Directing Successes

36 directors have graduated from Toi Whakaari since 2002 and all are still involved in the performing arts.

Willem Wassenaar (The Netherlands) 

“I came here because I wanted to experience the conflict of my own culture within this new place.  It gave me a better understanding of who, I am within the world of theatre and what it is that I want to do.  I had some leadership skills to a degree but the MTA helped me learn to read a group, to gather a team of people and walk the same pathway to a creative product.  I’m not interested in Dictatorial Leadership and this course gave me the tools to bring out the creativity in others, to help them to extend themselves.” 

Willem Wassenaar is originally from the Netherlands, where he studied and worked as an actor, director and acting tutor. He graduated from the MTA in 2006. Willem is co-founder of the multi-award winning Almost A Bird Theatre Collective and Artistic Director of Long Cloud Youth Theatre. Recent directing credits include Delicates, Mirad: A Boy from Bosnia, The Glass Menagerie, Antigone (for Fringe 07 and international arts festival Oerol in The Netherlands), Angels in America, Part I, A Streetcar Named Desire, Spring Awakening, Swan Song (Young and Hungry 2008) and Jeff Koons. Willem won the 2007 Chapman Tripp Award for Most Promising New Director of the Year. 

Veialu Aila-Unsworth 

“Toi Whakaari teaches you about the culture you create in your rehearsal room, how to question your own insecurities, how to take the same risks you expect your actors to take, and, the big one for me, how to develop your intuition so that artistic judgment of the work comes from the heart.” 

Veialu Aila-Unsworth directs television commercials in Sydney, where she has won a Gold Promax Award.  She is currently working on another documentary film to follow up Yu Bilong Weh?, which explored immigrants from Papua New Guinea living in Wellington.  Her short animated film Blue Willow has appeared in many international film festivals including the Berlin International Film Festival. For more about Blue Willow go here. 

Pedro Ilgenfritz (Brazil) 

“Theatre in itself is challenging.  Every simple aspect of theatre demands total commitment.  Being a MTA student was a privilege, especially because one has the opportunity to focus on directorial questions in depth.  The MTA was the starting point, the reference, the place I could experiment and be safe to articulate my ideas and the kind of aesthetic I was interested in.  It is obviously challenging as the course is designed to develop the student’s own strengths and ethical and professional attitude.  I would say that the MTA course was a great help in developing my sense of clarity.” 

Pedro Ilgenfritz is currently the theatre history lecturer at UNITEC in Auckland.  He began his theatre career in his native Brazil as an actor/clown in the highly regarded Grupo de Pesquisa Teatral Atormenta, touring around Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay for five years.  In 2005 Pedro graduated from the MTA and now works as a drama teacher, director and dramaturge. 

Sally Richards (Australia) 

“I wanted to undertake a post-graduate Directing course that was process and production based where I knew I would be challenged on my leadership from the beginning.  I compared courses and institutions in Ireland, Australia, the UK and America.  The MTA at Toi Whakaari proved to be the most vital training and exploration that I have undertaken.” 

Sally Richards is the co-creator of theatrecomrades, which promotes theatre collaborations in Wellington.  She is the Producer for Young and Hungry Arts Trust, tutors at both Massey and Victoria University and produces the Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards.  She is also undertaking preliminary PhD research in NZ solo performance.  Sally is Australian by birth and prior to starting the MTA she worked as a teacher, actor and director in Ireland. 

Rachel More Henry
 

“Two of the most challenging yet rewarding years of my life. Not only did I begin to develop the skills necessary to sustain a viable career in theatre, but I was challenged to look inside myself for solutions to problems and the answers to those seemingly unanswerable questions.” 

Rachel completed her MTA in 2002 and, since graduating, has directed shows at many of NZ’s professional theatres. She has also worked extensively in children’s television. 

Rachel has been nominated for three Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards in directing and won one for best female newcomer in 2003. Her recent work includes Backwards in High Heels (Circa 2007), Under Milkwood (Downstage 2006), two Wellington-based Summer Shakespeare productions (The Taming of the Shrew and Much Ado About Nothing), The Graduate (Fortune 2005), Milo’s Wake and Ugly Customers (Circa 2004), Up For Grabs (Downstage 2004), This LimeTree Bower (Circa 2004), No Moa (Court 2003) and Laughing Wild (Silo 2003). 

Penni Bousfield 

“The most challenging aspect was continually being encouraged (sometimes pushed!) into areas of ‘not-knowing’, learning to dig below surfaces – my own and those of other people.  Where directing had started to feel like a lonely and arduous thing to me, what I learnt on the MTA not only put the enjoyment back into it, but gave me some of the deepest learning experiences of my life.  The leadership and problem-solving skills I learnt continue to be invaluable to me in the rehearsal room, in my personal life and in the teaching and business sides of my current job (running a Polytech performing arts course).” 

Penni Bousfield is currently Director of Cultural Development at New Plymouth Boys High School, following on from Head of Performing Arts at UCOL. After graduating from the MTA in 2004 she worked fulltime as a freelance director and producer.  In 2006 she held an Artistic Residency at Massey University.  She is currently directing the winning play from an international playwriting competition. 

Jacqueline Coats (New Zealand) 

“The MTA gave me the ability to communicate, to pitch my ideas and projects to everyone from actors, designers and singers to funding bodies and major bodies within the performing arts.  I began to understand how you as a director affect an entire group, what you bring into a room will be reflected back at you.  This self knowledge has helped me in all situations in and outside the performing arts.  It was a difficult lesson to learn and is constantly evolving.” 

Jacquie Coats is an award winning theatre and opera director who graduated in 2002 from the initial intake of the MTA directing programme.  She has worked for many professional theatre and opera companies throughout New Zealand, including NBR NZ Opera and the NZ International Festival of the Arts 

A further selection of our successful grads includes: 

• Tim Spite – Chapmann Tripp Director of the Year 2010: actor, writer, director and the driving force behind Wellington theatre company SEEyD
• Kerryn Palmer – Chapman Tripp award winner for Sniper (most original production 2004), Exchange, Young & Hungry Chair
• James Hadley – Ex-Artistic Director, BATS Theatre
• Jaime Dorner – Head of Performing Arts at UCOL in Palmerston North
• Geoff Pinfield – The Magic Chicken, Happy Hour for Miserable Children (Fringe NZ Award for Best Comedy 2004), Maui: One Man Against the Gods, and On the Conditions and Possibilities of Helen Clark Taking Me As Her Young Lover.
• Jade Eriksen – Fringe NZ 2005 Award Winner for Yatra, Penumbra, Migrant Nation, Go Solo 2006-2008, Pakiwaitara.