Brian McNeill (playwright)

Last updated

Brian McNeill (born 1939) is a New Zealand playwright, actor and director.

Contents

Early life and career

McNeill was born in New Plymouth in 1939. As McNeill says, he: "received the inspiration for his acting career in the form of a vision of Henry Irving in The Bells . He interrupted his studies at Auckland University to go on the stage." [1] At the age of 18, he played his first professional role as The Boy in Waiting For Godot, directed by Ronald Barker for Auckland's CAS Theatre in 1958. [2] The production toured the North Island of New Zealand, and was controversial. "Dozens walked out at every performance. Local and national dailies gave us front-page coverage. The local ladies' guilds clothed themselves in the role of the Lord Chamberlain, and petitions and complaints flooded Government House, Wellington. The Prime Minister was informed, decided to see it for himself, but understandably pulled out at the last minute. The censorial task was delegated to one of his right-hand men - I think it was possibly the Minister for Housing. This gentleman, much to our delight, passed it as being amusing and thought-provoking, whilst the papers hit at it as being shocking and loathsome...." [1] However the New Zealand Herald called it "a brilliant and devastating piece of theatre." [2]

After appearing in the CAS tour of Playboy of the Western World, McNeill went to Australia in 1960 and spent two years touring shortened versions of Shakespeare's plays to schools as part of the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust company, under director Hugh Hunt. [3] From there he went to England in 1962, where he worked as an actor and director until 1973, appearing mainly in weekly and fortnightly Repertory, but also participating in national tours, such as a 1968 production of Jane Austen's Emma, adapted for the stage by Robert Owen, in which he played Mr Elton. [4] He took over the lead role from actor Tony Booth in a thriller - The Murder Game - at the Wimbledon Theatre when Booth was contracted to open in another play on the same night. [5] He was a volunteer performer in Yoko Ono's short work Film No 4 (1966). [6] He formed his own theatre company in London, The Grand Guignol Players, and also directed short plays at Soho's Basement Theatre. [3] [7] [8] In late 1972, he returned to New Zealand, where he directed the first production of The Two Tigers, and then spent a year as resident writer and actor at Centrepoint Theatre, Palmerston North. [3] [9]

Plays

Later career

From his return to New Zealand until about 2020, McNeill maintained an acting career, appearing in theatres throughout the country. Appearances included roles in: Pinter's The Birthday Party (Centrepoint Theatre, 1976, dir. Murray Lynch), Da by Hugh Leonard (Fortune Theatre 1986, dir. Campbell Thomas), in which he played the title role, Sylvia by A.R. Gurney (Fortune Theatre, 1996), Uncle Vanya by Chekhov (Court Theatre, 1991, dir. Elric Hooper), and A Streetcar Named Desire (Fortune Theatre, 2008, dir. Jef Hall-Flavin), amongst many others. [22] [23] [24] [25]

He held a QEII Arts Council writer's award in 1979. [26]

In 1988, he was appointed writer in residence (a one-year residency) at the University of Canterbury. [27]

In September 1990, McNeill became artistic director for the Northland Youth Theatre in Whangarei, a position he held until 1993. [28]

Between 2010 and 2021, McNeill had an annual gig re-telling ghost stories at Dunedin's Larnach Castle on the longest night of the year (21 June). [29]

He has had a number of television roles, including a role in the science fiction TV series The Boy From Andromeda (1991), produced by TVNZ's South Pacific Pictures and Atlantis Films Canada. [30] He had a lead role as former Australian jockey and trainer Snow Rodgers in the children's TV series Moon Jumper (Television Two, 1987), and was also script editor for the series. [31]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fortune Theatre, Dunedin</span> Former theatre company in Dunedin, New Zealand

New Zealand's Fortune Theatre laid claim to being the world's southernmost professional theatre company and sole year round professional theatre group in Dunedin, until its closure on 1 May 2018, citing financial difficulties. The company ran for 44 years. The theatre regularly produced local shows and hosted touring performances.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oscar Kightley</span> Samoan-New Zealand actor and writer

Oscar Vai To'elau Kightley is a Samoan-New Zealander actor, television presenter, writer, journalist, director, and comedian. He acted in and co-wrote the successful 2006 film Sione's Wedding.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Globe Theatre, Dunedin</span> Theatre and theatre company in Dunedin, New Zealand

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Union Airways of New Zealand</span>

Union Airways of New Zealand Limited was New Zealand's first major airline. It was founded in 1935 by local shipping giant Union Company. Its services reached main centres from Auckland to Dunedin and extended to Gisborne and the West Coast of the South Island. Union Airways was instrumental in the establishment of Australian National Airways and TEAL.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Maunder</span> New Zealand filmmaker

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.

Malcolm Alan Murray is a New Zealand stage and television actor, best known for his role as Dr Alan Dubrovsky in the television soap opera Shortland Street between 1999 and 2001. In 2005 he won the Actor of the Year award at the Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards in Wellington for his portrayal of Dimitri Tsafendas in the Antony Sher play I.D.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Victor Rodger</span> New Zealand playwright

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.

Fiona Farrell is a New Zealand poet, fiction and non-fiction writer and playwright.

