The Fortune Theatre & The Bacchanals present William Shakespeare's King Lear
10 August – 01 September, 2007
ERIN BANKS
Erin travelled to the Globe Theatre in London in 2001 as part of the SGCNZ Young Shakespeare Company and once home began acting for stage and radio. She has a BA in Theatre from Victoria, and has worked at BATS, Circa, and The Fortune, as well as for Tawata Productions, touring with The Bacchanals, and the odd Stint at Radio NZ. Her theatre credits include The Plum Tree, Romeo and Juliet, The Laramie Project, Hate Crimes, Fallow, Hitchcock Blonde, Hamlet, Stand Up Love, David Lawrence's multi award-winning production of I.D., and A Midsummer Night's Dream for which she received the Chapman Tripp award for Most Promising Female Newcomer in 2005. She garnered a second nomination in 2006, for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Golden Boys at Circa Two.
ALISTAIR BROWNING
Alistair has had a 30 year career in theatre, film and television. He has worked in England, Australia and in every theatre in New Zealand, winning seven awards for acting and one for direction. Highlights include Othello, The Graduate, Hitchcock Blonde, An Unseasonable Fall Of Snow, The Real Thing, Antony And Cleopatra, Hysteria, Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, Arcadia, A Doll's House, School For Scandal, Angels In America, Three Sisters, Great Expectations, The Threepenny Opera and Hamlet. Film includes Fracture, Rain, Lord Of The Rings and Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence.
ALEX GREIG
Born in Masterton sometime last century, I quickly became uncomfortable with the slow-paced life style and was itching to get out. I moved to Wellington in 1999 and was instantly taken with the place. My debut performance was in Jean Betts' The Misandrist where I met David Lawrence and was blessed with the opportunity to join his theatre company for their performance of Othello as Cassio. I then went on to appear in other Bacchanalian shows including Hamlet, Twelfth Night, Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Bacchae and others. I have also performed for Bacchanals/Bovine University collaborations in shows like; Hate Crimes, Golden Boys, Deliver Us and Kissing Bone. In 2005 I won the Chapman Tripp theatre awards Best Supporting Actor Award for my performance in I.D. as Lintwurm (A giant tapeworm).
Over the years I have done all sorts of theatrey type stuff with performances for Kidstuff theatre in The Ugly Duckling and Goldilocks and the Three Bears. For the Wellington Fringe Festival I have appeared in Charlotte Simmonds Arctic/Antarctic and The Story of Nohome Neville and Unwholesome Clare Who Worked in the Kitchens and Smelt Like a Dish”.
And finally on film/TV look out for me in shows like; The Tribe, Atlantis High and Event 16!
PHIL GRIEVE
Phil has been acting professionally for nearly twenty years. After studying theatre at the University of Otago he went on to perform in more than a dozen plays at Dunedin's Fortune Theatre before heading to Wellington. Since hitting the capital, Phil has performed in productions at Taki Rua, Downstage, Circa, Capital E and BATS as well as appearing in various roles for tv and cinema. His most recent theatre roles were as a bombastic bully in Steve Martin's The Underpants and two virtually unintelligible servants in The Rivals at Circa, and as Reynaldo, the First Player, the Second Gravedigger and the English Ambassador in Hamlet, his first appearance for The Bacchanals since playing Desdemona's dad Brabantio in Othello (2000). Phil has just finished six months' touring for Books in Schools.
DAVID GOLDTHORPE
David was born in Worcestershire, England where he began performing at an early age. He first performed in New Zealand in 1995 and has been involved in many Auckland productions including Jesus Christ Superstar, Blood Brothers, Guys and Dolls, and title roles in Peter Pan and Aladdin. In 2005 he played Huck in Auckland Music Theatre's Big River for which he received a NAPTA nomination. After spending some time overseas he returned to graduate with Distinction from a Diploma in Performing Arts. He made his Wellington debut as Hector in Paul Jenden's and Gareth Farr's Troy (The Musical) at Circa Theatre. David has written, produced and performed a solo show Like Someone in Love - the life and death of Chet Baker which, under David Lawrence's direction, played in the 07 Fringe Festival to considerable acclaim. He is currently in the middle of a national tour of Songs of the Sea with Capital E Theatre for Children.
SALESI LE'OTA
Salesi is a graduate of Toi Whakaari: NZ Drama School and has most recently been seen on stage in Vula at the Sydney Opera House, Deliver Us, Hamlet, the late night cabaret Frolickhausen, Golden Boys at Circa 2, Attempts on Her Life, the New Zealand premiere of Antony Sher's I.D. (2005 Chapman Tripp Award for Production of the Year), Much Ado About Nothing, and in the musical Monkey (NZ International Arts Festival 2004). With the 24/7 Project he created the critically acclaimed work Sniper (2004 Chapman Tripp Award for Most Original Production) and has also appeared in The Rover, Orpheus Descending, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Coriolanus, and The Sound of Music. Film and television credits include the Cloud 9 series Revelations and the short film Spring Flames.
