Manatees show programme

Our Youth Company

This year, Auckland Theatre Company established its inaugural Youth Company, an in-house ensemble of young theatre artists learning about theatre in a way that is exciting and challenging.

It is a part-time, year-long course offered free to participants, building on Auckland Theatre Company's wonderful history of youth arts. Our aim is to let young people learn in a working theatre, feel comfortable in this space, and to train in an environment that acknowledges that being an artist takes enormous strength and resilience.

The company are mentored and trained by four artists; Gabrielle Solomona (Actor; Dawn Raids), Keagan Carr Fransch (Director; Silo Theatre’s seven methods of killing kylie jenner), Matthew Kereama (Assistant & Resident Director, North by Northwest) and Sam Phillips (ATC’s Participation Coordinator).

In 2022, the cohort trained together, workshopped and presented three new plays by Melanie Allison, Jack McGee and Mia Oudes from the shortlist of the 2022 Playwrights b4 25 competition run by Playmarket, and have stepped onto the ASB Waterfront Theatre stage in The Made by Emily Perkins. Company members have also supported behind the scenes in Dawn Raids by Oscar Kightley and North by Northwest adapted by Caroline Burns. Youth Company 2022 culminates with this production of Manatees by Dan Goodwin at TAPAC (The Auckland Performing Arts Centre).

Our Youth Company is made possible by the generosity of the Youth Company Supporters Group.

Auditions for the 2023 Youth Associates and Youth Company are in January 2023. Find out more at atc.co.nz

Welcome to Manatees

by Dan Goodwin

Manatees is a new play by Dan Goodwin, performed by Auckland Theatre Company’s inaugural Youth Company.

COVID-19 has been such an isolating and displacing force. In response, we want young people to know theatre is a place for them to assemble, to be creative, to forge connections and find company.

Thank you

Thank You to Sarah, Briana and Isaac at TAPAC, Jesse Miller for their silks rigging, and Amit Ohdedar, Nona Shedde and Prayas Theatre for their support.

Thanks to Jin Tepania-Ahdo, Josh McLaughlin, Jossiewesa Leapaga Nifo, Lupe Liumounu Ofa, Serenity Williams and Timmy Heritage for being part of the 2022 Youth Company.

Venue Partner

About the Play

A hilarious, heartfelt, subversive, contemporary and interactive production that combines wellness culture, memes, the three-act structure, and a race against the clock.

How do you look after others in a world of bite-sized connections and #wellnessadvice?

Manatees captures the feeling of living in 2022; scrolling through social media and finding comfort in memes, while hunting out vital moments of human connection. In the play, scenes flow into each other, only lasting long enough to glimpse

into a world or a relationship. An amalgamation of short scenes; Manatees offers intimate, hilarious snapshots of relationships and conversations that add up to an epic, beautiful collage of modern life.

A play that asks us to come together to share when we feel alone.

“There is more to mental illness than diets and cat memes.”

“Hey. Why are there so many scenes about love? I thought this was a mental health play?”

Changing Minds

Changing Minds are a national not-for-profit organisation, proudly led and operated entirely by people who have navigated their own lived experience journey through mental health and addiction. Dan Goodwin, writer of Manatees, has been a facilitator of Changing Minds’ Rākau Roroa programme.

Find out more about Rākau Roroa https://rakauroroa.nz/

All proceeds* from this production are going to Changing Minds.

*After fees & charges

Writer

DAN GOODWIN

Dan Goodwin (they/them) is a Scottish-Pākeha performance poet, playwright, and dramaturge. In 2016, they completed their Masters of Text and Performance at RADA and Birkbeck, University of London, before returning to Aotearoa.

A proud JAFA poet, their work focuses on the fusion of poetry and theatre, with a focus on queer identity and mental health. They are the 2021 New Zealand National and Auckland regional slam Champion, and in 2022 they represented Aotearoa in the World Poetry Slam championship in Brussels.

Their first theatre show, Breathe, toured as a solo show in London after winning the Harold and Jean Brooks award, before touring Aotearoa as a reimagined ensemble piece with Taurima Vibes Ltd. Most recently, they wrote and performed

in a sell-out season of their poetryplay, Chrome Dome and Schizo, at Basement Theatre.

