’10 …A Baker’s Dozen

EnsembleImpact offers up a little picture of ourselves – 13 New Zealand plays about us, living in New Zealand.

Fraser, Elizabeth & Yvette in The Big Blue Planet Earth

Whether dealing with high school or the complexities of dating, life, traveling abroad, being in love, deciding to marry or having children, the playwrights have taken aim on just what it means to be here.

My colleagues and I were really impressed with the show.  It ticked all the boxes for us teachers out in wop wops who have little or no access to cutting edge New Zealand plays both new and old.  Claire Maxwell, Craighead, Timaru

Matariki & Yvette in Haruru Mai

Maori or pakeha, male or female, being a Kiwi, as seen through the lenses of these 13 playwrights highlights both the shared and the unique aspects of living in Aotearoa. Two girls act up at a school assembly, a lucky lad has his first sexual experience, a woman prepares for her wedding day, a traveller finds he’s never far away from home…these people are us and their stories are ours.

Fraser & Yvette in The Perfumed Garden

The four actors were excellent, and my students got a lot out of meeting them after the show to discuss all aspects of the production and life as an actor in New Zealand.  Overall, a really inspiring and worthwhile experience. Damian Pullen, Northland Youth Theatre, Whangarei

No lights, no set…just four professional actors, working in traverse, doing their stuff in one 50 minute programme!

The best thing was the Immediacy - being so close to the actors and the very bare stage and suggestion of props/costumes only. They suddenly saw theatre in a new

and different way. Linda Gordon, Villa Mariia, Christchurch

…the performances were not only relevant but inspirational - NZ works of significance to wide eyed kiwi drama students. Duncan Allen, Selwyn College, Auckland

Thank your actors for the ease in which they just came in, set up, performed brilliantly, packed up and left with a minimum of hassle. Very professional and easy on us stressed teachers! Cherise  A. Stone, Glendoiwie, Auckland

We had not only Drama students but also Senior Media Studies and Year 13 English classes at your performance… This all connected perfectly to their NZ literature study.

Kate Lindsay, Bayfiled High School, Dunedin

For my Year 11's it was most valuable because they were about to start their devising unit and could see how effectively stories could be told through conventions alone. Clare Thorley, Paraparaumu

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Ensemble: Matariki, K.C., Fraser, Elizabeth & Yvette

I would love to book you in for next year. .Shauna Ratapu, Lytton High School, Gisborne

Please keep me on your mailing list and let me know if and when you can return to Northland. Damian Pullen, Northland Youth Theatre, Whangarei

WE LOVEDDDDDDDDDD ITTTTTT!!!!

Gaenor Stoate, Spotswood College, New Plymouth

Wonderfully directed- sublimely acted. Well done KC, Matariki, Fraser, Yvette, Liz. If you can book them, do. Karl Payne, Porirua College

 

'09…She'll Be Write

From Hokitika to Whangamata, from Invercargill to the North Shore – EnsembleImpact, in association with The Play Press and Playmarket, presented She’ll Be Write, a fifty-minute schools’ programme devoted exclusively to New Zealand plays and playwrights.

Emma & Olivia in Daughters of Heaven

 

In monologues, in two-, three- and four-person scenes, in English and Te Reo Maori, the all professional, four member EnsembleImpact company presented some old favourites, some new standards and some genuine cutting edge theatre.

Here’s  what  your colleagues thought:

‘She’ll be Write’ was the best live theatre experience we have had this term. We have all became solid fans of ‘Ensemble Impact’ and look forward to your 2010 project.   Duncan Allan, Selwyn College

We loved it!  Diane Dupres, Ashburton College

 

See it now!  Book them for next year, if you've missed out for this year! Louise Flynn, Awatapu College

A hearty big thanks to Ensemble Impact for making NZ theatre so accessible to our students  Rachel Steele, Wellington Girls’

                                       James & Adam in Niu Sila

Don’t set up any chairs; don’t worry about filling up a space. EnsembleImpact performs in traverse – all your students are sitting either side of us, no more than three metres from the action!

Olivia: Mo and Jess Kill Susie

Have a look at our 2010 touring itinerary and get in touch, today. We’ll get right back to you, confirm your reservation for our new show, A Baker’s Dozen.

James @ Emma in The Bellbird

’08…

“EnsembleImpact, under the direction of Jude Gibson, pull off this nightmarish non-naturalistic tale with verve and style…Lynn Freeman

by Steven Berkoff  
from the story by Franz Kafka
directed by Jude Gibson

“Simon Vincent is vocally and physically superb…John Smythe

“EnsembleImpact has kicked off with a dynamic production…Laurie Atkinson

“…fascinating to watch and experience…Jackson Coe

“The new theatre company, EnsembleImpact, has kicked off with a dynamic production of Steven Berkhoff's expressionistic and simplified version of Kafka's famous 1915 short story about Gregor Samsa, a travelling salesman, who turns into a giant dung beetle…The new company certainly lives up to its name by being an ensemble and by making an impact with a bravura first production.”  Reviewed by Laurie Atkinson, 14 Jul 2008, Theatreview

 

“Simon Vincent is vocally and physically superb as Gregor…Donogh Rees (Mrs Samsa) and Angela Green (Greta) excel in their roles…Craig Geenty is impressively overbearing as the Chief Clerk joining Francis Biggs and Salesi Le'ota to create a splendidly boorish trio of Lodgers”…Reviewed by John Smythe, 10 Jul 2008, Theatreview

 

“The show’s set, designed by Brian King, was instantly arresting. Vast scaffolding, arranged so as to give the illusion of depth, provide ample opportunity for Gregor to scurry across the ‘roof’ making all manner of unnerving noises. Superbly lit by Ulli Breise, the visual image is dazzling.

Where the show really hits great heights is in its sound design. Murray Hickman has composed some extremely creepy sounds, such as the opening pulse which sounds like a creature sleeping. The soundscape throughout the show is raw enough to really help illustrate the monstrous nature of the beast locked in the bedroom…By Jackson Coe, 14 Jul, 2008, Theatreview

“Brian King's angled scaffolding spiderweb set and Ulli Briese's spooky lighting are complemented by Murray Hickman's bone-chilling sound design.

Gibson's direction of this treacherous piece is right on the money. She has her white-faced, red-eyed cast move, and deliver their lines, with pinpoint accuracy in a style of expressionist performance we too rarely see in New Zealand.

Simon Vincent is nothing short of compelling as the tortured Gregor, in what is a physical and vocal test for any actor. His family - Donogh Rees, Nick Dunbar and Angela Green - are funny, disturbing, weird. Lodgers Francis Biggs, Craig Geenty and Salesi Le'ota have a short time on stage but make the most of it…Lynn Freeman 14 Jul 2008, Theatreview

“Every man lives behind bars which he carries within him”

-  Franz Kafka