Terence Alan "Spike" Milligan was an Irish comedian, writer, musician, poet, playwright and actor. The son of an English mother and Irish father, he was born in British India, where he spent his childhood before relocating in 1931 to England, where he lived and worked for the majority of his life. Disliking his first name, he began to call himself "Spike" after hearing the band Spike Jones and his City Slickers on Radio Luxembourg.
The Goon Show is a British radio comedy programme, originally produced and broadcast by the BBC Home Service from 1951 to 1960, with occasional repeats on the BBC Light Programme. The first series, broadcast from 28 May to 20 September 1951, was titled Crazy People; subsequent series had the title The Goon Show.
Globe Theatre is a theatre located in Dunedin, New Zealand, and the amateur theatre company that runs it. The theatre was built in 1961 by Patric and Rosalie Carey as an extension of their house. The building to which it is attached, at 104 London Street, was designed by architect William Mason as his own house and built in 1864. Ralph Hotere designed both sets and costumes for the theatre productions. The foyer area was also used for exhibitions, notably the Waterfall paintings of Colin McCahon, paintings by Michael Smither, and pots by Barry Brickell, Len Castle, and Doreen Blumhardt.
Paolo Rotondo is a New Zealand director, writer and actor of stage and screen.
Downstage Theatre was a professional theatre company in Wellington, New Zealand, that ran from 1964 to 2013. For many years it occupied the purpose-built Hannah Playhouse building. Former directors include Sunny Amey, Mervyn Thompson, and Colin McColl.
Paul Allan Maunder is a New Zealand film director, playwright and cultural activist. He is best known for his 1979 film of the novel Sons for the Return Home by Albert Wendt, his 1983 play Hemi about the life of James K. Baxter, and his work in community-based theatre.
Victor John Rodger is a New Zealand journalist, actor and award-winning playwright of Samoan and Pākehā heritage. Rodger's play Sons won acclaim at the Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards (1998) and received the Best New Writer and Most Outstanding New New Zealand Play awards. In 2001, he won the Bruce Mason Playwriting Award. Other plays include Ranterstantrum (2002) and My Name is Gary Cooper (2007), produced and staged by Auckland Theatre Company and starred a Samoan cast including Robbie Magasiva, Anapela Polataivao, Goretti Chadwick and Kiwi actress Jennifer Ward-Lealand.
Stephen Sinclair is a New Zealand playwright, screenwriter and novelist. He is the co-author of stage comedy Ladies Night. In 2001, the French version won the Molière Award for stage comedy of the year. Other plays include The Bellbird and The Bach, both of which are prescribed texts for Drama Studies in New Zealand secondary schools.
Badjelly's Bad Christmas was a musical created and performed by the Chickenshed Theatre Company, based on the works of Spike Milligan. It was directed by Mary Ward and Louise Perry, and the writer was Dave Carey.
Ralph McCubbin Howell is a Wellington-based New Zealand playwright and actor. He was the recipient of the 2014 Bruce Mason Playwriting Award. His work The Devil's Half Acre was commissioned and produced by the 2016 New Zealand International Festival of the Arts.
Emily Tess Duncan is a New Zealand playwright. She is co-founder of Prospect Park Productions, an organisation aiming “to create and produce original New Zealand theatre and collaborative projects that reach into other art forms." Duncan held the 2019 Robert Burns Fellowship at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand. She lives in Dunedin.
Elisabeth Easther is a New Zealand actor, broadcaster, journalist and playwright. She played Carla Crozier on New Zealand soap opera Shortland Street from May 1995 to July 1996, and has since had a varied career in television, radio, journalism and playwriting. Her play Seed won the Adam NZ Play Award for Best Play in 2014.
The Ngā Whakarākei O Whātaitai /WellingtonTheatre Awards are the main theatre awards in New Zealand's capital city, Wellington established in 2015 after the previous awards sponsor ended their support. They are awarded annually.
Massive Theatre Company, also called Massive or Massive Company, is a professional theatre company in Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand.
Catherine Patricia Downes is a New Zealand theatre director, actor, dramaturg and playwright. Of Māori descent, she affiliates to Ngāi Tahu. Downes wrote a one-woman play The Case of Katherine Mansfield, which she has performed more than 1000 times in six countries over twenty years. She has been the artistic director of the Court Theatre in Christchurch and the director of Downstage Theatre in Wellington. She lives on Waiheke Island and works as a freelance actor, director and playwright.
Wednesday to Come is the first play in a trilogy by New Zealand playwright Renée. The second play in the trilogy is Pass It On, and the third is Jeannie Once. The play follows the women of a family during the Great Depression in New Zealand.
Richard Huber is a playwright, actor and director based in Dunedin, New Zealand.
Jason Te Kare is a New Zealand director, playwright and actor.
Jan Patricia Bolwell is a Wellington-based New Zealand playwright, choreographer, director, dancer and teacher of dance. She established the Crows Feet Dance Collective in 1999 and remains its director.
David John O'Donnell is a New Zealand theatre director, actor, and academic based in Wellington, New Zealand. He has taught at Victoria University of Wellington since 1999, and is as of 2021 a full professor.
