PRODUCTIONS

THE TOI WHAKAARI SEASON 2012

Every year, Toi Whakaari stages numerous shows to showcase the skills of all of its students – from actors to designers, technicians, managers and costumiers.

Our directing (Master of Theatre Arts in Directing) students also present a variety of work throughout the year – see Student-Led Productions for more info.

Dunsinane

by David Greig

Wed 21 – Sat 24 March

Directed by Rachel Henry

So, Macbeth’s dead -
what happens next?

David Greig’s brilliant sequel for the Royal Shakespeare Company, described as a work of compelling intelligence, provocation and wit. The English army is now in occupation in the Castle of Dunsinane. Some kind of peace is taking hold, but the war has thrown up unforeseen problems that draw uncanny parallels with the present day.

Workshop Production with the Year 2 Actors

“Even though these students are only in their second-year at Toi Whakaari, they presented a production with the dedication, joy, and excellence that does them credit.” Neal Barber, Salient

Read the full review here

“Director Rachel Henry has given her actors (and her audience) a real treat to work with. Grieg’s play a fast, epic, and contemporary sequel to Macbeth that doesn’t so much extend the plot as subvert it and imbue it with modern concerns […] … special mention must go to the stamina of Philip Anstis’s Siward, tasked with the impossible, and the raw power and pride of Macduff (Tom Knowles) and Mairead (Lucy Suttor). It is an ambitious undertaking for Greig, Henry, and the 22 young actors, and the end result of this workshop production is as unsettling and poignant as the first time we saw Macbeth.” Samuel Phillips, The Lumiere Reader

Read the full review here

aki

Thu  7 – Wed 13 June 

This year our second-years are collaborating with the National Library of New Zealand to create four evocative site-specific performances exploring the stories, collections and perspectives particular to this site of national significance.

aki marks the beginning of an ongoing partnership with the National Archives and National Library of New Zealand at the juncture of its current relocation and transition, and is facilitated by Toi Whakaari staff members Heather Timms, Penny Fitt and Teina Moetara, in partnership with library staff.

Partially-realised Production with the Year 2 Actors

TOI MUSICAL THEATRE –- Assassins

Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim

Book by JOHN WEIDMAN
ASSASSINS is based on an idea by Charles Gilbert, Jr.
Playwrights Horizons, Inc. – New York City produced ASSASSINS Off-Broadway in 1990
by arrangement with Hal Leonard Australia Pty Ltd Exclusive agent for Music Theatre International (NY)

Tue 7 – Sat 11 August

Directed by Jonathon Hendry, Musical Direction by Mark Dorrell

This is the American Dream turned upside-down. Opening in a fairground shooting gallery and culminating in the Texas School Book Depository, November 22, 1963, we are confronted with a cast of assassins from different periods in history, all with the one aim – killing the president.  Winner of multiple Tony and Drama Desk Awards and one of Sondheim’s most intriguing and political works.

Mark Dorrell is a long-time Sondheim colleague and veteran of the first London season of Assassins; his many credits as Music Director include the original West End productions of Into The Woods, Assassins and Passion, and award-winning National Theatre productions of Sweeney Todd, A Little Night Music, Guys and Dolls, Lady In The Dark, Oklahoma! Candide, Peter Pan and Singin’ In The Rain.

Partially-realised Production with the Year 2 Actors

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Our Country’s Good

by Timberlake Wertenbaker

Thu 16 – Sat 25 August

Directed by Geoffrey Hyland

Australia 1789. One year after the First Fleet arrived in Botany Bay – eleven ships with a motley collection of convicts, marines, governors and crew that established the first penal colony in Australia. Conditions are grim, and a young married lieutenant is directing rehearsals of the first play ever to be staged there. With only two copies of the text, a cast of convicts and a leading lady who may be about to be hanged, conditions are hardly ideal…

Winner of the Laurence Olivier Play of the Year Award in 1988, Our Country’s Good is based on actual journals of the time and deals with love, barbarity, and ultimately the power of theatre as a humanising force.  

Fully-realised Production with the Year 3 Actors

CLASSIC CUTS

Thu 4 – Sat 6 October

First-year acting students take centre-stage for the first time in condensed versions of two of Shakespeare’s best-loved works. Directors include Perry Piercy, Acting Tutor and award-winning actor and director, who has recently returned from the 2011 season acting and studying Shakespearean performance at the Globe in London.

Workshop Production with the Year 1 Actors

GO SOLO 2012

Wed 3 – Sat 13 Oct

Directed by Sophie Roberts

The Go Solo season is our annual collection of new solo works created and performed by the final-year acting students. This rich variety of individual viewpoints and bold theatre-making is as entertaining as it is thought-provoking, and for many of our acting graduates is the first major stepping stone into professional theatre.

Partially-realised Production with the Year 3 Actors

The Last Days of Judas Iscariot

by Stephen Adly Guirgis

by arrangement with Hal Leonard Australia Pty Ltd,
On behalf of Dramatists Play Service, Inc New York.

Thu 25 Oct – Sat 3 November

Directed by Brett Adam

The American courtroom drama sensation. Judas, the man who betrayed Jesus, has been languishing in hell in a catatonic stupor. But his defence lawyer is intent on getting him a fair trial, and this play is his day in court – that is, Purgatory – with a cast of characters that range from Mother Teresa to Sigmund Freud, Saint Monica to Satan. Described variously as sensational, demanding and riotously funny, it is an exploration of divine love, human free will, and the very nature of sin and salvation.

Fully-realised Production with the Year 2 Actors

N.B.

Workshop Productions focus on a key area of learning, with little emphasis on production elements. 

Partially-realised Productions are collaborations between a few (but not all) departments, professionally led, with greater emphasis on production elements. 

Student-initiated Productions are led and proposed by students, using more limited budgets and often involving cross-disciplinary collaboration, both within the school and with practitioners outside it. 

Fully-realised Productions are professionally-led works with full budgets, drawing on students from across the school and from a range of year groups.

More details soon! And for past productions, click here.