MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE

I’m passionate about theatre and have been an active member of Stagecraft and Wellington Repertory Theatre (other Wellington community theatre groups) for a long time. I joined KAT Theatre in 2005 when their next production was to be Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas. It’s one of my favourite plays and I desperately wanted to be in it.

I did get a part and I enjoyed the club vibe so much that I stayed on. Quite a lot of actors just join a club for the year that they are in a play, which is a pity. Members who stick around a while and get involved in other aspects of mounting a production besides acting are every club's most valuable resource - without them there can be no productions.

I’ve now directed four productions for KAT Theatre and been on stage for several others. I joined the committee in 2021, where I quickly found that my work-life experience in communications and marketing could be put to good use.

I was delighted to take over as President in 2023.

Chris and I met in our university drama society. For the few years when the kids were small I didn’t “do” any theatre, so I was very ready to get back into it when we moved to Ngaio and both kids were school-age. Since then, apart from the 5 years we lived in Australia, KAT has dominated my leisure hours.

I’ve acted, directed, produced newsletters, publicised countless shows – and recently discovered that I’m capable of painting sets! I’m also the former club president.

What I love about theatre-making is how everybody’s individual talents and enthusiasms can together make such wonderful theatre, enriching for both participants and audiences. And what I love about KAT specifically is that our repertoire is so varied – that we perform old plays and new plays; kids’ plays and “suitable for mature audiences” plays; short plays and long plays; rehearsed readings and full-scale productions. And that we have always included New Zealand made plays in our programme, including some written by our own members.

I’ve always liked being involved in theatre, and when we moved back to Wellington it wasn’t long before we found KAT Theatre. I liked that the active members were a broad cross-section of adults and young people, and the range of plays they performed reflected that. The eldest of our two kids was 12 at the time and KAT Theatre became the thing we did as a whole family – it was great.

I enjoy acting but my first love is the technical side - especially rewarding is introducing others to the skills of lighting and sound. Recently our son, who had been working overseas as the technical director of an international touring dance company, returned to Wellington. It’s been great having him helping us push out the boundaries of what we can achieve in our theatre space.

Several years ago I took on the role of treasurer. It’s exacting and sometimes time-consuming work - and vital to keeping the club financially viable and able to continue producing exciting theatre of a high standard.

I joined shortly after I started my first job after university and was looking for an opportunity to do something I’d never tried before. I learnt so many things – and I’m still learning as technology presents new opportunities and performance styles change. KAT Theatre is my second home now.

After a while I also got involved in the collective activities of community theatre in New Zealand. I’m on the committees of Theatre New Zealand and the Wellington District Theatre Federation and early on, I volunteered at the national community theatres library. (Before the internet, this was the only source of scripts – now of course we communicate directly with agencies world-wide, including of course New Zealand’s own Playmarket and The Play Bureau.) Through helping groups select plays from the library I got to know about a lot of plays.

I’m currently the secretary, and my abiding passion is keeping a full set of archives. Whatever you want to know about KAT’s history, I’ll find it.

What keeps me involved with KAT Theatre? I like being part of a team and seeing the finished product of all the talents that everybody brings to make a wonderful whole that entertains and sometimes moves people.

I went onto the committee a few months after I joined. I had started going to shows with a theatregoers Meetup group and soon I wanted to know how everything came together to make a production happen. “The best way to find out is to get involved,” said Tanya, the group convenor and also director of the next KAT production A Streetcar Named Desire and recruited me as her rehearsals assistant.

I was fascinated by Tanya’s directing style – both meticulously structured and deeply creative. And I immersed myself in everything else: I hung about backstage while the actors were doing their warm-ups, I sat in on production meetings, I helped with set making.

I really liked how people who didn’t all know each other beforehand worked so intensively together for a short period and then remained friends afterwards. It felt like a really safe space to learn new things.

I’ve been involved in every production since then and have now directed several plays too.

Quite a few years ago I was president of the Karori Dramatic Society which by that time had no permanent home and so few members that we had to put it into recess (sadly it has never revived). I had recently moved to Ngaio and saw a little ad in the paper about KAT’s AGM so went along – and that was it.

I love the camaraderie of people from all walks of life getting together for the single goal of getting a production up and running within a prescribed timeframe. We’re all busy people with full lives and we put a lot of extra pressure on ourselves to make something special – to create a little bit of magic and moments in time when someone is lost in something we have created. And it’s very much worth it.

There aren’t many KAT productions that I’m not involved with in some way but I think my favourites are the ones with young people in them – particularly the annual summer play for young families that we’ve staged in Khandallah Park since 2000. Seeing the total engagement of those young audiences is especially magical.

I joined when my teenaged daughter was in a play because I liked to get involved in what the children did.

Why did I stay on and go onto the committee so soon after joining? Because there’s nothing more exhilarating than opening night – seeing the audiences enjoy the play as it actually comes to life on the stage. For a few weeks everybody works so very hard and then it all comes together. The comradeship of those few weeks is wonderful, and if you’re on the committee you have it throughout the year.

I’ve acted and painted sets and sewn numerous curtains, cushions, bags and costumes, and for some years now I’ve been the go-to Front-of House manager. That means I’m in touch with all the club members who come along as ushers but are otherwise not terribly active, and I get to greet and chat with the regulars in our audiences. I enjoy all those interactions and it keeps me in touch with what people enjoy about coming to a KAT play.

I had enjoyed acting at school so shortly after we moved to Wellington, when I was looking for a way to get to know people in the community, I answered a small ad placed by KAT in the local paper – and was immediately dumped straight into the role of stage manager for the next show! The person who was going to do it had to step down because of work commitments. That was a steep learning curve because I’d never done anything with live theatre before (I had once been an extra in a locally made film).

The ex-stage manager was also on the committee, so I was asked to take his place there too, and I’ve been on it ever since.

I’ve done a little acting but I really enjoy the backstage, technical and construction work most – especially construction, because it’s always a challenge to find ways to create stunning sets with as little money as possible.

When I joined KAT my whole life already revolved around theatre (still does). I joined because KAT was local but more especially it was led at that time by the fantastic, enthusiastic and invigorating Zenocrate Graham.

One of my roles on the committee is maintaining the wardrobe. I know exactly what we’ve got and I have a fair idea of what all the other Wellington clubs have too. The collegiality and willingness to share among the clubs is one of the things I really like about community theatre.

I’m also the artistic director. I’ve had a lifetime of teaching speech and drama, reading and directing plays and adjudicating performances, so I know something of what makes a script worth the creative endeavour to turn it into a performance. I lead the committee’s evaluation of the scripts directors would like to use, I help new directors select scripts, and I co-ordinate the year’s programme.

What I love about KAT is the camaraderie, the total immersion of everybody in each project, the energy and the different age groups coming together. I like doing everything – except set painting, which I loathe!

After years as a stage mum for my kids' various performing arts interests, I've made the leap to having a more official involvement by joining the KAT Theatre committee in 2023.

We joined KAT as a family when my son developed an interest in acting. His sister followed him and I followed her, and now we get to spend time together doing something we all love.

I've long had a passion for the performing arts, but primarily as a spectator. Supporting my children’s interest in theatre, dance and circus has brought me joy both in terms of their experiences and discovering that I enjoyed my time being generally useful behind the scenes to make things happen.

It's been pleasing to find that my professional experiences as a projects and people manager are highly relevant to community theatre and I have enjoyed the adventure so far.