Philippa Hall is a New Zealand stage, screen and radio script writer and actor.

Robert Lord was the first New Zealand professional playwright. He was one of the first New Zealand playwrights to have plays produced abroad since Merton Hodge in the 1930s.

Stuart Hoar is a New Zealand playwright, teacher, novelist, radio dramatist and librettist.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Circa Theatre</span> Wellington theatre company

Circa Theatre is a professional theatre company in Wellington, New Zealand, that was established in 1976. They present a number of plays each year in their two auditoriums, and have a unique partnership and funding model with incoming shows underpinned with a cooperative principle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louise Petherbridge</span> Actor, theatre director and lecturer in Dunedin, New Zealand

Louise Durant Petherbridge, is a New Zealand actor, director, deviser, producer and lecturer.

Geraldine Brophy is a British-born New Zealand television, film and stage actress, theatre director and playwright.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Huber</span> Actor, director, playwright in New Zealand

Richard Huber is a playwright, actor and director based in Dunedin, New Zealand.

John Campbell Thomas was a New Zealand theatre director, designer and artist. He worked in the United States, primarily at the Dallas Theater Center in Texas, from 1964 to 1984, before returning to New Zealand where he was artistic director at the Fortune Theatre, Dunedin, between 1985 and 1999.

Miriama McDowell is a New Zealand actor, director and playwright. She is a graduate of Toi Whakaari.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David O'Donnell (actor-director)</span> New Zealand theatre academic and theatre director (1956- )

David John O'Donnell is a theatre director, actor and academic based in Wellington, New Zealand. He has been a full professor at Victoria University of Wellington since 2019.

References

  1. 1 2 McNeill, Brian (1966). "Jottings on a Gum-leaf". Prompt Magazine. 7: 7–8.
  2. 1 2 "Review". New Zealand Herald. 16 June 1958.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Duckworth, Colin (16 July 1977). "After the tigers". New Zealand Listener.
  4. ↑ Programme for Emma, 3 June 1968, Opera House, Manchester.
  5. ↑ "Tug-of-War star in Curtain up Drama Tonight". Evening News, London. 16 June 1969.
  6. ↑ McNeill, Brian (23 December 2000). "Yoko's bottoms (Letter to editor)". NZ Listener: 10.
  7. ↑ "Review". The Daily Telegraph. 11 January 1972.
  8. ↑ "Review". The Stage and television Today. 22 October 1971.
  9. ↑ Harris, Roger (13 November 1972). "Drama troupe in the Brook mould". Auckland Star.
  10. ↑ Flier: OKC Theatre Company, Shandol Theatre, NYC, 1–20 November 1974.
  11. ↑ "Spotlight Brian McNeill". Playmarket News, NZ. 30: 8. Summer 2002.
  12. ↑ McClusky, Margaret (September 1979). "Everyman's Theatre Collective". Theatre Australia: 8.
  13. ↑ "The Two Tigers". Playmarket. Archived from the original on 18 October 2021. Retrieved 11 August 2021.
  14. ↑ "Photograph". NZ Herald. 25 September 1973. p. 1.
  15. ↑ "The Naval Officer". Auckland Star. 5 July 1979.
  16. ↑ B.H. (28 September 1977). "Brian earns a bouquet". New Zealand Herald.
  17. ↑ McCorkindale, Wilma (6 October 1999). "Production to add colour to festival". The Star, Dunedin, NZ. p. 1.
  18. ↑ McNeill, Brian (October 1980). "Not holiday fun?". ACT Magazine, NZ. 5 (8): 62.
  19. ↑ Pointer, Harold (23 August 1982). "The fur is flying in snoburbia". Christchurch Star, NZ.
  20. ↑ Dawson, John (16 May 1982). "Knife-edge game". NZ Times.
  21. ↑ Smith, Charmian (6 June 2000). "Lifting the curtain on Exhibition". Otago Daily Times.
  22. ↑ Forbes, Clark (26 June 1976). "Centrepoint and Pinter show the way". Evening Standard, Palmerston North, NZ. p. 3.
  23. ↑ Harrison, Keith (24 April 1996). "Script shines in entertaining canine comedy". Otago Daily Times, NZ.
  24. ↑ Matheson, Lex (24 June 1991). "Review". Christchurch Press, NZ.
  25. ↑ MacTavish, Terry (29 May 2008). "Gibson a riveting Blanche in faithful production". Theatreview. Archived from the original on 24 August 2021. Retrieved 24 August 2021.
  26. ↑ "New play". Evening Standard, Palmerston North, NZ. 7 August 1979.
  27. ↑ "1988 Writer in Residence". University of Canterbury Chronicle. 22 (20). 1987.
  28. ↑ Nicolson, Gene (24 November 1990). "Youth theatre feels chill of user-pays". The Northern Advocate, NZ.
  29. ↑ Lewis, John (20 June 2017). "Ready for a long.spooky night". Otago Daily Times.
  30. ↑ "Series rivals Lucas". TV Guide (NZ). 24 May 1991. pp. 48–49.
  31. ↑ "Double responsibility". Otago Daily Times. 4 May 1987.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.