News of New Zealanders via Global Media

Simon Phillips Has the Knack for Musical Theatre

Simon Phillips Has the Knack for Musical Theatre

In a wide-ranging career spanning several continents, which to date has seen him employed as artistic director by two Australian state theatre companies and awarded for his direction of theatre and opera, New Zealand-born…

Mel Dodge Gets Her Brontë on in Canberra

Mel Dodge Gets Her Brontë on in Canberra

New Zealand playwright and actor Mel Dodge depicts the personal passions of Jane Eyre author Charlotte Brontë in Miss Brontë, on at Canberra’s Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre. Despite living most of her life in an…

Thomas Monckton’s Energetic Edinburgh Double Bill

Thomas Monckton’s Energetic Edinburgh Double Bill

Thomas Monckton demonstrated what an outstanding physical clown he is via his previous solo show, The Pianist. Only Bones, his newest work on as part of the 2016 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, is more distilled…

Rochelle Bright Brings Daffodils to Edinburgh

Rochelle Bright Brings Daffodils to Edinburgh

New Zealand-born playwright Rochelle Bright is swiftly earning a name for herself through the success of her breakout stageshow Daffodils, which has just opened at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe as part of the prestigious…

Card Ninja Performs in UK at Bedfringe

Card Ninja Performs in UK at Bedfringe

New Zealander Javier Jarquin is the Card Ninja, a PG-rated, one-man show with up-beat humour, impressive stunts and smooth audience interaction. Jarquin will demonstrate his “remarkable skills” in the UK at the Bedford Fringe…

Tucson Teen Discovers Love of Writing

Tucson Teen Discovers Love of Writing

Nineteen-year-old New Zealand-born Samara Attridge, who has always been more of a “centre-stage type, acting and tackling musical theatre,” tells the Arizona Daily Star that she never pictured herself as a writer. Born in Palmerston…

Justine Campbell Performs They Saw a Thylacine

Justine Campbell Performs They Saw a Thylacine

New Zealand-born actor Justine Campbell (pictured left) and Australian Sarah Hamilton recently performed their award-winning play about survival and extinction, They Saw a Thylacine as part of The Joan’s 2016 Brave New Work season…

All Trygve Wakenshaw Wants Is to Be Mr Bean

All Trygve Wakenshaw Wants Is to Be Mr Bean

Mime superstar, New Zealand-born Trygve Wakenshaw, who has been garnering rave reviews for his recent solo show, Nautilus talks with the Guardian about his theatre background, his future and what he really wants –…

Thomas Monckton’s The Pianist a Brilliant Hour

Thomas Monckton’s The Pianist a Brilliant Hour

New Zealander Thomas Monckton is one of a new generation of mimes, a “luminary”, beginning to “carry the torch in a tradition that brought us Charlie Chaplin and Mr Bean,” according to the Sydney…

Mime’s New Star Is Trygve Wakenshaw

Mime’s New Star Is Trygve Wakenshaw

“Rubber-limbed” New Zealander Trygve Wakenshaw is “one of the most talented acts of the new mime movement,” Tristram Fane Saunders writes for the Telegraph. Trained at École Philippe Gaulier (“essentially RADA for…

Barnie Duncan’s …him a Living Thriving Piece of Art

Barnie Duncan’s …him a Living Thriving Piece of Art

“New Zealander Barnie Duncan has created an unusual yet intriguing piece of art that is somewhat unpleasant in a refreshing way, and yet able to draw in the audience with subtlety … in a…

All the World Is a Stage for Rawiri Paratene

All the World Is a Stage for Rawiri Paratene

If the Globe Theatre’s Globe to Globe project has a natural figurehead, it is Rawiri Paratene, whose Troilus and Cressida in Maori opened the tour in April 2014, Intelligent Life journalist Jasper Rees writes….

Hayden Tee Menaces as Javert in Les Mis

Hayden Tee Menaces as Javert in Les Mis

New Zealand-born, NIDA-trained actor Hayden Tee has received critical acclaim for his portrayal of Javert in the world’s longest running musical, Les Misérables, which has made its long-awaited return to Brisbane. “Audiences’ reactions …

Comedy Show Nominee Trygve Wakenshaw Shines

Comedy Show Nominee Trygve Wakenshaw Shines

The “angular New Zealander” Trygve Wakenshaw, who was nominated for best show at this year’s Foster’s Edinburgh Comedy awards, “has the audience in raptures with his wonky physical comedy – and a brilliantly inventive…

