Directing Teachers

The tutors at Toi Whakaari and Victoria University are also practising professionals. All have worked extensively in theatre, film or television both nationally and internationally and bring this experience to bear in their teaching.

Brett Adam

Head of Directing (Toi Whakaari), MTA Part 2 Co-ordinator

Brett Adam is an Australian-born freelance theatre director, dramaturg and acting teacher. He graduated from the VCA Directors’ Course in Melbourne in 1992 and has worked in a freelance capacity for companies all over Australia, including the Bell Shakespeare Company, Melbourne Theatre Company, the National Theatre Drama School and the Malthouse; his production of Mueller’s play Construction of the Human Heart toured nationally in 2007, and garnered four Green Room nominations. From 2000–2004 he was also Artistic Director of St Martin’s Youth Arts Centre, directing a number of productions and presenting numerous plays by young and emerging writers from Australia and the rest of the world; he has a deep passion for new writing, especially writing which pushes the boundaries, and has ongoing relationships with a number of Australian writers.

He took up the post of Head of Directing at Toi Whakaari in July 2011, and is delighted with the bi-cultural focus of the school as well as its philosophy, which complements his own interest in supporting and extending the student as a person – not just in educating them to fill a role.

David O’Donnell

Senior Lecturer (Victoria), Member MTA Joint Board of Studies
A graduate of Toi Whakaari as well as Victoria (BA) and Otago (MA), David has worked widely as an actor and director. David won the director of the year award at the Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards in 2004 for directing David Edgar’s Albert Speer. In 2006 he directed Shakespeare’s Henry VI for Toi Whakaari. David has a particular interest in developing new scripts and has directed several first productions of NZ plays. Recent productions include Albert Belz’s Te Karakia, Lynda Chanwai-Earle’s Heat, Arthur Meek’s Collapsing Creation and Ken Duncum’s The Great Gatsby . In the last three years his productions have been seen at the NZ International Festival of the Arts, Auckland Arts Festival, the Dreaming Festival (Queensland), Fuel Festival, Nelson Arts Festival, and at BATS, Downstage, Circa and Herald Theatres. He has written numerous articles on New Zealand and Pacific theatre and co-edited  Performing Aotearoa (2007) a book of essays on NZ theatre. Other research interests include Maori and post-colonial theatre, theories of directing and community theatre.

David Carnegie

Professor (Victoria)
Prior to moving to Victoria in 1978, David taught in Canada and Britain, and worked professionally in London theatre, including the Young Vic. He established Theatre Studies at Otago University, and was a co-founder of the Fortune Theatre in Dunedin. A past president of Playmarket, he is also a practising theatre critic and professional dramaturg. David is an international authority on Shakespearean stagecraft and NZ drama and theatre.

He was instrumental in establishing the MTA in Directing as a joint degree of Toi Whakaari and Victoria University, and was the first chair of the MTA Board of Studies.

John Downie

Programme Director (Victoria) and Chair of MTA Joint Board of Studies
John has degrees in English and Theatre (directing/design), and a career background as a TV and theatre director. He has worked as an artist/teacher in many contexts, most consistently as a dramaturge within professional theatre in the UK. More than 30 of his plays have received professional productions, including two for the Royal Shakespeare Company. At Victoria his main creative and research interests are inter-disciplinary and technological performance.

Bronwyn Tweddle

Senior Lecturer (Victoria) and MTA Part 1 Co-ordinator
With a BA (Hons) from Monash, Bronwyn is a director, performer and dramaturge with research interests in multilingual theatre, 20th century German-language performance, physical theatre methodologies and theories of directing. She directed her own bilingual adaptations of Heiner Müller’s Hamletmachine (1996, Melbourne) and Gertrude Stein’s Dr Faustus Lights the Lights (1998, Berlin), and in 2002 directed the New Zealand premiere of Wolfgang Borchert’s The Man Outside. In 2005 she directed Peter Barne’s adaptation of Frank Wedekind’s Lulu at the Fortune Theatre, Dunedin. Bronwyn’s 2006 production of Heiner Mueller’s Quartett has since toured within NZ and to Romania and Serbia. Bronwyn has been an Executive Board member of Playmarket since 2002.

Christian Penny

Director (Toi Whakaari)

A former student of Philippe Gaulier, Christian is recognised as one of this country’s boldest theatre directors. A cofounder of Theatre at Large, Christian’s major professional productions include: King Lear, Cyrano de Bergerac, and new NZ work Manawa Taua/Savage Hearts, The Butcher’s Wife, the national and international tour of Woman Far Walking and Hamlet with Michael Hurst. In 2004 Christian worked with other Toi Whakaari tutors and students to create Penumbra –which was part of the Auckland Arts Festival in 2007. In 2008 he directed a major new New Zealand Opera at the 2008 NZ International Festival of the Arts, The Trial of the Cannibal Dog an adaptation of Anne Salmond’s award winning History of the Journeys of Captain James Cook in the Pacific. Last year Christian was a participant of the Leadership New Zealand programme and directed the 2009 graduation production of The Caucasian Chalk Circle.

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Visiting Tutors

Toi Whakaari also has regular guest teachers in technology and managment for stage, screen and events, professional development and leadership, scriptwriting, movement, mask, puppetry, voice, singing, text analysis, history, theory and philosophy of theatre and Taha Maori.

Throughout the year Toi Whakaari brings in specialist national and international guest tutors and lecturers.