User:DrThneed/Theatre in New Zealand

(create a redirect to this page from Theatre of New Zealand)

Theatre in New Zealand is theatre presented in New Zealand created by New Zealand companies and organisation. There is no national theatre company unlike some other countries. There are a number of organisations invested in by the New Zealand government through the agency Creative New Zealand Toi Aotearoa, including producing companies such as Court Theatre in Christchurch, Auckland Theatre Company in Auckland and Taki Rua in Wellington, and also arts festivals such as Te Tairāwhiti Arts Festival in Gisborne and the New Zealand Festival in Wellington.

New Zealand origin works are created and tour nationally often to a festival circuit, with some touring to Australia and other countries. New Zealand companies also produce and present English speaking playwrights from outside of New Zealand, and international tours sometimes travel and present their work to various cities. There are a variety of modern arts centres and theatres and older proscenium arch lyric theatres throughout New Zealand that were built at the turn of the 20th century. The theatre industry is very networked and actors, designers, directors, technicians and arts managers travel frequently for their jobs.

Contemporary Māori theatre draws from mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge) and European traditions with notable productions including Hone Kouka's Nga Tangata Toa from 1992 and. Pacific Island contemporary theatre was lead by companies Pacific Underground in Christchurch and the Kila Kokonut Crew in Auckland creating commentary on a migrant experience.

Māori and Pacific theatre set the ground work for Asian and Indian writers, actors, directors and producers. A hit from 2019 was the celebration of Bollywood My Heart Goes Thadak Thadak by Ahi Karunaharan at Silo Theatre in Auckland. Pākehā theatre first had to decide to shed the cultural cringe that Pākehā were different from the United Kingdom, our colonising nation and professional theatre was only established in the late 1960s, the with first play by a New Zealander presented in ---. A uniquely New Zealand Pākehā culture was celebrated in Bruce Mason's The End of the Golden Weather set in the 1930s depression and Roger Hall's Glide Time about complacent government workers in the early 1980s.

There has been a resurgence in arts festivals in recent years including the Gisborne's Te Tairāwhiti Festival opening in 2019. The global pandemic COVID 19 meant theatre and arts festivals closed with ongoing interruptions with a lack of international opportunities and some risk averse programmers, but theatre has been going again since ---. The pandemic has also meant festivals have programmed purely New Zealand acts with Auckland Arts Festival in 2021 hastily re-programming during the end of 2020.

Post-Treaty
Te Ara article on theatre

Professional theatre (from 1960s)
Puppetry. Theatre for children / theatre in education.

Theatre today
Overview of funding, eg. Creative New Zealand, here or somewhere else? Also Playmarket, somewhere mention the Variety Artists Club of New Zealand

Actors and acting on Te Ara

Plays and playwrights

Theatre design

Notable plays: Include Foreskin's Lament, Middle-age Spread, Nga Tangata Toa

see Category:New Zealand plays

Māori theatre
Separate category for Pasifika theatre - yes.

https://teara.govt.nz/en/pacific-arts-in-new-zealand/print

Maori theatre on Te Ara Significant plays Nga Tangata Toa, the trio of Hone Kouka plays, others that deserve pages...?

Auckland

 * Auckland Theatre Company
 * FAFSWAG
 * Flaxworks
 * Indian Ink Theatre Company, theatre company founded in 1996


 * Kila Kokonut Krew, theatre company and music producer in Auckland since 2002
 * Massive Theatre Company, professional theatre company in Auckland, formed from the Maidment Youth Theatre at the University of Auckland in 1990
 * NYTC (National Youth Theatre Company), runs training workshops and musical productions in Auckland, established in 2005
 * Oryza Foundation
 * Pacific Underground, performing arts collective, founded in 1993 in Christchurch based in Auckland, produces contemporary performing art that reflects a Pacific Island heritage
 * Silo Theatre
 * Red Leap Theatre
 * Tim Bray Productions

Napier

 * Calico Young People’s Theatre

Wellington

 * BATS Theatre, theatre venue and producer in Wellington, initially founded as the Bats Theatre Company in 1976
 * Bard Productions, theatre company in Wellington, established 2007
 * Capital E's National Theatre for Children, based in Wellington but touring nationally with productions aimed at primary-aged children
 * Circa Theatre, professional theatre company in Wellington, established 1976
 * Red Scare Theatre Company
 * Taki Rua, also known as The New Depot and Depot Theatre; theatre organisation based in Wellington, since 1983, contemporary Māori productions


