Students
Toi Whakaari design students come from a wide variety of backgrounds - from teachers to graphic designers; from school leavers to drag artistes; from dancers to doctors.
The one thing all our design students have in common is the passion for their craft. Below are some of the performance design students who are in their fourth and final year at Toi Whakaari. Alternatively check out some of what Hermione Flynn got up to in her final year.
To see pictures of them, and of our other students check out this.
Amanda Jelicich-Kane
Amanda came to study at Toi Whakaari after doing a year of design at Massey. She has always been involved in the arts, mainly painting and sculpture but wanted to branch out and learn more about how she could apply her skills in these areas to design for performance. Amanda has recently worked on Dr. Buller's Birds (part of the NZ International Festival of the Arts) and The Cottage (Fringe NZ), which won "Best Newcomer '06". She is currently working on Nowhere at Victoria University with John Downie, and after that would like to start creating her own work.
Brian King
Brian left medicine as his primary employment in 2001, after 22 years, to investigate the less scientific, more creative side of life. In 2003 he completed an Advanced Diploma in Entertainment Technology at Toi Whakaari and is currently in his final year of the Performance Design degree. Brian has a particular interest in live theatre, opera and contemporary classical musical theatre design. During his time as a student Brian has designed Niu Sila (Downstage, AK05), Lashings of Whipped Cream (Downstage), and Book of Days (Toi Whakaari). In 2006 he is designing Doubt at Centrepoint and Henry VI and Peer Gynt for Toi Whakaari. Brian says that "Toi Whakaari and Massey have been an excellent platform for launching into a career in Performance Design and have provided invaluable opportunities for collaboration with other disciplines in the performing arts."
Matt Kleinhans
Matt has a Graphic Design background but has embarked on a career involving set, costume and AV design as well as holding on to his graphics base. His main interests are digital video for AV design, using film as a medium in live performance and for cinema and as a source of light. In performance, Matt is inspired by Artaud, David Lynch, Kuberick and Pasolini as well as fine artists such as Munch, Caravaggio, Valesquez, and Kollwitz. Matt believes his set and costume design experience have grown immensely having been able to work with other Toi students and on projects outside of school. Through Toi Matt worked in Wardrobe on River Queen as an intern where he learnt about how the film industry works, inspiring him to continue along the path of film design. Post Bachelor of Performance Design, Matt aims to create high quality theatre and big budget, internationally released films and go on to do a Masters Degree in Production Design.
Laura Nicholls
Laura heard about the Performance Design Degree two years after finishing at Wellington High School. She has always been passionate about art, performance and design but never considered attending University, as no existing degrees appealed to her. After hearing both Massey University and Toi Whakaari were planning a joint Performance Design Degree she realised it was what she had been waiting for. Toi Whakaari is an incredible hub of energy, propelling students to create and collaborate in ways which are challenging and unique. Laura says: "The skills I've picked up through the degree are cross-disciplinary, and I look forward to working in many different design roles such as exhibition design, event design, fashion show design, window displays and live performance."
Rebeka Whale
Rebeka is from Whakatane, Bay of Plenty and chose to come to Toi Whakaari and do Performance Design because she was passionate about Drama and Art at school. For her, Performance Design is an exciting combination of the two disciplines. The skills she has learnt are - set, lighting, film, sound and costume design, site specific work, as well as working on collaborative projects with directing students. Her main interests are Puppetry/Shadow-theatre, object animation, sound and lighting design. After Rebeka graduates she wants to pursue a career in both the Theatre and Film industry, focusing on performance with a strong political/environmental message, community theatre, world music festivals, arts festivals and generally promoting a conscious, sustainable and wholesome way of life, in New Zealand as well as abroad.
Daniel Williams
Daniel has been involved in theatre and the arts for may years, during high school he did speech and drama lessons, extra curricular photography and painting tuition, and was awarded as a director and performer in the Sheilah Winn Festival of Shakespeare in Schools. Since starting his design studies he has done set and costume design for Samuel Beckett's 'EndGame' at Toi Whakaari and 'Please Don't Feed the Models' at BATS. He is currently working on 'The Laramie Project', and later this year he will create a devised contemporary dance piece looking at movement in space primarily from a design perspective. Daniel sees himself working in event design and has a passion for epic spectacle - his mind is set on big budget shows that entertain on a grand scale, with a drive to one day design the opening ceremony of the Olympic games.
Robyn Yee
Robyn Yee was born in Gisborne and is a first generation Chinese New Zealander. She has a Bachelor of Arts in English and a Post Graduate Diploma in Secondary Teaching. After teaching in Auckland for five years she opted for the Performance Design degree because it enables her to combine her loves of art, theatre, film and design. She is excited by set, costume, light and sound design and is keen to invest time in prop making, prosthetics and other technologies which transform or modify the body for performance. In particular Toi Whakaari has provided her opportunities to collaborate with actors, directors and technicians. Consequently she values the dedication, energy and creative vision that these different disciplines combined can bring to a collaborative process. In the future Robyn wants to design for theatre, dance, film, music videos and the fashion industry.
