Bruce has been addicted to theatre for more than 30 years. He has done a number of Shakespeares in that time, including a few in the Esplanade, and has performed to critical acclaim in many plays and shows in the city, including playing King Arthur in the Australasian debut of Spamalot, and an award-winning performance as Pilate in Jesus Christ Superstar at the Regent. He is involved with Much Ado About Nothing to feed his addiction, not having done any Shakespeare for a few years, and can’t identify a favourite scene or line because he enjoys the whole play.
Rosie’s theatre experience includes two Summer Shakespeares: All’s Well That Ends Well in 2009 and A Midsummer Night’s Dream last year as well as NCEA Drama and various random conglomerations of actors. Her reasons for getting involved again this year are that it’s fun, she’s learnt something new every time she’s participated, got the chance to meet new people, and to indulge her love of Shakespeare. As she says, “What’s not to love?” Her favourite quote from the play is one of Benedick’s lines: "Let me be vilely painted, and in such great letters as they write ‘Here is a good horse to hire,’ let them signify under my sign ‘Here you may see Benedick the married man.’"
Beatrice is Maree’s first role in Summer Shakespeare, but over the past few years, she has been heavily involved with theatre in the city, performing with the After Eden and Manawatu Dreaming Street Theatre companies, and playing roles in The Manawatu Festival of New Arts (FONA). In 2009 she played the role of Martha in Angie Farrow’s play Before the Birds — also directed by Amanda McRaven — for which she won a local Globe Theatre award. Most recently she was seen as “River Woman”, the spirit of the Manawatu in The River, directed by Jaime Dörner.
Kelly, who is also acting as Assistant Director in this production, has taught English and Drama at Feilding High School for seven years. She has been involved with Performing Arts at Massey University over the last 12 years, acting in productions for MUDS and FONA and many of Angie Farrow’s plays including Legend, Before the Birds, and more recently, The River. In 2010, Kelly made her debut behind the scenes at FONA, directing David Collins’ Moscow Ticket. However, it is a passion for Shakespeare that drives Kelly. She has performed in four Manawatu Summer Shakespeare productions including playing Quince in last year’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and it is this passion that has led her to get involved again, this year with Much Ado About Nothing. She says “My students think I’m insane sometimes but the passion is infectious. I love reading, performing, directing and teaching Shakespeare... Often students put up a ‘wall’ with Shakespeare; it’s too hard or in a ‘funny’ language and I am always looking for ways in which I can get the students engaged; showing them that I can perform Shakespeare as well as teach it is one of the most satisfying and successful means of inspiring them.” Kelly has also directed two Regional/National winning teams in the Sheilah Winn Shakespeare Festival and in 2011, Kelly was one of 20 teachers selected to attend the SGCNZ Teacher’s Go Global Workshops in London where she spent two and a half weeks working with Globe Theatre practitioners and performed on the Globe stage. Currently, Kelly is preparing to direct Feilding High School’s 2012 production of Blood Brothers.
This is Lana’s third consecutive year in Summer Shakespeare. She played the Porter in 2010’s Macbeth and last year was one of twin Pucks, with Ashleigh Hook in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. She also has extensive other theatre experience, performing with the After Eden company, and Manawatu Dreaming Street Theatre troupe as well as being involved with several FONA productions, Before the Birds, The River, Antigone’s Dream and Project Exiles, as well as playing the role of Felicity in MUDS “Fakespeare” production Worse Things Happen At Sea.
Ashleigh has been around the theatre scene in the Manawatu for a few years now, being involved in community projects such as The River and Before the Birds, along with many FONA shows, and is looking forward to being drawn into Shakespeare’s world once again. This year she will be playing Sister Francis, a big change from playing Puck in last year’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, but still a challenging role to sink her teeth into. She has rejoined the team for another year because, she says, “Being part of Summer Shakespeare last year was such an amazing experience, I’m looking forward to this year being just as amazing if not more so.” Being able to work with Amanda again after Before the Birds, along with the beautiful cast is, she says “just a bonus”. She is looking forward to the crazy exciting time this scale of production offers and challenges the audience: "Call me a fool, trust not my reading nor my observations, my reverence, calling, nor my divinity … if Summer Shakespeare 2012 isn’t going to be AMAZING!”