In 2022, together with Joni Nelson, Nathan Joe and Ania Upstill, they founded the Tāmakibased queer theatre company Hot Shame. They are a member of Rākau Roroa, a collective of mental health advocates supported by Changing Minds and have facilitated workshops about lived experience advocacy widely across Aotearoa. Their poetry has been published by RE:, Eel Mag, The Spinoff, Attitude TV, and The Burnett Foundation, and they have performed internationally and across Aotearoa, including Auckland Pride, Auckland Live Cabaret Season, NZ Young Writers festival, NZ Comedy Festival, Verb Readers & Writers Festival, and Welcome to Nowhere.

I started writing Manatees in 2016.

I was talking with a friend about how neither of us could answer the phone. For different reasons, it made us both anxious. I preferred face to face, she preferred emails, and bizarrely, this was a bonding experience that turned into a lasting friendship.

And then it became the first scene of Manatees.

And then I wrote a few hundred more. I’m excited to see which ones we get to watch!

When we make theatre about mental health, there’s a universal tendency to categorise and even market shows around diagnosis. We talk about ‘plays on depression’, ‘plays on psychosis’’. We talk about clearly defined and well-labelled experiences.

And this is a good thing! We need stories that put names to things. Particularly in mental health.

But even within these distinct categories, there is so much overlap. So many instances of familiarity or little moments of connection between boxes. No matter how specific or closed off we think our boxes are.

So this is a play for that overlap.

All the little moments that get us through the day, and then the week, and then before we know it, a lifetime.

100 scenes with snippets of an ‘aha’ moment or a knowing look.

Moments you could tell your dog about when you get home from work.

An answer to the question “So what did you do today?”

A follow up for “you’ll never guess what just happened…”

The times where friends said something that stuck, for better or for worse.

The fact that none of us can answer a phone call anymore.

Dedicated to M. Rose. I’m sorry I never called x

Director

KEAGAN CARR FRANSCH

Keagan Carr Fransch is a graduate of the University of Waikato (Psychology and Theatre Studies) and Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Drama School (Acting). Keagan moved to London in 2017 to study her Masters in Acting at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (RCSSD). Whilst in the UK she had the opportunity to join the Royal Court Theatre’s Script Panel as a dramaturg, work with Paines Plough as a script submissions reader, review theatre for the Vaults Festival, tutor students in short courses at RCSSD, and start an audition coaching business for Black and minority ethnic aspiring actors. She is based in Tāmaki Makaurau, and most recently directed seven methods of killing kylie jenner by Jasmine Lee-Jones, for Silo Theatre.

Over the past two years, a generation of young people have been dealt a blow so hard and cruel that some people (myself included) might expect them to be wringing their hands asking “why?” “Why did the Coronavirus pick NOW?”

These are not questions - or rather, complaints - I’ve even once heard from Gen Z. The only question I’ve heard from this age group is “how?” “How do we move forward?” And “how do we build back better, stronger, and most importantly, together?” There’s no naivety in that, but there is certainly bravery.

In Manatees, Dan Goodwin has given us a beautiful and challenging provocation: to find small moments of connection in these moments of huge uncertainty; to show our

weirdness to others and have the courage to be seen; to share a kind word with someone because you recognise their look of anxiety and want to remind them that they are enough, just as they are.

The young people you are watching tonight are deep thinkers who play hard and love harder and are always asking the braver question. Over this year of the inaugural ATC Youth Company, they have proven without a shadow of a doubt that they are the voices to be heard, and the minds to be respected - determined, resourceful, and fully formed. As a millennial I am so humbled to have had the opportunity to work and play with each of them, and I can’t wait for you to play with them too. Have fun!

