Don Juan in Soho
29 May – 20 June, 2009
Aaron Alexander
In Dunedin to play Don Juan, Aaron Alexander discovered he was irresistible to the opposite sex at the age of 11. By 11-and-a-half he found it had worn off. Training first at the Hagley Theatre Company in his home city of Christchurch, and then at Toi Whakaari: NZ Drama School in Wellington, he has performed in the theatres of all four major centres (and one in the Botanical Gardens). Favourite roles include Jimmy Porter in Look Back in Anger, Tybalt in Romeo & Juliet, Mike in Steven Berkoff's East, and most recently Jan in Tom Stoppard's 2006 play Rock 'n' Roll. He was last seen at the Fortune as Tranio in The Taming of the Shrew.
Aaron is very fond of Dunedin, but is grateful for the blessings of the internet and Skype to keep him in touch with his partner and nearly-two-year-old son in Wellington.
GAVIN RUTHERFORD
Gavin is a writer, actor and director. He studied at UNITEC School of Performing and Screen Arts achieving in 2001 his Bachelor of Performing and Screen Arts.
Most recently he enjoyed Central Otago hospitality as part of the Wanaka Festival of Colour, playing Prime Minister Jim Peterson in Le Sud by David Armstrong.
He has done over 30 main bill shows at some of the countries finest theatres: CIRCA, Bats, Downstage, The Court and the Fortune, he is a returning actor to the Dunedin stage having appeared in six other Fortune shows, most recently Cinderella, The Pantomime.
Other stage plays include: Rock n Roll by Tom Stoppard, Drinking Games by Damien Wilkins, Love Song by John Kolvenbach and Rubber Turkey by Eli Kent.
Television and film credits include: Home by Christmas, Paradise Café, Time Trackers, Lost Children, Skin and Bone, Red Head and Shortland Street.
Gavin was awarded the 2007 Chapman Tripp Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Uncle Vanya at Circa and was nominated for the 2008 Chapman Tripp Best Actor / Outstanding Performance Award for his work in the Ross Jolly directed Love Song.
Gavin is looking forward to mopping up after Don Juan's outpourings.
CLAIRE DOUGAN
Claire resides in Christchurch and has been working as an actress at the Court Theatre for the last three years. Her credits there include: Honour, La Cage Aux Folles, Bagdad baby!, The Producers, Year of the Rat, The Raft, and The Country Wife.
Prior to this Claire lived in Auckland, where she completed her acting training at UNITEC,: Performing Arts School and went on to appear in various Auckland Theatre Company Productions, as well as the aware winning NZ feature film, Rain. She is thrilled to be embarking on her debut role at the Fortune Theatre.
Alex Greig
Born in Masterton sometime last Century; Alex quickly became uncomfortable with the slow-paced life style and was itching to get out. He moved to Wellington in 1999 and was instantly taken with the place. His debut performance was in Jean Betts' The Misandrist where he met David Lawrence and was blessed with the opportunity to join his theatre company for their performance of Othello as Cassio. Alex then went on to appear in other Bacchanalian shows including; Hamlet, Twelfth Night, Romeo and Juliet, A midsummer nights dream, The Bacchae and many other classics. Alex has also performed for Bacchanals/Bovine university collaborations in New Zealand shows like; Hate crimes, Golden boys, Deliver us and Kissing bone. In 2005 Alex won a Chapman Tripp Theatre Award for his performance as Lintwurm in the Antony Sher play I.D. The year 2007 saw Alex's first venture as an actor to the South Island, where he played Edmund in the Fortune Theatre/Bacchanals production of King Lear. Most recently Alex has spent the summer of 08/09 performing the title role in the Victoria University's Summer Shakespeare production of Henry V.
Tansy Hayden
Tansy is a born and bred Dunedinite who has just graduated from Toi Whakaari: NZ Drama School in Wellington. Carrying on the tradition set forth by her father Peter Hayden in treading the boards of the Fortune. This will be her first production in Dunedin. Tansy is a diverse actor with a passion for making her own work; recently writing, producing and acting in the production, Keep it Rural for the Wellington Fringe Festival and previously being part of the controversial Toi Whakaari graduate production of AoTERRORoa. This southern beauty is just starting her journey into the big bad world of stage and screen…so look out for her in the years to come!
Allan Henry
Twenty Seven. Scorpio. Keen on acting. Stage combat. And Rachel More.
Since Graduating from Toi Whakaari: NZ Drama School in 2006 , Allan has played Bernie in the highly popular Sexual Perversity in Chicago, Warren in CIRCA 2's This is our Youth and starred in and choreographed the fight spectacular Footballistic.
Focusing on his other career, that of fight chorography, he has worked on numerous Wellington Theatre Productions, including the award winning Paua, at Downstage, Wait until Dark at CIRCA, Victoria University's Henry V for the summer Shakespeare Season as well as films, Avatar, Warbrick and the NZ based, Life's A Riot in which he was also Stunt Coordinator. Allan has a great love of teaching at all levels and recently returned from studying in London where he achieved an Advanced Actor Combatant qualification with Gold Distinction from the British Academy of Dramatic Combat.
He is also vastly pleased to be famous in his home town as the Hot and Spicy guy from the KFC Ad.
Jeff Kingsford Brown
Jeff has been a theatre practitioner for over twenty years, as both actor and director. He attended the NZ Drama School in the early 80's and trained as a theatre director in the UK in 1988. After appearing in Duets at the Fortune earlier in the year, he is delighted to be back in Dunedin renewing his ties with the city and performing in this exciting piece of theatre.
Mark Neilson
Mark Neilson is 32 years old, and has been performing professionally since 1997.
Career highlights include turns at the Fortune Theatre in Roger and Pip Hall's Who needs Sleep Anyway?, Roald Dahl's The Twits, The Witches and James and the Giant Peach, Hitchcock Blonde, Charlottes Web, American Buffalo and the Jungle Book, a core-cast role in the hit political Mockumentary The Pretender on TV1, a lead in award-winning short film "Cake Tin", and small roles in Scarfies and Out of the Blue. Mark and his lovely wife Jo are expecting their first child in October.
Simon O'Connor
Simon's acting credits include roles for most of New Zealand's professional theatres as well as for film (he played Herbert Reiper in Peter Jackson's award-winning Heavenly Creatures) and for television. Past appearances at the Fortune include Iago in Othello, Ken in Gary Henderson's Home Land, Claudius in Hamlet and Edwin in Roger Hall's Who Wants to be 100? Earlier this year he was one of the researchers and performers for the Otago University production of Hush, a verbatim documentary play about family violence. He also co-devised and acted in the play One Day, for RBS Productions. Simon is a published playwright, a past recipient of the Dominion Sunday Times Bruce Mason Award for playwriting and a William Evans Fellow at the University of Otago.
Amy Tarleton
This is Amy's fifth show at The Fortune, having been seen recently in Jane Eyre. A graduate of Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Drama School Amy has worked as an actor in Wellington too, including Sniper for BATS theatre's STAB season, Albert Speer, directed by David O'Donnnell and The Brilliant Fassah, for the SeeYd Theatre Company. She has played Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing, Goneril in The Bachannals and Fortune Theatre co-production of King Lear, and enjoyed a stint as a cow and a goose when last in Dunedin in the Fortune's production of Jack and the Beanstalk. She has just come from BATS theatre in Wellington, playing Thea Elvsted in an adaptation of Ibsen's Hedda Gabler, directed by David Lawrence.
