New Zealand Playhouse

05/11/2025

This is the first in an occasional series of guest posts from creatives who see an issue in their field, and want to bring more people into the conversation in the hope of sparking some positive ch…

08/10/2025

AUDITIONS – NEW ZEALAND PLAYHOUSE TOUR 2026

PUSS IN GUMBOOTS – Written by Gregory Cooper

Join an exciting paid opportunity to tour the primary schools of New Zealand! Plus you get to hang out with other fun, like-minded people while developing your skills and performing up to three times a day!

Key dates:
Rehearsals begin: Thursday April 16 2026* in Christchurch
First show: Thursday 7 May 2026*
Last show: Friday 18 September 2026* (Cast 1) or: Friday 31 July 2026* (Cast 2)
*dates are subject to change

The tour begins in Christchurch then continues around the South and North islands (accommodation is provided once the tour departs Christchurch).

NZ Playhouse actors typically have a tertiary qualification and/or professional experience in performance, as well as a full drivers licence. If you do not have these requirements, please email us in advance to discuss auditioning.

Auditions will be held Saturday 1 November at Little Andromeda.

The audition will consist of a short monologue (we will email you one to learn), and a 30–60 second singing excerpt of a song of your choice.

To register to audition please email: [email protected]

In the email please include your CV (or some brief information about your performing experience) and let us know what level of drivers licence you hold. If you are not based in Christchurch or cannot attend auditions on the scheduled date, please contact us to arrange submitting a self-tape.

02/10/2024

AUDITIONS – NEW ZEALAND PLAYHOUSE TOUR 2025

THE BOY WHO CRIED WOLF – Written and directed by Gregory Cooper

Join an exciting paid opportunity to tour the primary schools of New Zealand! Plus you get to hang out with other fun, like-minded people while developing your skills and performing up to three times a day!

Key dates:
Rehearsals begin: Thursday 10th April 2025* in Christchurch
First show: Thursday 1st May 2025*
Last show: Friday 25th July 2025* (Cast 1) or Thursday 11th September 2025* (Cast 2)
*dates are subject to change

The tour begins in Christchurch then continues around the South and North islands (accommodation is provided once the tour leaves Christchurch).

NZP actors typically have a tertiary qualification and/or professional experience in performing, and a drivers licence. If you do not, please email us in advance to discuss auditioning.

Auditions will be held Saturday 2nd November at Little Andromeda.

The audition will consist of a short monologue (we will email you one to learn), and a 30–60 second singing excerpt of a song of your choice.

To register to audition please email: [email protected]

Include your CV (or some brief information about your performing experience) and let us know what level of drivers licence you hold. If you are not in Christchurch or are unable to attend auditions on that day, please feel free to email us, and we can arrange for you to submit a self-tape.

28/04/2024

Today the absolutely incredible The All Girl Big Band recorded the music at Orange Studio for our upcoming tour of The Reluctant Dragon…

This will be our most spectacular soundtrack yet!

Can’t wait to share it with you all when we kick off the tour next week!

27/02/2024

Hear ye, hear ye! Teaching resources and activities for this year's play, The Reluctant Dragon, are out now.

Download them by clicking the link below.

Huge thanks to William Burns for compiling these, Andy Knopp for laying it out and of course Gregory Cooper for writing this show. It's blimmin hilarious and we can't wait to share it with you all.

Haven't booked us for your school yet? Give us an email on [email protected] as we'd love to visit you.
^MB

Should you judge a book by its cover?

12/10/2023

NEW ZEALAND PLAYHOUSE AUDITIONS 2024
Auditions Saturday 11th November at Little Andromeda

THE RELUCTANT DRAGON – Written by Gregory Cooper.

Join an exciting paid opportunity to tour the primary schools of New Zealand. Accommodation is provided. Plus you get to hang out with other fun, like-minded people while developing your skills and performing up to three times a day!

Tour dates:
Rehearsals begin Thursday 18th April 2024* in Christchurch
First show Thursday 9th May 2024 *
Last show Friday 26th September 2024*
*dates are subject to change

The tour begins in Christchurch then continues around the South and North islands (accommodation is provided once the tour leaves Christchurch).

Playhouse actors usually have a tertiary qualification or professional experience in performing. If you do not, please email us in advance to discuss whether it is worth auditioning.

