outstanding Composer of Music (Richard Nunns).

Toi graduate actors, in particular, dominate the nominations for Most Promising Male Newcomer of the Year, Supporting Actress of the Year, and the Outstanding Performances and Actor/Actress of the Year categories: and Toi directors also feature largely – two out of the three competing – for Director of the Year.

The full list of Toi nominees:

Brancott Estate Award for Most Original Production of the Year
Hear to See – Capital E National Theatre for Children (written by Sara Brodie and Teina Moetara, Toi Whakaari’s Head of Context & Practice)

Downstage Theatre Award for the Most Promising Male Newcomer of the Year
Simon K Leary – Mates & Lovers
James Tito – Awhi Tapu

Circa Award Donated by TACT for the Most Promising Female Newcomer of the Year
Chelsea Bognuda – Eight

Toi Whakaari: NZ Drama School & Victoria University of Wellington Award for Most Promising Director of the Year
Jason Te Kare – I, George Nepia (also nominated for Director of the Year and Production of the Year)

Grouse Lighting Award for Lighting Designer of the Year
Nathan McKendry – Awhi Tapu

Park Road Post Production Sound Designer of the Year
Thomas Press – Awhi Tapu

Constance Scott Kirkcaldie Award for Outstanding Composer of Music
Miriama Ketu-McKenzie – I, George Nepia

Peter Harcourt Award for Outstanding New Playwright of the Year

Sponsored by Bats Theatre & Taki Rua Productions
Sophie Roberts and Chelsie Preston-Crayford – Broken China

The Playmarket / Capital E National Theatre for Children – Outstanding New New Zealand Play of the Year
I, George Nepia – Hone Kouka

The Orbit Corporate Travel Award for Supporting Actress of the Year
Sophie Hambleton – When the Rain Stops Falling
Jane Waddell – August: Osage County

Chapman Tripp Award for Supporting Actor of the Year
Simon Vincent – Our Man in Havana

(Seven Nominees for these four categories:)
Emerging Artist Trust Wellington Accolade for Outstanding Performance
eCaster Accolade for Outstanding Performance
Chapman Tripp Theatre Award for Actress of the Year
The ProActors and Gail Cowan Management Award for Actor of the Year
Michelle Amas – August: Osage County
Laurel Devenie – On The Upside-Down of The World
Jennifer Ludlam – August: Osage County
Jarod Rawiri – I, George Nepia

The Museum Hotel Award for Director of the Year
Leo Gene Peters – Awhi Tapu (also nominated for Production of the Year)
Jason Te Kare – I, George Nepia (also nominated for Production of the Year)

For more information, click here.

… and watch out for their names!

DIPLOMA IN ENTERTAINMENT TECHNOLOGY

Joseph Mahoney
Tessa Alderton
Halo Collins
Matthew Eller
  

BACHELOR OF PERFORMING ARTS
(MANAGEMENT)

Monique Webster
Tim Nuttall
Amber Maxwell
Alana Kelly
Rebekah Mora
Sophie Dowson

2011 DIPLOMA IN COSTUME CONSTRUCTION
for THEATRE, FILM and ALLIED INDUSTRIES
* 2011 ADVANCED DIPLOMA IN ENTERTAINMENT TECHNOLOGY

Carolyn Heke*
Brighde Penn
Ashleigh Porter
Oliver Black
Clare Smith*
Coco Conner
Charlotte Baptist
Sophie Tucker

MASTER OF THEATRE ARTS IN DIRECTING

Ngapaki Emery
Julian Pellizzaro
Theresa Hanaray
Erina Daniels
Ashleigh DeMoville
Sebastian Sommer

BACHELOR OF DESIGN
(STAGE & SCREEN)

Nina Smith Stevens
Rachel Hilliar
Theo Wijnsma
Lucy Stone
 

BACHELOR OF PERFORMING ARTS (ACTING)

Sophie Kendrick, Leon Wadham, Adrian Hooke
Ana Corbett, Hayley Sproull, Catherine Croft
Victoria Abbott, Chris Parker, Tawanda Manyimo, Lily Greenslade
Elliot Wrightson, Leroy Lakamu
Te Rina Thompson, Hayley Brown, Emma Fenton, Phoebe Hurst
Absent:
Marton Csokas, Hera Dunleavy
Upgrades from the Diploma in Professional  Drama (Acting), 1989/1993 respectively

To download a pdf list of Toi Whakaari Graduates 2011, please click here