Sara Brodie (born 1970) is a New Zealand theatre director and choreographer. [1] [2]
Brodie was born in Christchurch, New Zealand. She moved to London and spent seven years working there as an actress, dancer, casting director and behind the scenes before returning to New Zealand in 1996. [2]
In 2000, Brodie completed a master's degree in theatre from Victoria University of Wellington, specialising in Laban movement analysis. [3] She taught movement and acting in London and then returned to Wellington to work as head of acting at the Wellington Performing Arts Centre.
In 2019, Brodie was appointed production director for a newly formed opera company in Christchurch, Toi Toi Opera. [4]
TheArts Centre Te Matatiki Toi Ora is a hub for arts, culture, education, creativity and entrepreneurship in Christchurch, New Zealand. It is located in the Gothic Revival former Canterbury College, Christchurch Boys' High School and Christchurch Girls' High School buildings, many of which were designed by Benjamin Mountfort. The centre is a national landmark and taonga as it is home to New Zealand's largest collection of category one heritage buildings with 21 of the 23 buildings covered by Heritage New Zealand listings.
Toi Whakaari: NZ Drama School is New Zealand's national drama school. It was established in 1970 and is located in Wellington, New Zealand, in the Te Whaea: National Dance & Drama Centre. Toi Whakaari offers training in acting, costume construction, set and props construction, performing arts management and design for stage and screen. Toi Whakaari has a roll of approximately 130 students annually, who study for up to three years.
Peter Land is a New Zealand actor and singer known for his classical acting with the Royal National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company as well as appearances in many musicals.
Tungia Dorothea Gloria Baker was a New Zealand actor, weaver, and administrator. Her notable acting roles included Ngahuia in the 1980s television drama Open House and Hira in the 1993 film The Piano. Baker was influential in contemporary Māori theatre, Māori film making and Māori arts. She named the Taki Rua Theatre, and was a founding member of Māori artists' collectives Te Manu Aute and Haeata.
New Zealand Opera is New Zealand's only full-time professional opera company, formed in 2000 from the merger of companies in Auckland and Wellington. New Zealand Opera is headquartered in Parnell, Auckland, stages several productions a year, runs educational programmes, and supports early-career opera singers with the Dame Malvina Major Foundation.
Emily Justine Perkins is a New Zealand novelist, short story writer, playwright and university lecturer. Over the course of her career Perkins has written five novels, one collection of short stories and two plays. She has won a number of notable literary awards, including twice winning the top award for fiction at the New Zealand Book Awards. In 2011 she received an Arts Foundation of New Zealand Laureate Award.
Donna Tusiata Avia is a New Zealand poet and children's author. She has been recognised for her work through receiving a 2020 Queen's Birthday Honour and in 2021 her collection The Savage Coloniser won the Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. The Savage Coloniser and her previous work Wild Dogs Under My Skirt have been turned into live stage plays presented in a number of locations.
Philippa Campbell is a New Zealand film and television producer and the Literary Manager at the Auckland Theatre Company.
George Winiata Henare is a New Zealand actor with a career spanning over 50 years.
Katie Wolfe is an actor, film and stage director from New Zealand. She appeared in television series including Marlin Bay (1990s), Shortland Street, and Mercy Peak. Her screen directing work has won awards, including Redemption at the ImagineNative Film + Media Arts Festival and This Is Her at the Prague International Short Film Festival. Wolfe wrote and directed a stage play, The Haka Party Incident that was presented in 2023 in New Zealand.
Brooke Williams is a New Zealand actress, best known for her role as Jennsen Rahl in Legend of the Seeker, Aurelia in Spartacus: Blood and Sand and Eva in The Almighty Johnsons.
Dame Miranda Catherine Millais Harcourt is a New Zealand actress and acting coach.
Fiona Samuel is a New Zealand writer, actor and director who was raised Scotland from 1961 until the age of five. She moved to New Zealand and grew up in Christchurch before moving to Wellington to train as an actor at the New Zealand Drama School. She graduated from Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Drama School in 1980 with a Diploma in Acting. Samuel's award-winning career spans theatre, film, radio and television.
Nina Nawalowalo is a New Zealand theatre director and co-founder of the contemporary Pacific theatre company The Conch. She is known for directing the stage plays Vula and The White Guitar. The first film she directed A Boy Called Piano - The Story of Fa'amoana John Luafutu (2021) won 2022 Montreal Independent Film Festival Best Feature Documentary.
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.
Performing arts in New Zealand include amateur and professional presentations of theatre, circus, dance and music where it accompanies live performance. Aotearoa New Zealand has an active contemporary performing arts culture; many people participate in performing arts activities and most people live near an arts centre or theatre building.
Kate Hawley is a New Zealand set and costume designer who works on film and stage productions. In film she designed the costumes for Crimson Peak (2015) and Mortal Engines (2018). Stage productions include work for the Royal New Zealand Ballet, the New Zealand Festival and the New Zealand Opera Company.
Miriama McDowell is a New Zealand actor, director and playwright. She is a graduate of Toi Whakaari.
Russell Ian Kerr was a New Zealand ballet dancer, choreographer, and producer. After spending the 1950s dancing in Europe, he returned to New Zealand where he was instrumental in the development of the New Zealand Ballet Company and ballet as an art form in New Zealand. He was recognised as one of New Zealand's most significant living artists in 2005 with an Icon Award from the Arts Foundation of New Zealand.
Jacqueline Coats is a theatre director based in New Zealand who has worked in both opera and children's theatre, she has worked for various organisations including the New Zealand Festival, New Zealand Opera and Victorian Opera (Melbourne).