Youth taking over Glen Eden Playhouse Theatre for 'Disney's Beauty and the Beast JR'

Arts & Books Editor·NZ Herald·

6 Apr, 2018 05:00 PM3 mins to read

Matt Billington in rehearsals with some of the young cast from Disney's Beauty and the Beast JR.

If it wasn't for the socks — pink and emblazoned with peace protest signs — you might think Matt Billington, 18, was just another high school graduate taking his first steps in the world of, say, banking or management.

The socks are a giveaway that the former Henderson High School head boy is slightly more creative than the white shirt and black pants he wears might let on. Those clothes are for his day job at Unfiltered — the online business education platform launched by young New Zealander Jake Millar, 22, in 2015 and taken into the US market after a successful $1.2 million fundraising campaign.

Out of the office, Billington slips off his shoes and steps into the world of theatre. He's the driving force behind a new children's production of Disney's Beauty and the Beast JR at the Glen Eden Playhouse Theatre these school holidays. What's different about this production is that it's entirely led by youth.

All performers are aged under 18 and those involved in the backstage team are under 26. Describing it as pioneering a model for youth theatre in the community, Billington believes it's one of the first times — if not the first time — in New Zealand that all involved in a production have been so young.

He fell in love with theatre at high school, when he signed up to do "the tech" — sound and lighting — at school assemblies and shows. That led him to join the Playhouse Theatre in 2015 and now he's vice-president.

Billington says he enjoys the camaraderie and working as a team to pull together something for the enjoyment of others in the community. It's his first time directing theatre but not the first time he's headed a bold new enterprise.

Back in high school, he and classmates Buster Milani and Marion Noovao-McCamish beat 830 other teams to win the supreme title in the 2017 Young Enterprise Awards, a programme for Year 12 and 13 students to set up and run a real business.

Each company creates a unique product or service for the market. Seeing a gap in the dairy-free frozen dessert market, Billington's Team Olelei developed and launched the country's first Almond Milk Yoghurt. They followed it with almond ice-cream and flavoured milks and the company is still going strong.

While admitting theatre direction is a tad harder than he thought, Billington says there are similarities between staging a play and running a business.

"A lot of it comes down to interpersonal skills, how to deal with and talk to people," he says. "They're the sorts of skills you learn by doing rather than being in a classroom or writing an essay."

Playhouse Theatre Inc president Pauline Vella says they're quite happy to hand over the theatre to the next generation of committed theatre makers to keep the future of theatre thriving.

"We could not be prouder of what Matt and his young team are achieving," says Vella. "As well as mastering the production of this show, the Next Gen team have developed skills and confidence to full participate in all facets of running our organisation."