Acting, Writing, Blenheim

Dan Musgrove’s love of acting stemmed from when he was a child growing up in Marlborough. His mother was a speech and drama teacher and he became part of the town’s local theatre scene.

The 40-year-old father of three recalls shows like Midsummer Night’s Dream which was directed by Pam Logan and Big River directed by Duncan Whiting as a couple of personal highlights.

“They actually remain some of the biggest scale productions, in terms of cast, that I’ve been involved in. Great times. I’ve got loads of memories of the Boat House Theatre too. It’s got a very specific smell in that place.”

Dan says his first time on stage was at the old Marlborough Centre.

“It must have been the Marlborough Performing Arts Competitions and I think I recited a poem about a mouse or something. I remember it being an extremely nerve-racking experience but at the end I got second place and a silver medal. Medals are a great motivation when you are six years old.”

Dan’s father grew up in Picton while his Mum is from Wellington. His parents met overseas then came back to Marlborough. Dan attended Whitney Street School, Bohally and Marlborough Boys’ College.

He recalls his Drama teacher at MBC being one Alistair Williams who he says was passionate about establishing a strong drama program at the college that ‘a bunch of them’ really benefited from.

“Outside of school, I owe a lot to the Speech and Drama classes I took with Pam Logan. She introduced me to new writers, playwrights, and really opened my eyes to it all,” he reflects. He confesses he’s always been passionate about writing. He says from memory the first play he wrote was actually performed at the Boathouse Theatre which was set in a lift and James Rodgers played the lead.

“Right from the start, I’d always been pursuing playwriting alongside acting. Writing parts for yourself is also a very good way of getting acting gigs when you’re starting out.”

He suggests screenwriting kind of grew out of playwriting. After a short stint writing for Shortland Street he was then cast in the series Westside. Going very much against his gracious off-screen persona, Dan has played a string of ‘bad guys’. The deceitful Rupert in Go Girls, notorious drug trafficker Marty Johnstone in Underbelly, and Lefty Munroe in successive seasons of Westside.

“In season three the creator of the series, James Griffin, asked me to join the writing team and I loved every minute of it. Since then screenwriting has consumed most of my time.”

Dan has a BA from Victoria University (with majors in politics and philosophy), a BPA from Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Drama School and he’s currently finishing off a law degree, ‘very slowly’ at Auckland University.

West Coast beaches one way. Golden beaches the other. Waiheke Island just across the harbour.”

In 2020, he formed a production company called Luminous Beast with fellow writers Shoshana McCallum and Peter Salmon. Their debut series, INSiDE, won the 2021 International Emmy Award for Short Form Series.

“We were absolutely over the moon even though the Covid lockdown meant we couldn’t make it to New York for the ceremony. The series is still streaming on Neon.

I’ve just finished writing a second season of Creamerie which will screen on TVNZ 2 this year.”

Dan admits life has changed dramatically since he started a family with w ife Antonia Prebble. He says the biggest challenge has been learning to work more efficiently within a reduced timeframe.

“No more procrastinating before writing a scene…well less procrastinating anyway. I write from a home office and so our kids are always a feature of my working day. I wouldn’t have it any other way, but it does require a new kind of discipline to focus myself and meet my deadlines when I’m not pretending to be an ogre or something.”

“I’m in my last year of the degree but I’m completing it at a truly sluggish pace. There’s not much time after work and family commitments to make room for study at present but I’m determined to finish it one day. I’ve come this far.”

Nowadays, based in Auckland he says the City of Sails took a bit of getting used to but now he absolutely loves it.

“Even though it’s a huge sprawling city, you tend to stick to your village and there is a good sense of community in each suburb. We live in Mt Albert and it’s nicely linked up with everything we need. Like Marlborough, Auckland has great proximity t o a w ide range of environments.

Musgrove and wife Antonia both starred on Westside, playing Lefty Munroe and Loretta West. The pair became engaged in 2018.

He says the thing that drew Antonia and him together was the fact they just really liked talking to each other with similar interests and being fascinated by the same things.

“I remember one night, early on, we watched a documentary about building bridges and afterwards we ended up talking about bridges for hours and hours and I thought…if I want to talk about bridges with this woman then something must be right.

“I feel really lucky to have Antonia’s support, both in my professional and personal life. She’s in the same industry as me so she understands the unique challenges that come with a job in the creative arts. And she’s got a great mind for characters and stories so it’s always useful to bounce ideas off her.”

Dan says he remembers one night, early on with Antonia they both watched a documentary about building bridges and afterwards they ended up talking about bridges for hours and hours. “I feel really lucky to have Antonia's support, both in my professional and personal life. She’s in the same industry as me so she understands the unique challenges that come with a job in the creative arts."

Dan says his own family have also been a constant source of support for him and have always backed him up in the choices he’s made professionally, seeing countless plays over the years. “We’ve always had family holidays in the Sounds and it’s taken on a whole new dimension now, taking our kids down there.

I’m back looking for crabs under rocks again three decades later. Brilliant.”