What we do
Here you will find out what we do, why we do it, who we have on the team and where we perform.
What
Playhouse delivers educational, inspirational, extremely entertaining theatre to over 450 schools across New Zealand and Australia. Each year we write the plays, prepare the actors, make the costumes and set and tour our troupe around the country so that you can have fantastic theatre in your own environment. As well as the performances, we also provide a teaching resource so that schools can easily incorporate the play into their lessons.
Why
Our ‘raison dêtre’
Our formula is to bring the best actors and creative forces in Australia and New Zealand together to create a play that is funny, educational and inspiring – and many schools have told us our shows are the best theatre experience their students have had. To do this we rely on your support. So if you haven’t had us visit yet – why not drop us a line?
Who
Meet the Playhouse team
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Michael Bell
Owner, Director and head honcho of all things
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Greg Cooper
Writer, Director, Artistic Overseer
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Catherine Bryant
Tour Bookings Manager, Schedule Set-er-Up-er
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Kris Finnerty
Operations Manager
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Richard van den Berg
Set, Props and Stock Master
The Touring Troupe of Actors
Where
Location, location, location!
You can find us all across NZ (we do two loops of the country) and also in the Australian states of Victoria and Tasmania. We have historically toured annually from Perth to Brisbane, but it's a lot of driving so we're going to stick around just Victoria and Tasmania for a while!
Founded in Christchurch New Zealand, NZ Playhouse began touring New Zealand in 2009, then expanded into Australia in 2012.
I feel that this show was without a doubt one of the best visiting performing arts show we have experienced in a long time. The behaviour of the cast was professional and their preparation must have been thorough. My senior primary class have expressed their enthusiasm for the performance as well and this is definitely a commendation. Well done people. We can’t wait for you to return with your next show.
- Timaru
Our Year 8 and 9 students really enjoyed Botfarm 2014 – Rise of the Appliances. The show conveyed the key elements of dystopia – particularly Orwell’s Animal Farm – in a fun, accessible format. The pop culture references were appreciated, and the physicality of the performance made for lots of humour.
- Canberra Girls’ Grammar School, Canberra, Australia