Cultural capital, creative arts | Victorious online | Victoria University of Wellington

PHOTOGRAPHY BY IMAGE SERVICES, TE HERENGA WAKA—VICTORIA UNIVERSITY OF WELLINGTON

Wellington in the early 1970s was an exciting place for drama, with many small theatre groups starting up, and audiences keen for entertainment. The city was coming alive as a cultural capital when Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, aware of this cultural development, invited Professor Phillip Mann to be its first lecturer in what was then called Drama Studies.

Phillip recalls being inspired by the vision of English professor Don McKenzie, saying that his energy and persuasion led him to be able to establish the department as a creative unit in the then Faculty of Arts.

“When my wife and I arrived in New Zealand, the first thing that impressed me was the vitality of the people involved in theatre, whether acting, writing, or directing. There was a sense of urgency, too, of a country with a willingness to explore its society and to ask the hard questions,” he recalls.

Drama Studies was founded in 1970 in the building at 91 Kelburn Parade that still houses Theatre courses. The interior walls had been knocked down to provide an oblong stage space in what had once been a billiard room. Unfortunately, the rubble had not been removed, so when Phillip started, he and his wife and students found themselves sweeping it out of the room. Students who went on to have successful careers in drama and film remember this inauspicious beginning.

One graduate of Drama Studies from the 1980s is Professor David O’Donnell, who has been teaching in the Theatre programme since 1999. “The emphasis in Drama Studies was a more holistic view of theatre that was theoretical as well as practical. Students did have to act and direct, but it wasn’t the entire focus. I really enjoyed the more theoretical, philosophical side of the course,” he says.

“I had already been to Toi Whakaari, and it gave me different things, including the opportunity to do a life-changing directing course.”

After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts, David moved to be a teaching fellow at the University of Otago. He returned to Wellington and this university the year after Phillip had retired. He was made a professor in 2020.

David’s main area of scholarly research is the theatre of Aotearoa New Zealand. “When I first began in theatre in the eighties, it was very white, but later, in the eighties and through the nineties especially, it became much more diverse. Theatre became a great place for exploring culture—Māori, Pasifika, Asian, and different gender cultures in Aotearoa.”

Emeritus Professor David Carnegie (Theatre), Phil Mann, and Adjunct Professor Russell Campbell (film) taught in the early days of the theatre and film programmes.

From the archive: Phil and one of his Theatre cohorts (students pictured include Taika Waititi, Laura Hill) — Phil and one of his Theatre cohorts (students pictured include Taika Waititi, Laura Hill).

As well as cultural enrichment, changes have also occurred due to the digital era, says David. “There has been a huge amount more multimedia and theatre production. My directing lecturer, John Downie, was expert in integrating projection and live performance, for instance.

“Of course, COVID-19 has made a difference to how theatre is perceived. Last year we had to put all our courses online, including our theatre production courses. My class created an innovative version of Chekhov’s Three Sisters, co-directed by myself and alumna Cassandra Tse. This led to the question ‘If you start putting a theatre production on, while recording and editing it online, is it still theatre?’ This is something we’ve debated quite a bit, but I think there is an argument that it is.”

Lighting and sound production have also moved on since David learnt his craft. “When I was a student, we had to learn how to splice audio tape. It’s now on computer, and we have a full workshop for building sets. So students have to learn how to use power tools. The students will come in and build sets, developing a lot of skills that wouldn’t traditionally be associated with university study.”

A core part of theatre programmes for hundreds of years, no matter where you happen to be in the world, is the work of Shakespeare. In Phillip’s time, he produced Macbeth and invited young actor Sam Neill to be a part of it. While a student, David directed the first Summer Shakespeare to be performed in The Dell in 1991, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The cast and crew included actors Vanessa Rhodes and Sarah Boddy, as well as actor and playwright Mitch Tawhi Thomas, and film and television director Peter Meteherangi Tikao Burger.

David has been a member of the Summer Shakespeare Trust Board since 1999.

“Shakespeare really lends itself to being updated, contemporised, performed in different ways, and made relevant. That is the beauty of it,” says David. “I recall Ania Upstill’s production of Love’s Labour’s Lost with an entirely gender-reversed cast. In 2019, I directed Hamlet for Summer Shakespeare, with Hamlet as a female-identifying character."

The programme as it is taught now continues to focus on theory alongside practice.

“The students get a holistic view of theatre. Phillip’s idea was that you can’t understand a play script without getting it up on its feet. You had to do the theory and practice together. It’s very much still the same. My colleagues and I take turns directing the student productions, and we still do full-length student productions.

“Devising theatre has always been a major part of the programme here. A lot of students create theatre from scratch. We have an Honours student in 2021 who is doing her thesis on digital performance. It’s not TV; it’s people who choose to make performance work through TikTok or other social platforms, as well as live.”

After 50 years of the Theatre programme, the University continues to see success from its former students in film and theatre. While actor and director Taika Waititi and the late playwright Robert Lord are perhaps highest in profile, the programme also counts actors and writers Jo Randerson and Eli Kent, actor and director James Ashcroft, Trick of the Light theatre company founders Hannah Smith and Ralph McCubbin-Howell, and many more as alumni.

Here’s to another 50 years.

Victorious

Cultural capital,
creative arts

It is now 50 years since Theatre was introduced as a subject at the University—and while the digital age has brought many changes, the holistic view of theatre remains the same.

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