MALCOLM MURRAY
Malcolm graduated from Toi Whakaari: NZ Drama School in 1995.
Appearances at The Fortune include, Knot A Problem (1997), The Farm, (1998), and The Humble Boy (2004). Other work in theatre and television includes several Wellington Festival of the Arts productions, the NZ Actors' Company tour of Roger Hall's A Way Of Life (2001), and a lengthy stint on Shortland Street. In 2005 he was awarded Actor of the Year in Wellington's Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards for his performance in The Bacchanals' production of I.D. at BATS Theatre. He collected a second award in 2006, an Outstanding Performance Accolade for his role in The Country at Circa Theatre.
JACQUELINE NAIRN
This is Jacqueline's third play for the Fortune Theatre. Her one-woman show Bombshells, directed by Lisa Warrington, opened the Fortune's 2006 season. Prior to that, she also appeared in Things We Do For Love in 2005.
Last year in Auckland she played Susan Traherne in the Silo Theatre's critically acclaimed production of Plenty directed by Katie Wolfe. Jacqueline has also appeared in the 2004 and 2005 Silo Theatre's repeat season of The Women which also had a season at Downstage and Suddenly Last Summer again for the Silo.
Jacqueline studied at The School Of Performing and Screen Arts in Auckland under the guidance of Murray Hutchinson. On graduation, she received the Senior Scholar Award for Excellence. Following graduation in 2000 and Wit with the Auckland Theatre Company and the obligatory soon to be forgotten Shortland Street character, she headed to London where she gained her first role three days after she arrived. Fallen Angels with Felicity Kendal and Frances de la Tour in which she understudied was her first show, followed by Star Quality with Penelope Keith. A stint in Budapest at an English speaking theatre found her playing Olivia in Twelfth Night alongside Suzannah York's fool.
Returning to London, she was cast in Benchmark with Jerry Hall and More Lies About Jerzy, in Hampstead. A show that consistently made the London Independent's 'five best shows' list during its two month run.
Jacqueline returned to New Zealand in 2003 and has been kept fairly busy between the Fortune and the Silo and a little bit of television. The latest being the character of Brittania in a BBC/South Pacific co-production about Captain Cook.
BRUCE PHILLIPS
A busy actor/director/ writer for 30 years Bruce is delighted to finally be performing at the Fortune Theatre. He has appeared in over 100 productions at Circa (where he is on the board) and Downstage, 11 at Court Theatre, and 3 for the ATC. Winner of 6 acting awards, and director of 13 plays, including Hamlet and Macbeth, acting highlights over the years have been in Breaking The Code, Bent, Hamlet, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Seagull, Angels In America, Julius Caesar, M. Butterfly and The Goat. TV includes Worzel Gummidge Downunder, Country GP, Hercules, Erebus, Neighbourhood Watch, Fallout and Shortand Street. Films include Alex, Shaker Run, Rainbow Warrior, Lord of The Rings 2 and 3, Without A Paddle, Ike - Countdown to D-Day, and Out Of The Blue. This year he has directed Hannie Rayson's Two Brothers and played Uncle Vanya in Uncle Vanya at Circa.
MICK ROSE
Mick has worked as a professional actor since graduating from Toi Whakaari: NZ Drama School in 1990. He played Lear in the 1988 Victoria University Summer Shakespeare, directed by Simon Bennett, and Kent (to Ian Mune's Lear) in the 1996 Theatre at Large production of the same play. Mick has numerous theatre, film, television and radio credits. He also works as a script consultant and has recently returned from Amsterdam where he completed the script editing programme at the Binger Filmlab.
SAM SNEDDEN
Pakeha, or in the words of Mike King a "white native". I was a professional chef for four years and a university student studying Art History and Theatre before I came to Toi Whakaari. I was doing a play at university when a friend showed me an Enrolment Pack over a drink one night. Straight away I thought, "that's what I want to do". So I auditioned and, wonder of wonders, got in. That was the beginning of a commitment, which has at times been the most difficult thing that I have ever done. It has also, next to the birth of my daughter, been the most rewarding. I always knew that I wanted to be an actor and Toi was where I stopped bullshitting myself and committed to begin the task of becoming a professional. A professional attempting at every corner and challenge to better confront the patterns that get in the way of the task at hand, which is to serve the text. At the completion of my studies at Toi I intend on forming a theatre collective with the people that I have met both at school and in the industry.
AMY TARLETON
After graduating from Toi Whakaari in 2002, Amy has spent the majority of her career thus far in the theatre. She has performed in several award-winning productions including Sniper, Albert Speer and The Brilliant Fassah, and played the role of Beatrice in the Victoria University Summer Shakespeare production of Much Ado About Nothing which put the Summer Shakespeare season back on the Wellington must-see list. Her screen work to date includes the short films Fish and Chip Shop Song and Spring Flames.
