On Saturday 19 June Q Theatre held ‘The Part We Play’ workshop with year 11-13 school students from all over Auckland and created a time capsule with leading professionals in the performing arts industry.

One of the aims of the day for Auckland’s new Q Theatre was to link passionate high school students with industry professionals. As such the devising workshop was lead by Massive Company and prominent actors including Michael Hurst, Jennifer Ward-Lealand, Charlie McDermott, Beth Allen and Ian Hughes were also there to support the initiative and add their moments to the time capsule.

Now complete and ready to be embedded into the walls of the theatre, the time capsule contains one minute video pieces of each participant capturing their hopes for their own futures and the future of theatre in New Zealand. In 10 years time all those involved will be invited to Q Theatre to reveal and watch the video.

“The energy and excitement from the students was fantastic,” says Q Theatre General Manager Susanne Ritzenhoff, “Not only was Q able to show the next generation of enthusiastic artists the theatre that Auckland has worked so hard to get off the ground, but we were able to begin building relationships with New Zealand’s youth and offering them vital learning opportunities.”

The devising workshop featured an excerpt of Massive Company’s ‘The Girl’s Show’ where former Shortland Street actor Nicole Thomson performed a piece about Central Auckland and performers Loretta Aukuso, Olive Momoisea and Tuyet Nguyen shared their experiences of growing up in South Auckland. From this, the students were encouraged to create work about their own homes and families to present in dynamic, imaginative ways. Sam Scott, Artistic Director of Massive Company was blown away by the work that was produced, “I have never seen a group grow so quickly over one day,” she says.

The students involved came from East and Central Auckland, South Auckland, the North Shore and even Northland and Wellington. The group truly represented the diversity of Auckland’s growing performing arts scene coming from a range of ethnic backgrounds including Chinese, Sri Lankan, Samoan, New Zealand European, Nigerian, and South American.

“This will be the first of many events that Q Theatre hopes to hold in providing meaningful opportunities and experiences for young artists. Q Theatre looks forward to seeing the students involved with ‘The Part We Play’ regularly at the theatre prior to reuniting them all in 2020,” says Ms Ritzenhoff.

More information:

For more information, please visit www.qtheatre.co.nz or contact: Candice De Villiers (09) 309 8324, candice@qtheatre.co.nz

About Q Theatre - Q Theatre will be a mid-sized professional performing arts venue in the heart of Auckland at 305 Queen St. Q Theatre’s size, scale and flexibility will fill a gap in Auckland’s theatre needs. This sustainable venue will showcase a diverse range of performing arts disciplines from mid-career and senior artists, making exciting and creative experiences accessible to a variety of audiences. Q Theatre aims to provide a venue where actors and other professional performing artists can develop their careers in Auckland, provide a meeting place for artists and audiences, and become a hub for the performing arts in Auckland and be a place that the city can be proud of both architecturally and artistically. The venue will include a 350 – 450 seat auditorium (stage and seating can be reconfigured) a 120 seat studio space, a vibrant café and bar, rehearsal spaces and a function / theatre in education space.