David John O'Donnell (born in Nelson in 1956) 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.
David John O'Donnell (born in Nelson in 1956) 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.
O'Donnell has a diploma in Acting from Toi Whakaari/New Zealand Drama School (1979), where his contemporaries included Lani Tupu and Simon Phillips. [1] He is a graduate of both Victoria University of Wellington and the University of Otago, where he was awarded a Postgraduate Diploma in Arts (PGrad Dip) and an MA. [2] His 1999 Master's thesis was titled Re-staging history: historiographic drama from New Zealand and Australia. [3]
O'Donnell began his academic career as an assistant lecturer in Theatre Studies at Allen Hall, Otago University (1992 -1998), and has taught at Victoria University of Wellington since 1999, where he is now a full professor in the School of English, Film, Theatre, Media Studies and Art History. [4] He has won several Excellence in Teaching Awards.
O'Donnell co-edited the 2007 book Performing Aotearoa: New Zealand Theatre and Drama in an Age of Transition with Marc Maufort. [5] [6] In 2017, he co-authored Floating Islanders: Pasifika Theatre in Aotearoa with Lisa Warrington. [6] [7] He co-authored Playmarket 40: 40 Years of Playwriting in New Zealand in 2013 with Laurie Atkinson. [8] [6]
He has written and published extensively on aspects of theatre and performance in New Zealand and the Pacific, including articles, book chapters, conference papers and production reviews.
He has been the editor of the Playmarket New Zealand Play Series since 2010, editing to date 17 play collections and theatre books.
He is the regional managing editor for New Zealand of The Theatre Times, a website which provides worldwide theatre news. [2] [9]
O'Donnell is currently a full professor in the School of English, Film, Theatre, Media and Communication, and Art History at Victoria University of Wellington, having been promoted to professor in 2019. [10]
He has directed many plays, with a strong focus on Shakespeare and works from New Zealand, both professionally and with student performers. Shakespeare productions include several outdoor Summer Shakespeare productions for Victoria University of Wellington, including A MidsummerNight's Dream (1991), Richard III (featuring Jonathan Hendry in the title role) in 1998 and Hamlet, featuring a female 'hero' (Stevie Hancox-Monk) in 2019. [11] [12] He had previously directed Hamlet in 2005 at Dunedin's Fortune Theatre, [13] and has also directed the Henry VI trilogy for Toi Whakaari/NZ Drama School at Te Whaea in 2006. [14] Plays by New Zealand writers he has directed include Take Me Home Mr by William Walker (2002), Te Karakia by Albert Belz (2009), [15] Heat by Lynda Chanwai-Earle (2010), [16] The Great Gatsby adapted by Ken Duncum Circa Theatre 2010, [17] and Hole by Lynda Chanwai-Earle (2020), [18] amongst a number of others. (See Awards below for more.)
As an actor, he has worked professionally for Downstage (Wellington), Centrepoint (Palmerston North) and Wow! Productions (Dunedin) amongst other companies. [19] [20] [21]
Hone Vivian Kouka is a New Zealand playwright. He has written 13 plays, which have been staged in New Zealand and worldwide including Canada, South Africa, New Caledonia and Britain. Kouka's plays have won multiple awards at the Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards, the 'Oscars' of New Zealand theatre. Kouka has also worked as a theatre director and producer. In 2009, Kouka was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to contemporary Māori 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.
Riwia Brown is a New Zealand playwright. She is the screenwriter of the popular and award-winning New Zealand movie Once Were Warriors (1994). The Once Were Warriors screenplay, adapted from the book of the same name by Alan Duff, gained Brown the Best Screenplay award at the 1994 New Zealand Film and TV Awards. Brown has written for theatre, television and films.
Rangimoana Taylor is an actor, theatre director, storyteller from New Zealand with more than 35 years in the industry. He has performed nationally and internationally and was the lead in the feature film Hook Line and Sinker (2011). He was an intrinsic part of three Māori theatre companies, Te Ohu Whakaari and Taki Rua in Wellington and Kilimogo Productions in Dunedin.
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.
Joanna Ruth Randerson is a New Zealand writer, director and performer. She is the founder and artistic director of Barbarian Productions, a Wellington-based theatre production company.
Gary Henderson is a New Zealand playwright, director and teacher. Henderson's work has been produced both nationally and internationally with his play Skin Tight having travelled to Edinburgh, New York City and Canada. Whilst at the 1998 Edinburgh Fringe Festival it won the Fringe First Award. In 2013 Henderson received a $20,000 Playmarket Award, acknowledging his contribution to New Zealand theatre.
Jean Betts is a New Zealand playwright, actor and director.
Albert Alexander Amahou Belz is a New Zealand actor, writer and lecturer.
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.
Taki Rua is a theatre organisation based in Wellington, Aotearoa / New Zealand that has produced many contemporary Māori theatre productions. Taki Rua has been going since 1983 and has had several name changes over that time including The New Depot, Depot Theatre and Taki Rua / The Depot. The full current name is Taki Rua Productions. Since inception the mission of Taki Rua has been to showcase work from Aotearoa. Because of this and the longevity of Taki Rua many significant New Zealand actors, directors, writers, designers and producers have part of the history including Riwia Brown, Nathaniel Lees, Rachel House and Taika Waititi.
Raymond Stanley Boyce was a British-New Zealand stage designer, costume designer and puppeteer and puppet designer. Boyce was part of the start professional theatre movement in New Zealand influencing the artistic landscape with his design knowledge. Boyce designed hundreds of theatre shows and was named an Arts Foundation of New Zealand Icon in 2007.
Massive Theatre Company, also called Massive or Massive Company, is a professional theatre company in Auckland, New Zealand.
Lisa Jadwiga Valentina Warrington is a New Zealand theatre studies academic, director, actor and author. She has directed more than 130 productions, and established the Theatre Aotearoa database. In 2014 she was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award in the Dunedin Theatre Awards, and was three times winner of a New Zealand Listener Best Director award, including one for Tom Scott's The Daylight Atheist.
Arthur Meek, born in 1981, is a New Zealand playwright and actor. He is a graduate of Theatre Studies at Otago University and of Toi Whakaari: NZ Drama School. He graduated from Toi Whakaari with a Bachelor of Performing Arts in 2006.
Mitch Tawhi Thomas is a New Zealand playwright, actor and drama teacher.
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.
Miriama McDowell is a New Zealand actor, director and playwright. She is a graduate of Toi Whakaari.
Jason Te Kare is a New Zealand director, playwright and actor.
Leki Jackson-Bourke is a playwright based out of Auckland and is the first Pasifika playwright to win the Creative New Zealand Todd New Writer's Bursary Grant in 2018.
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