The audition will consist of a short monologue (we will email you one to learn), and a 30–60 second excerpt of a song of your choice.

To register to audition please email: [email protected]

Please include a CV (or a little bit about your performing experience) and tell us what level of drivers license you have.

If you are not in Christchurch or are unable to attend auditions on that day please feel free to email anyway and we can arrange for you to submit a self-tape.

05/10/2022

NZ PLAYHOUSE 2023 TOUR AUDITIONS

Auditions Saturday 5th November at Little Andromeda

TREASURE ISLAND 2023 – Written and directed by Gregory Cooper.

A super fun gig where you get paid to tour the primary schools of New Zealand (and some of Australia depending what cast you’re in!). Accommodation is provided. Plus you get to hang out with other fun people and hone your craft as you set up and perform up to three times a day to the world’s most honest audience: kids.

Tour dates:

Rehearsals begin Thursday 20th April in Christchurch*
First show Wednesday 10th May *
Last show Friday 22nd September*

*dates subject to change

Tour starts in Christchurch then continues around the South and North islands (accommodation is provided once the tour leaves Christchurch).

The audition will consist of a short monologue (we will email you one to learn), a 30–60 second excerpt of a song (your choice, bring it on your phone and we'll have an aux cable for you) and a short korero.

Playhouse actors usually have a tertiary qualification or professional experience in performing. If you do not, please email us in advance to discuss whether it is worth auditioning.

To register to audition and for any questions please email:

[email protected]

(please let us know in the email what level drivers license you have)

If you are not in Christchurch or are unable to attend auditions on that day please feel free to email anyway and we can try to sort something out :)

06/07/2022

Next week Ōtautahi!

03/06/2022

New website alert! And new show alert!

Michael Story has created this brand new site for us, it's very cool and integrates with our systems beautifully.

And I'm pleased to say that our 2023 show is going to be "Treasure Island", adapted by Gregory Cooper. Hey, and check out its excellent artwork made by Dan Bain: Noosed Octopus, Theatre etc!

This laugh-a-minute reimagining is sailing into primary schools across Aotearoa and Australia in 2023!

15/02/2022

16 February 2022 – COVID UPDATE

**TL;DR: We're still intending on going ahead with this year's tour if we can!**

Well, after another tricky year we're hoping that 2022 goes off without a hitch and we can't wait to see you all again soon.

We are banking on being in Orange or Green Light by the time our tour kicks off at the end of May. We've heard from a few of you that you have concerns about you being able to take the show in Red Light. Believe me, we're concerned about that too! So please let's all hold the bookings as though we're going to be in Orange/Green, and if we happen to have not come out of Red, or go back into Red, we will deal with it at the time much like we did in the previous Level 2 settings – which is that we will probably try and work with you to postpone etc, but will keep our minds open for the best way to approach it as new information comes in hard and fast these days.

Rescheduling hundreds of schools is something we've done in 2020 and 2021, and I guess it's on the table again. Another potential scenario, if things aren't better by term 2, is that we consider leaving term 3 bookings as are, but move everyone with a term 2 booking into term 4, if they are able to. But that's not our preference so for now we'll work with the assumption we're in Green/Orange by May (i.e. term 2) and everything goes off as planned.

A few of you are also asking re vaccination so just a quick note to let you know all of our actors and staff are fully vaccinated, and we're happy to produce our vax passes when we visit.

Your school may also have further protocols around distancing which we are happy to follow, and we won't physically interact with the audience out of caution, although we'd like to flag that performer mask wearing isn't generally practical during the performance so please contact us if you want to discuss that.

We have some plans and ideas for if one of us catches COVID. We've applied for CNZ funding to rehearse in a third swing cast. We find out the results of that on 1st April (that date bodes well, huh), but this would mean we can quickly fly in a new cast, do a contactless handover of the tour rig and continue on. We've done all sorts of things in the past to deal with regular sickness too – it really depends what city we're in at the time, how many schools are booked that week, how easy it would be to otherwise reschedule those schools, and if a substitute is available that day – so we've got a bunch of tricks up our sleeve already, but being aware that COVID has the potential to wipe out an entire cast at a time we're probably going to need to employ some new strategies this year too!

We really appreciate your support, understanding, and bookings in this environment. ♥

Feel free to call us at any time on 0800 894 500 – this number routes straight to Kris and my cellphones at the moment.

^MB