There’s a pattering of feet as the actors hurry through the studio, the group of four following each other and clustering around the audience of their fellow students and one writer from The Big Idea. “Humans,” croaks one of the creatures, wearing a mask with a long sharp beak over the upper part of his face. “Humans!” echo the other actors, their bodies writhing at the prospect of a feast. 

“Make it stranger – I want to see a gesture you’ve never done before,” calls out Pedro Ilgenfritz, artistic director of the Hagley Theatre School. These students are nearing the end of the one-year acting training course, and Ilgenfritz has transitioned from being a teacher to being a director, as they prepare for their final performance – an adaptation of the Odyssey. “As a director, my job is to help create with them,” Ilgenfritz says. 

After 18 years teaching drama at Unitec in Auckland, Ilgenfritz moved to Christchurch to take up the role with Hagley Theatre School last year. He’s restructured the course, changing what it offers to differentiate it from other drama programmes. The school is independent, but operates at Hagley College, a high school in central Christchurch which offers a variety of adult education as well as the main school.

Students can enter Hagley Theatre School straight out of high school. It isn’t an official qualification with NZQA, although work is underway to register it for 2027. To Ilgenfritz, the purpose of the school is different to traditional drama training. “The school is a big laboratory – you come to Hagley and we test the principles that our theatrical ancestors pass to us,” Ilgenfritz says. “We really focus on the development of the creator, the person.”

In practice, this means that students don’t study particular theatre texts, but the underlying idea of “how to make your body obey the images in your mind.” Ilgenfritz moves his fingers together to symbolise the unification of mind and body.

“Most theatre schools in New Zealand sort of focus a lot on getting into the emotional head space which has never really worked for me,” says Isaac, who did the year-long course at Hagley Theatre School in 2024 and has come back to do another year in the revamped format Ilgenfritz has introduced.

A lot of what Hagley Theatre School now focuses on is movement through acrobatics and circus training. They also study clown techniques like the bouffon. “Acting is duality – we are at the same time ourselves and something else. So how do you really flex that muscle so you can transform yourself into other things?” Ilgenfritz says. His PhD research looked into the movement and acting pioneer Jacques Lecoq, who used clowning as part of acting teaching.

Hagley Theatre school has over 100 masks, says Ilgenfritz. Half-masks, as worn by the human-eating monsters, but also larval masks (soft and blobby), neutral masks (still and flat) and various kinds of expressive masks (like 🎭). “We all found the neutral mask unforgiving,” says Eric, with groans echoed by the other students.

Another part of the school is studying kapa haka. “I’m one of the only Māori students here but I have a lot of background in kapa haka,” says Malia. “It’s been really nice to share my culture with these guys because they have a willingness to learn.” Going through the process of creation has helped the students to bond, says Natalia. “I’m over 40 and they have taught me to use Instagram and say ‘rizz’.” Attending the school has made her feel “energised”.

Each week, Ilgenfritz gives the students a “provocation”, a scenario or prompt they have to develop and perform for their peers every Friday. When I ask students about their favourite provocations there are stories of vampires and clowns attending a wedding. “We still quote some of those scenes ‘the sun is on my head, but I’m not dead’,” says Dominic. “I could see what I’d been working on all year come out in some of those scenes,” says Caitlin.

“We’re not afraid of testing or taking risks, because those are the real moments of growth,” Ilgenfritz says. “The self-creation is pretty intense, because every Friday you have to deliver.”

Some of those provocations can be developed into further work for a showcase, or lead into the six-month theatre creation course, an immersive theatre-making programme which allows students to create and perform solo or group work. Applying to the six-month course requires a specific plan about what you want to develop, who else is involved, and a rough budget. “It’s really exciting having the six-month programme because it means that what we’re learning gets transformed into a new part of the Christchurch theatre ecosystem,” says Jonty, who is developing a show called Faust on Trial in the course that will be performed as part of the Hagley Theatre School’s Summer Season at Te Wā in November. “I’m suddenly a lot more aware of what is happening in [the arts scene] in the city and how what we do at Hagley complements that.”

Lola Houghton, who studied with Ilgenfritz for her degree in Unitec, has just completed the theatre creation course too. She’s created an hour-long one-woman show, where she plays seven different characters – all at the periphery of a meeting which may or may not have a lot to do with the formation of the current coalition government. Houghton had the opportunity to perform at a festival in Italy, then had a two night run at the petite Little Andromeda venue in Christchurch – one of the many theatres which has emerged after the earthquakes.

“For me as an emerging maker and creator and actress it's really amazing to be meeting people through a work that I had made,” Houghton says. “I can meet directors and producers and other makers and artists and things from the perspective of actually having done something of my own that I’m proud of.” In her performance, Houghton had to shift from one character to another, changing voice and movement to delineate who is speaking without costume changes. “What’s taught here is a lot of the core principles of acting, which cross over into lots of different styles.”

To Ilgenfritz, Christchurch is an ideal place to run a programme which doesn’t fit into the standard drama school box. “There’s the new Court Theatre, the new space next door [the Parakiore recreation centre], the Arts Centre, all these little theatres,” He says. “We are a brave little school, and Christchurch is a great place to have a school like ours that really puts the person and creativity at the centre.”

 Hagley Theatre School is holding auditions for the 2026 year on 6 December.