Trygve Wakenshaw Hits the Physical Comedy Jackpot

Trygve Wakenshaw Hits the Physical Comedy Jackpot

New Zealand comedian Trygve Wakenshaw’s “near-silent comedy produces loud laughs and a warm atmosphere” at this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the List writes in a review of Wakenshaw’s solo show Nautilus. “By the time Wakenshaw…

Heidi O’Loughlin’s Edinburgh Debut a Delight

Heidi O’Loughlin’s Edinburgh Debut a Delight

For her first solo Edinburgh Fringe hour, comedian Heidi O’Loughlin tries out a variety of topics. The New Zealander’s Tahitian heritage is up first in a spot of family history, as she recounts the…

Annette Tanner on a Unique Broadway Mission

Annette Tanner on a Unique Broadway Mission

New Zealander Annette Tanner, executive director of Atlanta-based non-profit organisation Broadway Dreams Foundation, is one of a “handful of remarkable women who are making their mark on educational theatre” in the United States, the…

Lemi Ponifasio Directs Epic Canadian Theatre Piece

Lemi Ponifasio Directs Epic Canadian Theatre Piece

Canada’s most ambitious musical theatre piece had a recent curtain call 35 years after its premiere, as part of Toronto’s 2015 Luminato Festival. New Zealand-based choreographer Lemi Ponifasio was called in to revive…

California Playwright Inspired by Life of Nancy Wake

California Playwright Inspired by Life of Nancy Wake

Wellington-born wartime heroine Nancy Wake’s story unfolds in Code Name: Brass Rose, a California-produced play by Rachel Bublitz on as part of San Francisco’s Loud and Unladylike reading festival. Wake was a British…

Back of the Bus Show Hits the Streets of East Lancashire

Back of the Bus Show Hits the Streets of East Lancashire

New Zealand-based Java Dance Company heads to East Lancashire with a show that wowed audiences at the Edinburgh Festival. Their physical comedy show Back of the Bus takes place on an hour-long circular ride…

Jarred Christmas Hits the Comic Spot

Jarred Christmas Hits the Comic Spot

The “generously bearded” comedian, New Zealander Jarred Christmas’ stand-up show at London’s Soho Theatre spread “joy in microseconds”, according to Chortle reviewer Steve Bennett. “He banters, teasingly but non-aggressively, with the front row. ‘I’m just…

David Clarkson’s Encoded Opens New Canberra Festival

David Clarkson’s Encoded Opens New Canberra Festival

New Zealander David Clarkson, artistic director of Australian company Stalker Theatre, opened the inaugural SEGUE festival in Canberra with a work called, Encoded. Clarkson says the piece – which combines physical theatre, dance theatre and…

Danielle Cormack an Ambitious Currency Trader in New Play

Danielle Cormack an Ambitious Currency Trader in New Play

Award-winning actor New Zealand-born Danielle Cormack, who came to prominence in Australia with her performances in Underbelly and Wentworth, is currently playing an ambitious currency trader in Boys Will Be Boys at

Comic James Nokise Digs into NZ Gang Culture

Comic James Nokise Digs into NZ Gang Culture

Wellington-born playwright James Nokise – a former gang member – is making his US debut with So-So Gangsta, a blend of theatrical lecture and stand-up comedy, as part of the New Zealand…

Les Mis Star Hayden Tee a Menacing Javert

Les Mis Star Hayden Tee a Menacing Javert

New Zealand-born Hayden Tee has “won rave reviews for his commanding, menacing performance” as villain Inspector Javert in the Australian production of Les Misérables on at Sydney’s Capitol Theatre. In early 2013 Tee…

New Zealand New Festival to Wow New Yorkers

New Zealand New Festival to Wow New Yorkers

New Zealand gang culture, the art of sleep and a man who believes he is the key to putting another Clinton in the White House are among the offerings slated for the

Trygve Wakenshaw’s Solo Show Kraken Perfectly Executed

Trygve Wakenshaw’s Solo Show Kraken Perfectly Executed

New Zealand comic Trygve Wakenshaw’s solo show Kraken, a follow up to his Edinburgh and London 2013 smash hit, Squidboy, is on at the Soho Theatre as part of the 2015 London…

Eleanor Bishop Creating Challenging Theatre in Pittsburgh

Eleanor Bishop Creating Challenging Theatre in Pittsburgh

During her first trip to the United States, self-described “feminist artist who creates documentary theatre”, New Zealander Eleanor Bishop, 28, was so moved by a 2012 rape case involving high school students in Steubenville,…

