“New Zealand theatre is alive and well; you just need to look for it,” says James Bell, theatre director, and manager at The PumpHouse Theatre, as we discuss the inaugural New Zealand Theatre Month.
Last month, we featured Shore-based playwright Roger Hall's story about establishing the event as an annual celebratory month for theatre across the country. And there’s certainly plenty going on at The PumpHouse, and at our other local theatre venues around the Shore.
John Davies from Belmont’s The Rose Centre, Philipp Jaser from The Vic in Devonport, and Tim Bray Productions’ director Tim Bray, agree that New Zealand theatre is in good heart. “There seems to a real vibrancy in both small and large productions and there seem to be more of the large ones to choose from,” says John, though he’d welcome companies offering more or longer seasons at The Rose Centre.
“Where there was perhaps a cultural ‘cringe’ around New Zealand, Māori and Pasifika theatre,” says Tim, “it is now celebrated and well attended. Over our 27-year history we have presented 93 productions; 89 of those have been New Zealand original scripts or adaptations. People flock to our productions based on Margaret Mahy, Joy Cowley, Betty Gilderdale and Lynley Dodd stories. Though we also presented a beautiful and powerful production of The Whale Rider in 2014; schools and pre-schools lapped it up, but it wasn’t as well attended as our usual school holiday offerings, so perhaps there is still a way to go.”
The PumpHouse is almost fully booked for the year by individual producers and professional and community theatre companies offering seasons that range from a couple of days to more than two weeks. Having achieved this, the challenge is to excite audiences about what’s on offer. James recognises the need to get people into the habit of theatre-going.
While The PumpHouse, like The Rose Centre and The Vic, is a venue for hire, rather than a theatre producing company, people associate and conflate the building with the theatre company, says James. The PumpHouse therefore directly engages with audiences to attract them to a range of different productions and uses its regular e-newsletters to tell audiences about everything that’s going on. “I champion The PumpHouse,” says James. “If you go to one thing here, you might like something else. We aim to provoke crossover between audiences. For example, the parents and grandparents who bring children to Tim Bray Productions’ shows value theatre enough to introduce their kids, so we not only talk to them about the school holiday shows, but also about the latest Tadpole [Theatre] show or Shoreside’s mid-winter Agatha Christie. You’ve got to tell people it’s on, when it’s on and why they’d want to come.”
James is immensely proud that The PumpHouse has eight theatre companies that regularly perform New Zealand works at The PumpHouse: Tadpole Productions (formed in 2012 to bring professional theatre to the North Shore; Tim Bray Productions (children’s theatre company); The Acting Collective (which started presenting adaptations of Jane Austen works but which branches out next month with a new New Zealand play, set in 1873); Pearangi Creative (a new theatre company which launched this year with a highly successful local adaptation of the Iliad story, updating the setting to commemorate the centenary of the end of the First World War and with waiata performed by an all-female chorus); Blair Strang's Sapphire Theatre (which this year presented Kate McDermott's play, ‘Nigel’); and iStart and Felix theatre companies, both of which present new works in Mandarin for Chinese audiences.
Theatre should represent New Zealand in all its diversity, says James. Presenting only Eurocentric works doesn’t reflect the background or life experience of a proportion of our community; iStart and Felix start to redress that balance, as does the eighth initiative: The Pumphouse-initiated Toi Takapuna season of Māori theatre which has run over the last year. It culminates with the New Zealand Theatre Month production of ‘Kōrēro Pūrākau’, in which The PumpHouse collaborates with stage and screen actor, director and writer Rawiri Paratene and four senior drama students from Birkenhead College and Takapuna Grammar to devise and present a staged retelling of local Māori legends.
Toi Takapuna, says James, is aimed at championing and amplifying Māori work in a suburban setting. Earlier works this year included ‘Shot Bro’, Rob Mokaraka’s personal story about depression and redemption; ‘Heaven and Earth – Rangi and Papa’, a magical glow-in-the-dark Matariki puppet show; ‘Te Rerenga – The Flight’, the world’s first Māori rock-art puppet show; and four workshops that shared aspects of Māori culture and craft.
These new offerings are complemented by more “traditional” works like Shoreside’s Agatha Christie mysteries and its summer season of Shakespeare in the Park in the outdoor amphitheatre.
All in all, the output of local theatre companies plus the active encouragement and support of three professional venues adds up to a local theatre scene that offers enough depth and variety for any theatre-lover, not to mention wanna-be thespians and back-stage experts.