 * Tawata Productions
 * Tikapa Productions
 * Young and Hungry Arts Trust

Christchurch

 * Court Theatre, professional theatre company based in Christchurch, founded in 1971
 * Free Theatre Christchurch, New Zealand’s longest running producer of avant-garde experimental theatre, established 1979
 * Globe Theatre, Dunedin, theatre and theatre company in Dunedin, opened 1961
 * Two Productions
 * University of Canterbury Drama Society, student performing-arts club at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, beginning in 1921, and was one of New Zealand's leading theatre groups from the 1920s to the 1960s

Dunedin

 * Playhouse Theatre, Dunedin
 * Suitcase Theatre, theatre company in Dunedin, formed in 2014
 * Arcade
 * Ake Ake Productions
 * Suitcase Theatre
 * Prospect Park Productions NZ
 * Wow! Productions in Dunedin

Past companies

 * Blerta, musical and theatrical co-operative active from 1971 until 1975
 * Downstage Theatre, professional theatre company in Wellington (1964 to 2013) which occupied the purpose-built Hannah Playhouse
 * Fortune Theatre, Dunedin professional theatre company in Dunedin, from 1973 to 2018
 * New Zealand Players, one of New Zealand's first professional theatre companies, active between 1952 and 1960, touring nationally
 * Pollard's Lilliputian Opera Company, a professional children's troupe, established in Launceston, Tasmania, in 1880, touring through Australia and New Zealand
 * Pop-Up Globe, theatre production company, based in Auckland, that produced Jacobean theatre, 2015–2019
 * Southern Comedy Players (also called Southern Players) based in Dunedin but touring nationally, 1957–1971
 * Red Mole, one of the best known alternative theatre companies in the country, 1974–2000s
 * Te Ohu Whakaari, Māori theatre cooperative formed in the early 1980s that created and performed plays across New Zealand
 * Unity Theatre, theatre company in Wellington, founded in 1942 that ran until around 1979, specialising in bringing social, moral and political issues to audiences

Theatre venues
Many towns and cities have modern performing arts venues that cover a variety of use. Lyric theatres were built during the 1900s throughout New Zealand, some have been upgraded and some demolished. Smaller experimental venues exist in some parts of New Zealand and many town have amateur drama and amateur musical theatre that maintain performance venues.

Theatre education
NASDA at Ara Institute, Christchurch offers a three-year Bachelor degree of performing arts in music theatre

Toi Whakaari, drama school in Wellington, offers a three-year intensive course in acting, arts management, stage and screen design and a diploma in costume construction and set and properties construction

University of Auckland offers a Bachelor of Arts in Drama, and a postgraduate course in drama. What link to Massive?

University of Otago has a School of Performing Arts through which it offers undergraduate and postgraduate courses in music, performing arts, dance and theatre. It also has a new performing arts centre, Te Korokoro o te Tūi, opened in 2020?? check. Allen Hall Theatre at the University has been presenting Lunchtime Theatre since...

University of Waikato has a three-year Theatre Studies course which takes place at the Gallagher Academy of Performing Arts

Victoria University of Wellington offers a Bachelor of Arts in...?

Drama New Zealand professional body that represents drama teachers, academics, applied theatre workers and theatre in education practitioners

Te Auaha - Whitireia Wellington

NYDS - National Youth Drama School - Napier (now closed I think)

Theatre awards

 * Adam NZ Play Award – annual award since 2008 for new plays in New Zealand, includes Best Play, Best Play by a Māori Playwright, Best Play by a Pasifika Playwright, Best Play by a Woman Playwright.
 * Auckland Theatre Awards - annual awards, normally presented at the end of the year at the Civic, since 2008.
 * Bruce Mason Playwriting Award – an annual award since 1983, which recognises the work of an outstanding emerging New Zealand playwright.


 * Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards – annual theatre awards in Wellington (1992–2014)
 * Dunedin Theatre Awards – annual theatre awards in Dunedin since 2010.
 * Ngā Whakarākei O Whātaitai / Wellington Theatre Awards – annual theatre awards in Wellington established in 2015 to replace the Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards.
 * Do we include musical theatre awards?

Performing arts publishers
Playmarket - role

others? Also include other resources such as Theatre Reviews site and Theatre Aotearoa database.

Industry bodies
Actors equity. [Could also cover how theatre is funded.]