Damien Avery pictured in 2015 with writer Emily Perkins, right, and fellow actor Laurel Devenie at rehearsals for A Doll's House which Emily adapted at the Auckland Theatre Company.
Damien Avery pictured in 2015 with writer Emily Perkins, right, and fellow actor Laurel Devenie at rehearsals for A Doll's House which Emily adapted at the Auckland Theatre Company.
Damien Avery is currently appearing in the Melbourne production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child ... or rather he would be if Victoria was not in lockdown.
He has been with the production since September 2018 as a swing.
''A swing is a very demanding role,'' he says. ''I'm kind of like an understudy, except I understudy seven plus different roles, including Harry Potter himself, across the whole production, and I'm on stage every night.
''I need to understand every entrance, exit, cue, direction, move, line, mark, for all of them.''
He says swings are considered some of the hardest working actors, and good swings are among the most sought after people for productions all round the world.
''I was blown away that I was considered as having the necessary skill set to be not only be one of their swings, but to also cover Harry Potter for the production. He's so much fun to play ... but especially so, having read all the books growing up.''
Damien left Te Puke High School in 2002.
''The thing I remember most about my time at Te Puke High School is just having opportunities,'' he says, ''opportunities to do things, or to get involved with. The school just always seemed to have something going on.
''Of course, I was involved in all the performing arts that I could be, but there were also touring school shows to see, or volcanoes in the middle of the North Island to climb, sports exchanges, or science experiments, all the way to peer support camp later on.
''I just always remember something going on at the school that I was working towards and I think that's really great.
"Those experiences are what I walked away from my school years with. And as I became a professional actor, then I'd say the performing arts ones have definitely helped me in my chosen path.''
Damien was involved in every lip sync, talent quest, school production, stage challenge and theatresports exchange he could be.
''And when I say involved, I mean not just on the stage, but also off helping to set up all the technical requirements that each respective show needed at lunchtime, and then off to rehearsal after school to do the on stage part.''
On leaving school he went to study acting at Unitec: School of Performing and Screen Arts in Auckland.
Since graduating he has worked in film, television and theatre around New Zealand and overseas.
Actor Damien Avery, a former Te Puke High School student.
Included on his resumé are television shows Power Rangers RPM, and Underbelly: Land of the Long Green Cloud. He has had roles in the movies Siege and Field Punishment No.1 and theatre productions for The Court Theatre in Christchurch, such as The Mikado, and Auckland Theatre Company's A Dolls House, Rupert, and Billy Elliot.
He says he thinks he has always just known that acting was something he wanted to continue with.
''It was just what I did, and had always just been the only thing I ever really felt any good at. Those feelings must have just come from all the experiences I had at Te Puke High School and other extra curricular activities in Tauranga that my mum (Lyn) took me to."
He recalls going to the audition for drama school in Rotorua before travelling to Auckland for a weekend ''intensive''.
''I must have had a good feeling about it all because when I received my acceptance letter in the mail I remember thinking to myself 'yup that's what I'm doing'.''
His first professional role was in a commercial - and a role he didn't initially get despite recalls and feeling like he was a favourite.
''I was gutted,'' he says. ''I then went to audition for another commercial that, turns out was being directed by the same director ... he told me that the executives for the first job had gone with someone else, so he was casting me in this one as I was his favourite. It's just like that sometimes.
''Two days later I got a phone call saying they now needed me for the first job after all. The guy they had cast had a broken collarbone and couldn't do what they required of him. I ended up with both jobs. That was a great feeling.''
''Every production has its ups and downs, its challenges and rewards. You might particularly enjoy the character you're playing, or maybe it was the process you went through to get there. Or maybe it's just the other cast members, or how the audience is receiving the work.
''I can say, though, that I am most proud of the production of A Doll's House I did for Auckland Theatre Company. We had a great team, a great director, telling an amazing modern take on a classic and still relevant story.
''Alan Smith, my drama teacher at Te Puke High School, brought a bus load of kids up to see that production, and I had a chat with them all afterwards.
''That was a very sweet 'closing the circle' moment for me."