NATALIA PEREIRA Production Design

Natalia Pereira is a qualified museologist, interior and theatre designer specialised in set & costume design for theatre, television and cultural events. She has a background in art galleries and museums, liaising with artists, managing key relationships and overseeing a range of cultural projects. From 2017 to 2021, she co-directed the Uruguayanbased theatre company Animalismo Teatro, which presented Habbuk in Aotearoa in 2021. Habbuk received four nominations, including Best of Fringe 2021 and won Best Momentus Movement at the New Zealand Fringe Festival Awards. The last shows she worked on in Uruguay were Look Back in Anger, Heart's Desire and Bedroom Farce. Through 2017 and 2018, she worked as an art producer assistant for the TV Show MasterChef Uruguay. In June 2019, she moved to New Zealand to settle. Since then, she has collaborated with Basement Theatre, Black Creatives Aotearoa, A Slightly Isolated Dog Theatre Company, Prayas Theatre Company, Silo Theatre Company and Red Leap Theatre Company, among others.

SHAN YU 翁俞珊 Set Design

Shan Yu is an interdisciplinary designer hailing from Fuqing, China, and based in Tāmaki Makaurau. Having recently finished their Master of Architecture degree at the University of Auckland, Shan has only just begun their odyssey into art, theatre and architecture, with their first foray in The Made as set design assistant. Shan is the cofounder of CRIT SPACE, a multimedia practice that seeks to expand upon architectural pedagogy. In their free time, Shan can be found bouncing around a multitude of activities, from film and photography to tutoring and writing. There’s no sleep for the wicked, only oat milk lattes.

SAM MENCE, CREATIVE AMBIANCE STAGE TECHNOLOGIES LTD Lighting Design

CASTL for short, is a small though prolific Auckland based company that excels in the art of technical elements in all kinds of live performance. Created by Sam Mence as a response to his burgeoning freelance commitments, CASTL now sees Sam, Molloy and team working full time on productions around New Zealand with an increasing collective of live performance technicians contracting to the company. The last few years have seen Creative Ambiance work on a range of projects, spanning art installations, opera, theatre, dance, circus and all manner of music concerts, culminating in our specialisation towards musical theatre. CASTL lives by the idea that, whatever the odds, the show must go on.

Creative Ambiance; Art through Physics

Youth Company Crew

KALLISTA PIJNAKER

MARCO

CAMERON

DRAGON CHEN Assistant Direction

SANIA JAFARIAN Assistant Direction

SHANIA D'CRUZ Assistant Direction

ALISON ZHANG AYUSH SINGH

CAMERON GREGAN DRAGON CHEN

GIANNI-MIA ATTRILL-DOWLING

HARRY ASHLEY IATUA FELAGAI TAITO ISHIKA PATEL

KALLISTA PIJNAKER KIRIANA SHEREE LEWIS TAGALOA LUUK HEIJNEN

SHELBY KUA

MARCO SCOTT

MAX CUMBERPATCH MEGAN POCHIN MICHAELA TUDOR

MICKEY BREMNER NIKOLAI PUHARICH

SANIA JAFARIAN SHANIA D'CRUZ

Youth Company Supporters Group

A collective of private supporters have come together under the leadership of Peter Macky and Joan Vujcich to turbocharge the Youth Company. The generosity of the Supporters Group means this programme can be delivered at no cost to the participants.

YOUTH COMPANY SUPPORTERS 2022

Co-Leaders Peter Macky and Joan Vujcich

Saints Dame Jenny Gibbs DNZM, Joséphine & Ross Green, Peter Macky, Jane & Mark Taylor, Wall Fabrics

Angels Andy Eakin & Paul Boakes, Chris Lewis & Diane Hunt, Angela & Richard Seton, Joan Vujcich, Ian Webster, Anonymous (1)

Cherubs Ron Elliott & Mark Tamagni, Helen Klisser, Prue Olde

Friends David Alison & Gerard Murphy, Brenda & Stephen Allen, Margaret Anderson, Libby & Andrew Barrett, Patrick Bourke, Jeanne Clayton & Lisa McCarty, Nicki De Villiers, Kristen Flannery, Martin & Sarah Gillman, Debbie Graham, Bridget Hackshaw & Michael Savage, Alister Hartstonge & Roy Knill, Michelle & Dean Joiner, Stephanie & James Kellow, Greg Larsen & Mark Corrigal, Louise Pagonis, Josephine Stewart-Te Whiu, Lesley Thompson, Kerry Underhill, Anonymous (3)

