03/06/2026
Tomorrow we start our Dollar Match Day so here to hype it up is our next Cast Introduction Meg Sara Andrews
I’m Meg! I’ve enjoyed a scrumptious theatre-filled life exploring many varied and exciting roles. I trained professionally at two drama schools in Aotearoa and have spent my life building a wonderfully eclectic career across stage and screen. Highlights have been performing for Tim Bray Theatre Company and Act One Productions, touring with (and then directing for) the Ugly Shakespeare Company, playing roles such as Lady Macbeth, Rita (Eduating Rita), and Ruth Ellis (The Thrill of Love), and directing groundbreaking theatre (truly, groundbreaking is the best word ha!)
My world is consumed by the arts, in the dreamiest way possible! By day I’m immersed in the beautiful chaos of The PumpHouse Theatre as the Marketing and Box Office Manager; and all the bits in between I’m an actor, director, theatre marketer, theatre content creator, and co-own theatre company Chocolate & Carnage with my partner. I’m an advocate for empowering Māori, Q***r, and Wāhine led stories, and am a lover of abstract, absurdist and physical theatre.
I’m also absolutely delighted to be working with Pearangi Creative again after directing Lovepuke for them previously, and relishing the opportunity to play a Sheep! There’s clearly a pattern emerging in my casting too… after playing Piri in Piri the Pīwakawaka Saves Christmas in 2025, and previously the Cheshire Cat, I appear to have become someone regularly entrusted with portraying animals! Which is honestly an enormous honour. Animals deserve nuance, dignity, and theatrical gravitas too..!
Sheep (Hipi) is here for a good time! Softness, snacks, and a fun, bouncy existence. She’s often the last one to realise what’s happening around her because she spends so much time wandering around in her own little daydreams: sometimes to her detriment as she is a bit oblivious to the important dramas that are going down! Some of the animals and birds see her as ‘purely decorative’ (she is Old Mac’s prize Sheep after all!), ditzy, or a bit lost, but she has beautiful emotional intelligence.
She’s deeply proud of her wool, even if it’s the thing that makes her stand out the most, and I think she values gentleness in a world that often rewards hardness. She’s also one of the first farm animals willing to unite with the birds for the sake of the farmland and ngahere, because to her the idea of caring for each other just…… makes sense. At her core, she’s a wide-eyed sweetheart who can really do no wrong!
I hope people laugh a lot, and baaaaa a lot. I hope they feel our permission to RIOT! But I also hope that people recognise a little bit of themselves in these characters. If someone sees themselves reflected in Sheep- the one who feels a bit lost, underestimated, dreamy, “too much,” or constantly seen as silly - I hope they leave remembering that softness is not the same thing as “stupidity”. There’s real value in gentle people. Sheep might not always understand what’s going on immediately, but she brings an open heart, always!
My favourite moment is when Sheep realises that the very thing others see as inconvenient or in the way (her wool) becomes one of her greatest strengths. I love that moment because it feels like the heart of the character. The thing that makes you different, or the thing people underestimate you for, can end up being exactly what makes you sooo valuable.
You can book to see Meg in Old Mac here
https://nz.patronbase.com/_PumpHouse/Productions/OMF/Performances
Donate here tomorrow for our Dollar Match Day
https://www.thearts.co.nz/boosted/projects/old-macdonalds-farm
