Kotuku takes shape in rehearsal

By FIONA ALLISON*

Young Aucklanders had the chance to see what could be a theatre director's nightmare yesterday as part of the ignite2001 festival.

Actor-turned-director Oliver Driver held an open rehearsal of the new play Kotuku and had to show an audience the rare art of working with both the playwright and actors.

Driver, playwright Stephen Sinclair and the actors are in the early stages of rehearsing Kotuku – a historical work depicting relationships between English settlers and Maori.

But with the playwright present it was possible to rethink and rewrite as the actors rehearsed.

Stephen Sinclair's script envisaged many different sets and a large number of props. But Driver suggested a minimalist set, not bogged down by too many props, so the play would flow better.

Well known actors in the play, Danielle Cormack and Elizabeth Hawthorne, who, like Driver, have starred in the iconic New Zealand soap opera Shortland Street also favoured this approach.

Strong characters drive Kotuku and it seems the strong personalities of the actors will make for colourful rehearsals to continue through the week.

It's not an easy process. In the first two hours of the workshop they got through just two three-minute scenes. But no one seemed to mind.

Driver, Auckland Theatre Company's associate director, acted for nine years before he decided to try directing.

"This is much more the path that excites me. I am picky now about what I act in but not about what I direct."

* The author is a journalism student at Auckland University of Technology.

Feature: ignite2001 festival

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