NZTA Trust Board

Graeme is the Parliamentary Counsel Office of New Zealand Records Adviser, and represents ARANZ and the NZTA at the Wellington Regional Heritage Promotion Council (WRHPC) meetings. From 1986 to 1992, he wrote and performed comedy in Otago University Drama Society productions and cabarets, and In 1992, he wrote and directed the exhibition opening for a major retrospective of European art in New Zealand since 1642. From 1993 to 1994, while living in the San Francisco Bay area, he worked as a San Jose Repertory Theatre telemarketer, and a stage hand for the 1994 San Jose Shakespeare in the Park.

Ewen has been involved in theatre for most of his life, as an actor, tutor, director, administrator, and adjudicator. Since 1980 he has directed over 60 productions of various kinds including musicals and One-Act Plays and worked with all the major recreational theatre groups around the Wellington Region. He has adjudicated a NZTF District Festival almost every year since 1986, as well as the Festival of Community Theatre Regional Finals in 1996 and National Final in 2004.  In 1992 Ewen was invited to take a production to an International Theatre Festival in Japan, and has represented New Zealand at other overseas conferences and International Festivals.

Laurie saw his first play (Lady Windemere’s Fan) in NZ at the Opera House as a fifteen year-old and has been involved in Wellington theatre ever since. At VUW he joined the Drama Club, appeared in Extravs (directed by Bill Sheat), and wrote reviews for Salient. He joined Wellington Rep, appearing in a number of plays and revues, toured with Nola Millar’s New Theatre, did reviews for 2YC (now the Concert Programme), and was elected on to the National Executive of the NZ Theatre Federation. For twelve years he was involved with the Playmarket Executive Committee (President from 1986-88) and co-edited Act Magazine. Laurie is currently the Wellington theatre reviewer for The Dominion Post.

Prior to moving to Victoria in 1978, David taught in Canada and Britain, and worked professionally in London theatre, including the Young Vic. He established Theatre Studies at Otago University, and was a co-founder of the Fortune Theatre in Dunedin. A past president of Playmarket, he is also a practising theatre critic and professional dramaturg. David is an international authority on Shakespearean stagecraft and NZ drama and theatre. He was instrumental in establishing the MTA in Directing as a joint degree of Toi Whakaari and Victoria University, and was the first chair of the MTA Board of Studies.

Rosemary Collier has been an archives consultant for the past 28 years.  She formerly worked as an archivist at National Archives (now Archives New Zealand) and also in the UK.  She has a post-graduate Diploma in Archive Studies from the University of London.  Although never involved in theatre, she is an avid theatre-goer.  Rosemary was founding secretary of the Archives and Records Association of New Zealand, and later several times President of the former New Zealand Society of Archivists, as well as Editor of its quarterly journal, New Zealand Archivist.

Rowena is the Professor of Information Management and a Director of Research at Victoria University. She was a founder Trustee of the New Zealand Theatre Archive and brings to the board a background in theatre management and production dating back to the days of Ngaio Marsh’s Shakespeare productions with the Canterbury University Drama Society. Rowena was for many years Secretary and later Artistic Director of the Globe Theatre in Dunedin, and on the Board of the Fortune Theatre.

Ruth managed the Nola Millar Library at Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Drama School for  nearly 21 years from 1980 and 2001, and prior to that worked at the Alexander Turnbull Library and the Canterbury Museum Library. She was an executive member of Playmarket from 1995-2002, a member of the Arts Libraries Society Australia and New Zealand from 1995-2001, and was an initiator of the Arts Information Network (Wellington arts libraries) which existed from 1989-1995. From 2003-2008 Ruth supported the New Zealand International Arts Festival as Newsletter editor for the Friends of the Festival. 

Bill is a graduate of VUW in Law and English. It was at Victoria that he began to take a serious interest in theatre, joining the Drama Club Committe in his first year, becoming Secretary the following year and for the subsequent four years, President. He was invited to sit on the Drama Panel of the newly formed Arts Council in 1964, became a Council member in 1967 and Chairman in 1969. Bill was the inaugural Chaiman of the Board of Toi Whakaari, inaugural Chairman of the Film Commission, and Chairman of the Royal NZ Ballet. (Photo: Bill playing Tihon, the former Bishop, in Nola Millar's 1964 production of Dostoyevski's 'The Possessed'.)

Josh became passionate about NZ theatre history after returning to University in 2002. The discovery that friends new to the industry had no idea about shows, companies, and theatres from the mid-90s inspired him to look further back. He currently works as the Online Community Manager at Ponoko, and is also investigating the future of entertainment and its cross-media possibilities.