The Board of Toi Whakaari: NZ Drama School has appointed Christian Penny as Director of the School to replace Annie Ruth when she steps down from the post in May this year. The Board was unanimous in their selection of Christian to take up the reins from Annie and lead the School in its next phase of development.

The Board of Toi Whakaari: NZ Drama School has appointed Christian Penny as Director of the School to replace Annie Ruth when she steps down from the post in May this year. The Board was unanimous in their selection of Christian to take up the reins from Annie and lead the School in its next phase of development. Christian Penny is currently Head of Directing & Associate Director of Toi Whakaari.

Christian has led the Master of Theatre Arts in Directing programme, which is co-delivered jointly by Toi Whakaari: NZ Drama School and the Theatre Programme of Victoria University of Wellington since 2002. He has worked in a range of fields developing new New Zealand theatre works ranging from plays, devised works, community theatre projects and most recently Opera. He is the co-founder of the Auckland theatre company Theatre at Large (1990) and the New Zealand Playback Theatre Summer School which he has taught for twelve years. Christian is also a graduate of the 2009 Leadership New Zealand programme.

“Toi Whakaari has a long and proud history and I am honoured to be a part of that. My hope is to keep contributing, along with all the staff here, to building the kura and supporting its graduates and our industry.”

The position was advertised both in New Zealand and internationally and received 27 applications from a world-wide pool, with short-listed applicants from New Zealand, Australia, United Kingdom and USA. The Chair of the Board, Richard Moss, said: “Christian impressed us with his vision of collaboration and how from that collaboration a uniquely New Zealand theatre and screen training institution would evolve. We congratulate Christian and wish him well as he picks up the great work undertaken by Annie Ruth and carries it forward.”

Annie Ruth, a graduate of Toi Whakaari herself (Diploma in Professional Drama, Acting, 1972), has been involved with the School in a variety of roles throughout the years: as a student for one year, a tutor for three years, Head of the Acting Department for six years and, since 1997, as the Director. Annie has always had a strong vision for Toi Whakaari as the leading dramatic arts training institution in New Zealand and beyond and she has played an active role in the School’s productions as director and tutor for the students.

“I am delighted with the appointment of Christian Penny to the role and wish him well as he takes this great School forward into the future. His appointment is a clear endorsement of the direction in which the School is going. It is great that a New Zealander was appointed in such a competitive international market” said Annie Ruth. Annie has been an outstanding Director, instrumental in developing and growing the School’s expanding range of qualifications, and she will be greatly missed.

 
About Toi Whakaari:

Established in 1970 as a small acting school for nine hopefuls, Toi Whakaari: NZ Drama School has grown to a School of nearly 150 students, with qualifications in Acting, Design for Stage and Screen, Entertainment Technology, Performing Arts Management, Costume Construction and Directing.

Christian Penny
Ko Tainui raua ko Ngapuhi ngaa iwi.

A director principally, Christian has worked in a range of fields developing new New Zealand theatre works ranging from new plays, devised works, community theatre projects and most recently Opera. He co-founded the Auckland theatre company Theatre at Large in 1990 with Anna Marbrook. Together they co-directed over 40 productions. Highlights include King Lear with Ian Mune, which toured nationally and was seen by over 17,000 people, Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Cyrano de Bergerac (New Zealand International Festival, Adelaide and Festival of Perth). Original New Zealand work includes Manawa Taua/Savage Hearts, The Butcher’s Wife, Henry 8 and Gold. Since dissolving Theatre at Large in 1997 Christian has directed Shadows and Light with John Bolton for Taki Rua Productions; national tours of Victor Rodger’s award winning play Sons and Witi Ihimaera’s Woman Far Walking; with Theatre Physical in Australia & Auckland, Christchurch Festival and the Fuel Festival A House Across Oceans and with Touch Compass Dance Trust Lusi’s Eden and Lighthouse.

He is the co-founder of the New Zealand Playback Theatre Summer School which he has taught for twelve years with Bev Hosking. Here they explored themes of diversity, community leadership and the potential of large groups to be a site for cultural dialogue and the exploration of more complex social solutions. Students for this programme have come from Germany, USA, Japan Singapore, Vietnam, Fiji, India as well as Australia and New Zealand. He has worked with Playback Theatre in community and aid contexts – in Kiribati.

In 2007 he premiered a major new work Penumbra at AK07, developed over four years at Toi Whakaari: NZ Drama School with a team of collaborators. The show is a three and half hour epic spanning 50 years of New Zealand history with over 40 characters and touches on some of New Zealand’s major historic events. Metro magazine named it “the best event in the Festival”.

In 2008 he premiered Trial of the Cannibal Dog a major new New Zealand Opera at the New Zealand International Festival of the Arts. Cannibal Dog is an adaptation of Dame Anne Salmond’s award winning history of the journeys of Captain James Cook in the Pacific. The National Business Review called it “the most important, relevant and engaging Opera of the New Zealand Opera repertoire”.

Christian is one of the first graduates of the Combined Leadership programme initiated by CNZ to develop leadership capacity across the sector. He is a graduate of the 2009 Leadership New Zealand programme along with 35 other mid-career New Zealand leaders.

Since 2002 he has led the Master of Theatre Arts in Directing Degree at Te Kura Toi Whakaari o Aotearoa: New Zealand Drama School, co-delivered with the Theatre Programme of Victoria University of Wellington. In 2005 he was made an Associate Director of Toi Whakaari and in 2011 appointed Director of the School.

He is married to Sculptor Cathryn Monro and together they have two daughters.