MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE

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 enjoyed attending the theatre growing up in the UK , but as an audience member, although I had helped backstage for a couple of school productions when I was at sixth-form college. 

I first got involved with KAT Theatre in 2024, after my eldest daughter got a role in Alice, and I helped out with a few backstage tasks.  

This gave me a great insight to the huge amount of preparation and often unseen tasks that are involved in putting on any production, regardless of size or scale. 

I joined the Committee in 2025 and am looking forward to getting more involved and learning about the workings of a community theatre group. 

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.

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.

Drama was one of my favourite subjects at school, and it kick-started my interest in community theatre. One of my first shows was KAT Theatre's production of Beauty and the Beast (one of the club's annual summer plays). Since then, I have performed in several musicals with other Wellington community theatre groups.

KAT's annual Play in the Park is something I always look forward to. I have been involved in quite a few over the years, and it is always fun spending the summer creating an energetic show that will keep the young audience engaged. Being part of KAT also gave me the confidence to try out other roles in theatre, from stage management to music direction, and eventually directing my first play.

Outside of the theatre, I have been active in the administration of a few university music clubs. So, it felt like a natural step to join the KAT committee to help keep the club running smoothly behind the scenes.