Tanya Jacobs Ensuring Cirque Du Soleil’s Wardrobe Flies

Tanya Jacobs Ensuring Cirque Du Soleil’s Wardrobe Flies

New Zealand-born wardrobe director Tanya Jacobs has toured with the Cirque du Soleil show Varekai ever since she first began working for the company, overseeing the maintenance of late Japanese designer Eiko Ishioka’s aesthetic…

Lucy Lawless Plays Evil Queen in Californian Pantomime

Lucy Lawless Plays Evil Queen in Californian Pantomime

Actress Lucy Lawless is currently portraying the evil queen Carabosse in a California-based production of Sleeping Beauty and Her Winter Knight. Through 4 January, at the Pasadena Playhouse, Lawless plays alongside Ben Giroux (Hart of…

Rocky Horror Sequel Shock Treatment Heading for London Stage

Rocky Horror Sequel Shock Treatment Heading for London Stage

The sequel to cult classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show is set to be adapted for the London stage. Director Benji Sperring will bring Richard O’Brien’s Shock Treatment to the King’s Head Theatre in spring 2015, which will include…

Swedes Are Funnier than They Think Says Al Pitcher

Swedes Are Funnier than They Think Says Al Pitcher

“One of Sweden’s hottest comedians,” our own Al Pitcher, 42, has launched his new comedy show, Nääämen: It’s Al Pitcher, in Stockholm. Educated in Rotorua, Pitcher has won numerous comedy awards in his new…

New Zealander Stephen Cartmell Performing in Minneapolis

New Zealander Stephen Cartmell Performing in Minneapolis

New Zealand actor Stephen Cartmell, once the face of Wattie’s Baked Beans, steps up onto the boards in Minneapolis at the city’s Jungle Theatre, performing in satire The Mystery of Irma Vep. Cartmell…

Gareth Reeves Elopes as Lysander in Canberra Production

Gareth Reeves Elopes as Lysander in Canberra Production

New Zealand-born actor Gareth Reeves, 36, stars as Lysander in the new Bell Shakespeare production of Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Dream on until 13 September in Canberra. Reeves and Lucy Honigman, who plays…

Comedian Cal Wilson’s Use of Language Masterful

Comedian Cal Wilson’s Use of Language Masterful

At 43, New Zealander Cal Wilson woke up and found herself wearing a photocopy of her mum’s face. Wilson re-enacted that confrontation and many others pondering the roads not taken on stage at the…

Rubberband Boy Has People Laughing Their Heads off in Toronto

Rubberband Boy Has People Laughing Their Heads off in Toronto

One of the newcomers at this year’s Scotiabank BuskerFest in Toronto was New Zealand performer Shay Horay, a.k.a. The Famous Rubberband Boy. Named the freakiest boy in show business, the self-proclaimed “Olympic-grade athlete in…

Playwright Arthur Meek’s Upside Down Perspective on Colonialism

Playwright Arthur Meek’s Upside Down Perspective on Colonialism

Can western theatre ever tackle the subject of colonialism without replicating its inequalities, Financial Times’ reporter Matt Trueman asks. New Zealand playwright Arthur Meek, feels that it would be presumptuous to write a story…

Penny Ashton’s Promise and Promiscuity Winking Assortment of Fun

Penny Ashton’s Promise and Promiscuity Winking Assortment of Fun

“The fun of Promise and Promiscuity, a pleasant and playful solo musical by New Zealander Penny Ashton, is that the marriage of the two happens so charmingly, without undue exertion in literary deconstruction, reconstruction,…

Trygve Wakenshaw Has Audience Purring in Edinburgh

Trygve Wakenshaw Has Audience Purring in Edinburgh

New Zealander Trygve Wakenshaw, of Squidboy cult fame, takes a skilful tour of an imaginary shape-shifting world at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival. “It’s hard to get Doctor Brown out of your mind when watching…

Lords of Lightning Electrify Newcastle Skies

Lords of Lightning Electrify Newcastle Skies

New Zealand electrician Carlos Van Camp will brighten the skies over the River Tyne in Newcastle with man-made lightning strikes as part of the Great North Run event. The Great North Run Million Opening Ceremony…

New Zealand Launches Biggest Ever Cultural Charge to Edinburgh Festival

New Zealand Launches Biggest Ever Cultural Charge to Edinburgh Festival

The New Zealand contingent at Edinburgh 2014 includes around 240 actors, dancers, musicians, Maori performing artists, producers and writers. One of these acts is The Factory – described as “the Pacific Les Mis” – exploring…

Rhys Darby Antipodean Answer to Eddie Izzard – “Consistently Funny”

Rhys Darby Antipodean Answer to Eddie Izzard – “Consistently Funny”

