Tanea Heke | |
|---|---|
 Heke in 2022 | |
| Nationality | New Zealander |
| Education | Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Drama School |
| Occupation | Theatre |
| Employer | Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Drama School |
| Awards | Making a Difference Award, Ngā Tohu Hautūtanga Auaha Toi, 2020, Creative New Zealand |
Tanea Jane Heke MNZM is an actor, director and producer of theatre in New Zealand. In 2019 she was appointed as Tumuaki/Director of Toi Whakaari: NZ Drama School.
Heke is a 1997 graduate from Toi Whakaari: NZ Drama School and was appointed director at the end of 2019 after doing the role as interim director since the beginning of the year. [1] [2] [3] She founded Hāpai Productions to create and support Māori theatre in 2013 with the late Nancy Brunning. Hāpai Productions has a focus on making opportunities for Māori women in theatre. [4] [5] [6] Heke has also worked at Taki Rua Productions, Te Papa Tongarewa where she was an exhibitions manager and Creative New Zealand, where she worked with Carla Van Zon. [7] [8] [1]
In 1995 Heke directed Maua Taua by Hinemoana Baker at Taki Rua Theatre as part of their Te Reo Māori season performed in the Māori language. In 1998 Heke directed GrandfatherSon by Kirk Torrance at BATS Theatre. [9]
 |
| Year | Title | Role | Director | Notes | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | No. 2 | Aunty Cat | Toa Fraser | [10] [11] | |
| 2007 | Eagle vs Shark | [10] [11] | |||
| 2015 | Belief: The Possession of Janet Moses | [10] [11] | |||
| 2017 | Waru | Charm | Ainsley Gardiner, Casey Kaa, Renae Maihi | [11] | |
| 2021 | Cousins | Mata | Ainsley Gardiner and Briar Grace-Smith | [12] |
| Year | Title | Playwright | Role | Director | Producer | Notes | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 | Bystander: Stress Release Tips for the Emotionally Disturbed | Duncan Sarkies | Actor | Duncan Sarkies | STAB | BATS Theatre | [9] |
| 1995 | Macbeth | Shakespeare | Weird Sister | Carol Stevenson | Victoria University Summer Shakespeare, 13th annual production | The Dell, Botanic Gardens (Wellington) | [9] |
| 1998 | Coriolanus | Shakespeare | Volumnia | Burt Turner; Oliver Driver | Auckland's 35th Annual Outdoor Shakespeare. | Old Arts Quad, Auckland University | [9] |
| 1999 | Julius Caesar | Shakespeare | Portia | Phillip Mann | Circa Theatre | [9] | |
| 1999 | Kitchen Tables | Glenda Tuaine | Glenda Tuaine | Circa Theatre | [9] | ||
| 2000 | Box/Role/Dream | Lynda Chanwai Earle | Actor (Tanya) | Vanessa Byrnes | BATS Theatre | [9] | |
| 2000 | The Hand Job | Conrad Newport | Christine Cowell | Conrad Newport | BATS Theatre | [9] | |
| 2001 | Haruru Mai | Briar Grace-Smith | Pearl | Simon Praast | Auckland Theatre Company | [9] | |
| 2001 | Home | Samm-Art Williams | Nina Nawalowalo; Glenda Tuaine | BATS Theatre | [9] | ||
| 2004 | The Prophet | Hone Kouka | Kay - Joshua's mother | Nina Nawalowalo | Taki Rua Productions | NZ International Festival of the Arts (Wellington) | [9] |
| 2007 | Doubt | John Patrick Shanley | Sue Rider | Circa Theatre | [9] | ||
| 2007 | Revenge of the Amazons | Jean Betts | Puck | Rachel More; Jacqueline Coats | Upskill Productions | BATS Theatre | [9] |
| 2018 | He Kura E Huna Ana | Hohepa Waitoa | Taua | Nancy Brunning | Taki Rua Productions | BATS Theatre | [9] |
| 2018 | Astroman | Albert Belz | Nancy Brunning | Court Theatre | [13] | ||
In 2020 Heke won Creative New Zealand's Making a Difference Award, Ngā Tohu Hautūtanga Auaha Toi. [4]
In the 2022 New Year Honours, Heke was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to the arts and Māori. [14]
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.
Nicola Kāwana is a New Zealand actress, best known for playing Huia Samuels on the longest running New Zealand television series Shortland Street. Other roles include Mercy Peak, Jackson's Wharf, Lollie in The Man Who Lost His Head and “Mad” Maggie in Apex Legends.
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.
Nancy Brunning was a New Zealand actress, director, and writer who won awards in film and television and made a major contribution to the growth of Māori in the arts. She won the best actress award at the New Zealand Film Awards for her lead role in the film What Becomes of the Broken Hearted? (1999). In 2000, she won the Best Actress in Drama award at the New Zealand Television Awards for her lead role in the television series Nga Tohu.
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.
Matariki Whatarau is a New Zealand actor and musician. Whatarau is also a founding member of Māori showband the Modern Māori Quartet. He co-wrote and performed songs, with the other band members, for the Modern Māori Quartet's debut album That's Us! (2017).
Te Ohu Whakaari was a Māori theatre cooperative formed by Rangimoana Taylor in the early 1980s that created and performed plays across New Zealand.
James Tito is a New Zealand actor and musician. Tito is also a founding member of Māori showband the Modern Māori Quartet. He co-wrote and performed songs, with the other band members, for the Modern Māori Quartet's debut album That's Us! (2017).
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.
Rona Bailey was a New Zealand drama and dance practitioner, educationalist and activist. Bailey was influential in emerging contemporary dance and professional theatre in New Zealand. She was an activist in the anti-apartheid movement in the 1970s and 1980s, and part of Treaty of Waitangi anti-racist education that started in the mid-1980s.
Sunny Amey is a theatre director and educator born in New Zealand. She worked at the National Theatre of England during its formative years alongside Laurence Olivier, as artistic director of Downstage Theatre in the 1970s and the director of New Zealand's national drama school Toi Whakaari in the late 1980s.
The Kia Mau Festival, previously called Ahi Kaa Festival, is a biennial performing arts festival in Wellington, New Zealand. In te reo Māori, kia mau is "a call to stay - an invitation to join us".
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.
Mitch Tawhi Thomas is a New Zealand playwright, actor and drama teacher.
Miriama McDowell is a New Zealand actor, director and playwright. She is a graduate of Toi Whakaari.
Justine Simei-Barton is a Samoan theatre and film director and producer in New Zealand.
Jason Te Kare is a New Zealand director, playwright and actor.
Helen Pearse-Otene is a New Zealand Māori playwright, film actor, author and psychologist.
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.