Theatre - All the world's a stage

Capitalising on the performing arts in Wellington

By John Smythe April/May 2010

Wellington kicked off its theatre seasons way ahead of other cities this year. Bats opened five shows in January and Circa three (a continuing season, then a revival in Circa One and a new production in Circa two). Downstage got cracking on 4 February with a Long Cloud Youth Theatre show, and Bats slipped in a couple more before the official 12 February start of the Fringe.

While the annual Fringe Festival is over, the biennial New Zealand International Arts Festival is drawing to a close and generating reviews – on theatreview.org.nz – of some 82 performing arts productions staged in Wellington. We’re not called ‘the Creative Capital’ for nothing.

Let’s be clear: much of the ‘investment capital’ that sustains New Zealand’s creative industries comes from the live performing arts. The scriptwriters, producers, directors, choreographers, actors, dancers and designers (of sets, costumes, props, puppets and graphics, and lighting, sound, audio-visual and other special effects) – plus all the technicians, operators and construction and other production crew – who practice their craft in live theatre, come face-to-face with their audiences.

By engaging in real time, moment by moment – in situations that do not allow for “Take two” (let alone “Take 22”) or “We’ll fix it in editing” – these practitioners develop skills, and a sense of responsibility for self-managing them, that is invaluable to the industry. More than that, what the live performing arts industry develops in people has great value for the wider community.

A glut of talent?

In the last decade, many colleagues have expressed anxiety, if not angst or even anger, at the proliferation of performing arts courses that spit out graduates every year. Quite validly, they want to know how so many can hope to find work. My short answer is that it’s a better ‘finishing school’ than the National Service that some of us were balloted into when I was that age.

Pursuing the possibility of a career in the performing arts is in no way a soft option. It is highly competitive at every step of a long and rocky road that will prove too much for many. An increasing number of mid-career professionals with very impressive CVs have turned to teaching as a more secure way of earning a living.

Scoring a place in a full-time degree course, like those offered by Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Drama School, is a mission in itself. A fair proportion of applicants will have had a good grounding at high school (including participation in Sheilah Winn Festivals of Shakespeare in Schools), then gone on to complete a university degree or polytech diploma involving drama before attempting a Toi Whakaari audition.

Wellington’s Long Cloud Youth Theatre (affiliated with the Whitireia Performing Arts Company) and the annual Young & Hungry season at Bats (now replicated in Auckland with the Auckland Theatre Company) are also valuable pre-training grounds for young people wanting to follow their passions. There, they can develop their skills sufficiently enough to prove they might have the potential to make a living in performing arts.

Having lived like paupers during and after their professional training, competed in the open market for jobs in theatre (mostly poorly paid, if at all) and chased scarce television opportunities and very rare film opportunities (ranging from good roles in ‘no budget’ films to better-paid work as extras in big-budget blockbusters), many decide to give it away.

So have they wasted their time? Has any taxpayer, community or family support they’ve received been wasted? No, because the skills they developed in the process will stand them in good stead, no matter what else they do in their lives.

By investing in and growing their own creativity, they have learned to capitalise on their imaginations, turn raw experience and research into coherent tradable artefacts, and work productively in teams. They’ve also taken personal responsibility for their own contributions, met deadlines, channelled their egos into outcomes for the greater good, and set up and managed small business enterprises. All this while participating in activities and working on projects where ‘the whole adding up to more than the sum of the parts’ is fundamental to their success.

Such life skills are surely tradable across nearly every sector and cannot help but make them better people, no matter what they go on to do in their personal and professional lives.

The riches on offer

Meanwhile, we are blessed with a rich array of talents generating works that regularly offer us performing arts options – from inexpensive to ‘top shelf’. For my money, the shows to look out for and prioritise are our home-grown ‘originals’, rather than the ‘cover versions’ of pre-digested plays from overseas.

Bats usually leads the way; the most important work being done for the least remuneration by dedicated creative cooperatives. Downstage has recently revitalised itself with a healthy dose of home-grown work and – despite savage funding cuts from Creative New Zealand – continues to do so. Circa’s usual taste for prize-winning plays from elsewhere – on its ‘mains’ menu especially – shows signs of being refreshed with some home-grown fare this year. Enjoy!