Rhys Darby in character as park ranger Bill Napier and Mr Adventure live in Bristol, proves “oddly, surprisingly coherent and consistently funny,” according to Telegraph reviewer Dominic Cavendish, who awards the comedian four out…

Performance Pays Tribute to Soldier and Wimbledon Champ

Performance Pays Tribute to Soldier and Wimbledon Champ

Performers of a musical play featuring WWI soldier Wilfred Owen’s poems will pay tribute to New Zealand Wimbledon tennis champion Anthony Wilding who was killed in action in France. One hundred years since the outbreak…

Mr Adventure Heads to Base Camp

Mr Adventure Heads to Base Camp

New Zealand comedian Rhys Darby is taking part in charity event Stand Up on Everest in October, performing at Base Camp on a purpose built stage for climbers awaiting their turn to…

All the World Is a Stage for Paratene in Hamlet

All the World Is a Stage for Paratene in Hamlet

Over the next two years, Rawiri Paratene, actor and environmental activist (best known for his role in the Oscar-nominated film Whale Rider), will play Polonius, Claudius, and other roles in the Shakespeare’s Globe

Guess What Al Pitcher Saw on the Way to His Show

Guess What Al Pitcher Saw on the Way to His Show

New Zealand comedian Al Pitcher performs his improvised stand-up slide show, the Al Pitcher Picture Show, as part of the Format Photographic Festival on 29 March in Derby. Now based in Stockholm,

Pioneering People Who Value Community Rebuild a Theatre

Pioneering People Who Value Community Rebuild a Theatre

How the Court Theatre rose from the rubble of the 2011 Christchurch earthquake is described by its chief executive Philip Aldridge for the Guardian’s “Culture Professionals Network” series. “[After the earthquake on the morning of…

Spanky Pays Tribute to His Firecracker Mother with New Alter-Ego

Spanky Pays Tribute to His Firecracker Mother with New Alter-Ego

Cabaret star Spanky, aka Rhys Morgan, says the late Amy Winehouse and his straight-talking New Zealand mum were among the many muses for his latest show Dead Bitches, which he performs as part…

Cult One-Squid Comedy Show Goes to Perth

Cult One-Squid Comedy Show Goes to Perth

New Zealand-born clown Trygve Wakenshaw, who trained at prestigious French clown school École Philippe Gaulier, is performing his one-man show Squidboy at Perth’s Fringe World festival’s Summer Nights season from 10 through 22…

Simba Impresses in Sydney Lion King Production

Simba Impresses in Sydney Lion King Production

22 December 2013 – South Auckland-born Nick Afoa, 27, makes a “fine musical theatre debut as the adult Simba” in an Australian musical production of Disney’s The Lion King. Afoa, “moves with the exuberant…

National Theatre Role from Morning to Midnight

National Theatre Role from Morning to Midnight

Auckland-born actress Gina Bellman – who played Sophie Devereaux in American television drama series Leverage – is currently starring in Britain’s National Theatre revival of Georg Kaiser’s expressionistic 1912 play From Morning…

Casting Agent and Playwright a Tour de Force

Casting Agent and Playwright a Tour de Force

“To label Ann Brebner an instrumental force in Marin’s film and theatre scene is to undermine the breadth of her work,” writes Stephanie Powell for the Pacific Sun, a local newspaper based in Marin…

Spiffing Stuff on Stage at the Edmonton Fringe

Spiffing Stuff on Stage at the Edmonton Fringe

New Zealand actress Penny Ashton, 38, “magnificently” pulls off one-woman Jane Austen musical Promise and Promiscuity, on during August’s Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival. Edmonton Journal reviewer Elizabeth Withey gives Ashton’s show 4.5 stars…

Ten Pounds Gets You Lots of Funny in Edinburgh

Ten Pounds Gets You Lots of Funny in Edinburgh

One of New Zealand’s youngest professional comedians, award-winning Rhys Mathewson, 22, is making his Edinburgh Fringe Festival debut, with his show “The Best £10 You’ll Ever Spend”. The List asks Mathewson: “What do you think…

Stretching the Limit with One Unique Talent

Stretching the Limit with One Unique Talent

Rubberband Boy, aka New Zealander Shay Horay, is one of the world’s most unusual performers, twisting tight rubber bands across his face on stage to the delight of worldwide audiences. “Strangely enough,…

Lawless Set to Razzle Dazzle in Chicago

Lawless Set to Razzle Dazzle in Chicago

Television star Lucy Lawless, 45, will join True Blood’s Stephen Moyer and Les Misérables’ Samantha Barks for a special three-night performance of the Broadway smash Chicago, which will run from 26 July to 28…