For here’s the other thing: everyone we spoke to for this story emphasised the role that community theatre plays in contributing to the New Zealand theatre scene. Community theatre plays an important development role not just for audiences but for future professional theatre practitioners. It provides a setting for back and front stage talents to learn and evolve, says John Davies. “I’d like to think a rigger at a place like Q or Waterfront theatres might have learned some of their craft in a place like The Rose Centre under the tutelage maybe of an old retired hand who is helping our users make an idea a reality on stage.”
James Bell, a born and bred Shore-ite, got his start in community theatre when the inimitable Carol Dumbleton of Shoreside Theatre (then called Milford Players) took a punt on a school kid keen to get into lighting. He sees the role of The PumpHouse as encouraging, supporting and mentoring artists and companies alike to not only develop their own love of theatre, but also to develop their craft in a way that is financially sustainable, through attracting audiences and finding funding and sponsorship to complement that.
From his early days backstage, James has progressed into directing, and to occasionally self-producing shows, such as ‘The Pillowman’ (not, unfortunately, a New Zealand work), a play that epitomises James’ view that for theatre to be successful it must have a strong story. “Sometimes,” he says a little wistfully, “New Zealand works don’t have the same level of adventurousness. You have to write a play that people are going to come to see, or a play that says something.”
That said, no matter how good a story is told, audiences at The PumpHouse tend to err on the conservative side. “I would like to encourage audiences to go on an adventure, see something new, and see if they like it.” He acknowledges that for audiences there’s element of risk, and an investment (in time and money) in doing this. “We as theatre professionals have to tap into the adventure in people and encourage them to come.”
John Davies agrees that offering variety is a key issue in attracting audiences. “Without question we need more youth-themed plays making it in to the world, to enthuse the artists and audiences. I saw ‘Dope’ at Te Pou earlier this year – a bit jittery, but so young and vibrant a theme for the young.”
Philipp suggests that a coordinated effort giving smaller operators a marketing platform from which they can promote their works would be great. Showing his cinematic bias, he suggests that filming live theatre and making content available through cinema and other screening platforms could be a good way to reach beyond theatre-going audiences. Like James, he calls for “great content”, and believes that “more satire, comedy, drama, and everyday issues of life, content that people can relate to, plus great writers and professional development opportunities” will help develop local theatre.
Tim Bray Productions attracts an annual audience of 20,000 people from across the Auckland region to The PumpHouse. But Tim is “constantly learning how to encourage more locals to attend theatre as Auckland’s population keeps growing and evolving. We’d love to do more diverse work to reflect the ever-growing diversity of our city.”
“Arts organisations probably see children’s theatre as vital in developing an adult audience of the future,” he adds. “But I create theatre for children solely for its own immediate worth. To me, there is nothing better than seeing an audience of children transfixed by the story and magic unfolding on the stage. I still have incredibly vivid memories of the shows my parents took me to when I was a child. An hour of a child’s life enjoying quality theatre is hugely impactful.”
Tim’s dream is to have a dedicated venue for children, “designed specifically with them in mind – if an adult sits in front of them their view of the stage is still unimpeded; studios for children and young people to learn theatre craft and drama and create their own performances; where productions happen year-round – not just in the holidays – and a diverse range of quality theatre is offered – Maori, Pasifika, Chinese, Indian stories and characters presented for us all to enjoy. Imagine!”
New Zealand Theatre Month has certainly started the conversation, and locally prompted The PumpHouse in particular to look closely at the New Zealand content it offers audiences. It can only be hoped that Roger Hall’s initiative in establishing a month in which to celebrate New Zealand theatre is embraced: that venues and theatre companies pick up the challenge of presenting more, and more adventurous, New Zealand content, and that as audience members, we are prompted to become a little more adventurous in what we attend.
New Zealand plays coming up at The PumpHouse:
September: ‘Korero Purakau”, devised by Rawiri Paratene and the cast (part of Toi Takapuna)
‘Badjelly the Witch’, adapted by Time Bray (Tim Bray Productions)
October: ‘The Scandalous Four’, by Christianne Van Wijk (The Acting Collective)
November: ‘Kings of the Gym’, By Dave Armstrong (Tadpole Productions)
December: ‘The Santa Claus Show’, by Tim Bray (Tim Bray Productions)
February: ‘Lovepuke’, by Duncan Sarkies, (Pearangi Creative)
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Other New Zealand Theatre Month events on the Shore
