Associate Professor David O’Donnell won the Non-Resident Guest Artist award for directing the play, and his collaborator, Scenography Lecturer James Davenport, won the Set Design Award. They had worked with an indigenous theatre company, Kumu Kahua in Honolulu to stage the play and were funded by a research grant from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences.
David says the collaboration between the academic and artistic worlds can be highly productive. “You get a lot more out of a project. James and I are both artists as well as academics so it’s exciting to straddle both worlds."
Before heading to Hawai'i, the duo made a model first and tested the set at 77 Fairlie Terrac—the Theatre programme's performance space. The top of the set was designed like a giant roll of film, with fluid walls that resemble the organic fibres of a fale.
"In devising a concept for the production, we aimed to emphasise the play's engagement with cinema and photography, in contrast to the natural ecologies of a village in Samoa," says James.
The playwright, Victor Rodger, attended the opening night of the production and gave numerous talks about the play around Honolulu. The play had a five-week run of playing to packed houses and critical acclaim.
My Name is Gary Cooper is a story of two families set in Los Angeles and Auckland. It was originally produced in Auckland in 2007.
Both academics hope there will be further collaborations with the Hawaiian theatre company.
“There’s so much in common between Hawai’i and New Zealand.”