New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has given a heartfelt message to the Tauranga Musical Theatre. Photo / Facebook
Tauranga Musical Theatre's attempts to put on a show have been thwarted by Covid-19 and alert level restrictions.
This week, while in Tauranga, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern recorded a personal message for the theatre, expressing her sympathy over the disruption.
Theatre show The Blues Bothers: First Contact was originally set to be staged from April 17 to May 2 this year but was postponed due to lockdown.
It has been postponed another three times since then due to alert level restrictions.
At present, the theatre hopes to run the show from September 18 to October 3 but this will depend on the Prime Minister's alert level announcement on September 14.
"This is Jacinda Ardern but for the purposes of this, an amateur theatre enthusiast and Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage," she said in the video.
"To all the cast and crew who are involved in The Blue Brothers: First Contact, the show, I'm so sorry that it's been postponed four times now. I do feel personally, partially responsible for that but I hope you'll be up and running very, very soon.
"All my best wishes to you and all of the crew from Tauranga Musical Theatre, I hope you have a wonderful performance. I hope it becomes cathartic for you to finally be on the stage, putting on the show for your community.
"I hope you know how important you are to us in these troubling times, these are the times that we need the arts."
Show director Gordy Lockhart, general manager at The Kollective in Tauranga, where Ardern visited on Tuesday, took the opportunity to chat to her about the show.
"I was very lucky to be in the right place at the right time. The cast themselves and the show are entirely supportive of the lockdown, we need to get rid of Covid-19.
"Nonetheless, the frustration is quite incredible, particularly when you've been rehearsing a show since February.
"It's really difficult to keep that motivation up, we've been trying really hard to keep the cast motivated and when Jacinda was down at The Kollective I thought I'd take the opportunity to see if she'd do something."
Lockhart said he was "so impressed" by the Prime Minister who was given a less-than-10-second briefing from her assistant before recording the video.
"It was just awesome, it was absolutely amazing. Being the arts and culture minister she obviously has that passion already. I guess having a history in some sort of amateur theatre, she understands that passion that goes into it."
On Ardern saying she felt partially responsible for the show's postponement, Lockhart said she was being tough on herself.
"I think it was a bit tongue in cheek, at the end of the day most of us would take the view that the Government, led by Jacinda, have done an astonishing job with the Covid response," he said.
Tauranga Musical Theatre president Jeremy Sparrow said it was awesome to have the PM take the time to acknowledge the importance of local arts to a community and to get a personal shout-out was "amazing".
"Our cast and crew have certainly had a tough time with all the uncertainty surrounding Covid-19 so I think this was just the pick-me-up we all needed to remind us why we do what we do and how much joy performance and arts bring to the community."
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