Jaime, who is originally from Chile, has a Masters degree in Directing from Toi Whakaari, and since coming to New Zealand has developed a number of challenging and well-received pieces of theatre, most significantly, Antigone’s Death for the 2006 Festival of New Arts, Project Exiles, a piece based on The Odyssey, which explored the experience of those displaced form their homes, and most recently Mishima’s Madame de Sade, with the newly formed White Coat Ensemble. He is programme director of UCOL’s performing arts programme. He selected A Midsummer Night’s Dream for this year’s Summer Shakespeare production primarily because of its magical aspect.
This is Joy’s third Summer Shakespeare. She started as publicist on All’s Well That Ends Well in 2009, produced Macbeth last year, and her masochistic tendencies and love of Shakespeare have drawn her back this year. She’s primarily a writer, but has directed theatre and performance poetry extensively and occasionally (very occasionally) acts. She enjoys the peculiar challenges putting together an outdoor production offers, and finds Summer Shakespeare a productive way to fill the hiatus in the year when she is not teaching at Massey.
This is Johanna’s first Summer Shakespeare, but not her first experience of large scale community theatre, as she stage managed Amanda McRaven’s production of Angie Farrow’s Before the Birds in 2009, and went on to the After Eden project, where she was in chage of production aspects of a number of short works by Angie Farrow including Lifetime, Legend, Falling and Follow, Follow, Follow. In 2010 she was Assistant Stage Manager for the Manawatu Festival of New Arts, with her role being the smooth transition of sets and props for the multi-piece event.
Please see Peri’s bio on the Fey cast page.
Mark is one of the best known faces on the Manawatu Theatre scene. A stalwart of Manawatu Theatre Society, as well as performing (he’s been in more than 100 productions, including numerous Summer Shakespeares and Festivals of New Arts), he’s mentored students and supports those few local productions he is not in through front of house and other roles. Commitments overseas mean that Mark is unable to perform in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and while we are very grateful for his enormous help in the rehearsal room, anyone who has seen his rendition of “Nobody Loves a Fairy When She’s Forty” must acknowledge what a tragedy his absence from this particular play is.
Since arriving in New Zealand a mere eighteen months ago, Claire has costumed a number of major productions, including Before the Birds, Macbeth, The Manawatu Festival of New Arts, and most recently the elaborate wearable-arts costuomes of Madame de Sade with the White Coat Ensemble. Claire also works on costuming for drama oriented papers at Massey.
Kane is currently the programme leader for the Certificate in Contemporary Music Performance at UCOL. He is a composer, actor, teacher, and multi-instrumentalist who has worked professionally since 2001. He was musical director of the 2009 Summer Shakespeare production All’s Well That Ends Well, and most recently of Peter Hawes’ Go On Spike.
Marisol is a Chilean choreographer and performer, who has created a number of dance and visual choreography installation works in Chile and abroad, including Estratos y Cumulos, and Migration Performance 3.
A veteran of three past Summer Shakespeares (Romeo and Juliet, All’s Well That Edns Well, and Macbeth), Nick’s back for nmber four with A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Nick’s past experiences are not just limited to Summer Shakespeare, having worked in a technical role with many other projects, including, but not limited to, The One After the Last Goon Show, Slice of Saturday Night, Worse Things Happen at Sea, Before the Birds, three Festivals of New Arts, Bowler Hat and numerous others.
This is third Summer Shakespeare with which Nic has been involved, and he has also constructed props, staging and sets for several Festivals of New Arts and designed and constructed sets for MUDS productions such as Mort and Cabaret. His facility with saws, hammers, welders and power tools leaves the theatrical among us in awe.
Megan has organised front of house and hospitality for a number of MUDS shows, as well as Macbeth last year. Most recently she acted as one of the Assistant Stage Managers for the Festival of New Arts, in charge of coordinating the performers in this complex, multi-disciplinary production.
This is Jamie’s second year as lighting operator for Summer Shakespeare, after sterling work on last year’s technically demanding production of Macbeth, Jamie has also been involved in tech for a number of Manawatu Theatre Society’s productions, such as A Slice of Saturday Night, and the Abbey’s ambitious production of Jesus Christ Superstar at the Regent.