AUCKLAND THEATRE COMPANY

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Vivien Sutherland Bridgwater MNZM (Chair) Karen Fistonich

Isaac Hikaka

Katie Jacobs Derek McCormack

Graeme Pinfold

LEADERSHIP

Artistic Director & CEO: Jonathan Bielski

ARTISTIC

Associate Artist (Interim): Benjamin Henson

Youth Company Co-Leaders: Keagan Carr Fransch, Matthew Kereama, Sam Phillips, Gabrielle Solomona

ARTISTIC OPERATIONS

Director, Artistic Operations & Deputy CEO: Anna Cameron

Producer: Philippa Neels

Participation Coordinator: Sam Phillips Company Coordinator: Eliza Josephson-Rutter

MARKETING & TICKETING

Director, Marketing: Joanna O’Connor

Marketing Manager: Kate Shapiro Graphic Designer: Wanda Tambrin

Marketing Executive: Camila Araos Elevancini

Ticketing Manager: Gary Barker

Ticketing Administrator: Bruce Brown Box Office Team Leader: Gary Hofman

Ticketing Assistants: Molly Curnow, Lucas Haugh, Jake Parsons, Talia Pua, Sophie Roberts, Sophie Watson, Rachael Yielder

FINANCE & ADMINISTRATION

Senior Finance Manager: Jenny Xuan Accountant: Reena Mudliar

Head of Strategy: Natasha Pearce Development Coordinator: Natalya Mandich-Dohnt

ASB WATERFRONT THEATRE

Director, ASB Waterfront Theatre: Sharon Byrne

Event Manager: Henrique Beirão

Venue Technical Manager: Johnny Chen

Senior Venue Technician: Dom Halpin

Technical Team: Nathaniel Bristow, Tayla Brittliff, Rafferty Dobson, T.J Haunui, Zach Howells, Michael Keating, Max Manson, Steve Morrison, Joseph Noster

Front of House Supervisors: Lucas Haugh, Sofi Issak-Zade, Sania Jafarian, Dario Kuschke, Rachael Yielder

Front of House: Cara Allen, Ivy Alvarez, Billy Blamires, Joshua Bruce, Ruben Cirilovic, Jack Clarkson, Izzy Creemers, Mia Crossan, Molly Curnow, Eva Fulco, Mary Grice, Jackson Harper, Kirsty Leggett, Prakritik Mal, Tobias Mangelsdorf, Pearl McCracken, Sam McRae, Kate Meere, Carla Newton, Jake Parsons, Fraser Polkinghorne, Talia Pua, Sophie Roberts, Ailsa Scott, Anushka Sequeira, Emily Smith, oshua Tan, Sophie Watson, Ming Wei Cheong, Kate Wicks, Theo Younger

Be involved in 2023

We’re committed to inspiring and championing young artists and creatives from across Tāmaki Makaurau. Join Auckland Theatre Company as a Youth Associate or audition for a place with our Youth Company.

YOUTH ASSOCIATES

We’re looking for rangatahi aged 16 and up who love theatre to join Auckland Theatre Company for 2023 as a Youth Associate to:

• Attend eight Saturday workshop days at Auckland Theatre Company

• Meet an incredible group of creative young people

• See six plays at Auckland Theatre Company plays for free

We’re looking for actors aged from 18 to 25 years old to join the 2023 Youth Company, a training ensemble of artists eager to explore the world of theatre, cultivate craft and create new work. As a member of the Youth Company you will:

• Participate in weekly workshops every Tuesday

• Be part of two theatre productions across the year

• See six Auckland Theatre Company plays for free

Open

Auditions for Youth Associates and Youth Company

Open Auditions are fun, playful, skills-based and mana-enhancing. Find out more and register for auditions now: atc.co.nz/youtharts/open-youth-auditions-2023

Sign up by: Fri 20 Jan 2023

Auditions: Wed 25 Jan to Sat 28 Jan 2023

Youth Company is proudly supported by the Youth Company Supporters Group.