Our Rehearsal Room with Peter Feeney on Saturday the 20th of February was a great success. Thanks to our member directors Roberto Nascimento, Jane Sherning Warren, Lucy Suess and Mandalina Stanisich, and to all the actors who took part. Our next Rehearsal Room is taking place in Christchurch on April 9 – register your interest here.
Here are some photos from Saturday. 
Our last Rehearsal Room for the year held on Saturday 14 November in Auckland was a success. We were fortunate to have writer/director and experienced actress Jackie Van Beek facilitate on the day.
DEGNZ directors Mina Matheison, Claire Chitham, Jamie Lawrence and Sean Carley got the opportunity to workshop a scene from their scripts with actors from Equity New Zealand.
Overall, it was a excellent day with some interesting scripts workshopped and some great interaction between the directors and actors, who only found out who they were working with on the day.
A massive thanks to Jackie Van Beek, the four directors and all the actors who kindly volunteered their time to take part: Becky Kuek, Jimmy Hazelwood, Serena Cotton, Ruth Wynne, Terry Hooper, Katherine Mewett, Keisha Castle-Hughes and Tama Jarman.
The next Rehearsal Room will take place in February 2016 in Auckland.
On Saturday, four of our members took part in our most recent Rehearsal Room in Wellington facilitated by Miranda Harcourt.
Directors Collin Hodson, Sinead Lau, Paula Jones and Jess Feast received invaluable practical advice from Miranda who was also great at helping the directors rapidly connect with their actors.
A big thanks to everyone involved – Miranda Harcourt, the directors and the actors from Actors Equity who kindly gave their time.
Saturday’s Rehearsal Room with Oliver Driver was a great success, with four directors and eight actors working together to bring their scenes to life.
There was a bit of everything in the scripts workshopped on the day – comedy, drama, romance and action. By the end of the experience, everybody felt they had come a long way developing their scenes, and Oliver offered great practical tips and advice to all of the groups.
A highlight was definitely playing back the work at the end, seeing what everybody had produced and hearing about the journey they took to get there.
Sign up for the next Wellington and Auckland Rehearsal Rooms on EventBrite. More will be added as we schedule for 2016! Thanks to the New Zealand Film Commission for supporting this event.
If you’re a director looking for more experience working with actors, our Rehearsal Room offers the perfect fix. How often do you get the chance to workshop scenes in a supportive environment with an experienced mentor to give guidance, advice and priceless nuggets of wisdom?
You can register here for the next Auckland Rehearsal Room, which is taking place on Saturday August 8, or look ahead and register for Auckland and Wellington events scheduled for later in the year.
Check out our previous posts on the Rehearsal Room for a taste of what happens at this awesome event and learning experience.
This event is brought to you through the financial support of the New Zealand Film Commission.