Eve C. Middleton
The year was 1978. I entered the world the youngest of 4 children and
spent the next 13 ½ years developing the earthy, practical, wholesome
side of my nature!
Since then I have lived in Nelson and Chile, and in Wellington since 1997
where I finished a Bachelor of Arts in Classical Studies.
It was then I was finally able to see this fine city through the eyes of
one not tied to the University year and to do some solid work on developing
the socially demanding, fickle and typically consumerist urban side of my
nature, long left lying dormant.
It has been an exciting time for me since I left Varsity, spreading my
wings and dipping into various projects including various short films, a
few stints for Weta armouring and weaponing up extras on-set for LOTR,
childcare work and café jobs (-the not so exciting), other stuff I
can't remember, and becoming more and more involved in the over all
running of The Bacchanals.
David has constantly encouraged my acting and given me opportunities to
play some beautiful, scary, exciting and always challenging roles, with
more ideas being flung at me all the time.
Particularly cool roles I've loved were; Tamora in
Titus Andronicus
(the 'evil bitch' is always great fun), the tender but not wimpy Emilia
in Othello and of course
playing 'M' in Crave in 2002 was
a definite highlight.
I loved the intimacy and trust of working with such a small cast,
particularly those three, Carey, James and Tina, because we knew each
other's habits on (and off) stage so well.
After saying that, I have actually realised that all the roles I have
played for the Bacchanals have been special and satisfying for me.
Playing Gertrude in Hamlet
was a real buzz, her relationship with Hamlet is so important, and
Olivia in Twelfth Night was a blast,
especially spending the entire fifth act in a wedding dress - that
particularly appealed to my Leonine nature!
Even the small and varied roles I took on in the trilogy of 2001 were
cool for various reasons - sometimes it's really nice not to have the
pressure of maintaining a character and portraying their journey from
start to finish.
Gotta stop now.
- "forwards, upwards, onwards"
Click here for more exciting photos of Eve!
David Lawrence
I was born in Wellington in 1975 and there is no place like this city
anywhere else in the world. I loved living in London and Edinburgh, and
am still prepared to try Berlin, but Wellington is a place unlike any
other. I'm the oldest of three children and, until a few years ago, I was
the only male to have been born into my mother's side of the family in
nearly 100 years. My family are all, with a few exceptions, passionate
about theatre and cats.
When I was 7 I decided I was going to be an actor. By 17 I had realized
that I loved almost every aspect of the theatre, and the more I tried,
the more I wanted to do. I directed my first show at 17 - my high school's
production of Macbeth - and
also produced it, designed the lighting,
costumes and posters. And played the title role. It's impossible to
explain why none of this was done out of egotism but a burning passion to
try everything and anything. In the last ten years I've worked as an
actor, writer, musician, production manager, stage manager, lighting and
sound designer and operator, mechanist, follow-spotter, teacher, dramaturg
and director. I completed a BA in Theatre and Film in 1996, an Honours
degree in Theatre in 2001 and an MA (editing Thomas Heywood's 1611 play
The Golden Age) in 2003. I lived
overseas after finishing my
undergraduate course and it was in the UK that I decided to focus my
energies entirely on directing, and The Bacchanals were established so
that I wouldn't ever have to work in a way I didn't like or with people
I didn't respect.
Being a Libran Cat, I am by nature obsessive-compulsive - Librans don't
have interests, we have obsessions. I cannot do things half-heartedly -
it has to be all or nothing, and this seems to pervade through every
element of my life. I live by the sea with two cats and a truckload
of books. My favourite foods are toast & butter chicken, my beverages
of choice are spirulina & coffee, my favourite colour is green, my
favourite books Nineteen Eighty-Four
(George Orwell), The Information
(Martin Amis) and The Passion
(Jeanette Winterson). My favourite television show is
The Sopranos and my favourite
film is Brazil. My favourite
plays are Othello (Shakespeare),
The Physicists (Friedrich
Dürrenmatt), The Master Builder
(Henrik Ibsen) and Shopping and
Fucking (Mark Ravenhill). My favourite band is The Beatles, my
favourite album is probably Rubber Soul
and my favourite song is
the original version of "Strawberry Fields Forever" - not the one
released as a single in 1967 but the one that appears on
The Beatles Anthology#2.
Alex Greig
Born in Masterton in 1981, I began life in the usual way until, in my final
year of primary school, I caught the bug for performance with an adaptation
of the tale of Adam and Eve, in which I played the none too bright Adam.
After feeling the exhilaration of stage performance, I thought I would
continue my newfound passion and did all I possibly could to become
involved in all aspects of theatre at college. I was to find however that
most performances required a background in singing... This was not me!
So for the next 2 years I milled around doing nothing in particular until
in my fifth form year I discovered Shakespeare and a little something
called The Sheila Winn Shakespeare festival. This sparked the bug in me
yet again, and I was soon discovering all sorts of other performance arts
and eventually even got a singing role in my final year at college, in
the production of
Jesus Christ Superstar as King
Herod, and so with all this behind me it was time to choose a career
and further training.
So it was that in the summer of 1999 I packed my things and moved to
Wellington, where I was to begin a year of confusion... Wellington
Performing Arts Centre. My year at WPAC seems very distant in my
memories, and I can't even be sure if it really happened, so I won't
dwell on it.
The year finally ended and I left WPAC not entirely sure if I wanted
to continue acting, so I got myself an agent with what little experience
I had (A short educational film called
Shari and Joes big night out in
which I played Den) and started to work as an extra on
The Tribe and in time I even
picked a few lines!!
It was now the year 2000 and the world hadn't changed much, but my
life was about to... I got a role in Jean Betts' play
The Misandrist which made me
burn with the desire to act, and so, when David Lawrence (who was
working as stage manager, lighting etc) asked me to play Cassio in
Othello, I jumped at the chance.
This was to be my first experience of The Bacchanals and I haven't
looked back.
Over the next few years I tried my hand at any kind of acting I could,
including 2 children's plays for Kidz Stuff Theatre,
The ugly duckling and
Goldilocks and the three bears.
I was to realise that children's theatre just wasn't my thing.
The next few shows I did for The Bacchanals
(The Jew of Malta, Titus Andronicus
and Volpone) were all at the same
time, in fact we performed them on the same day every Saturday for a few
weeks, which nearly killed me because at exactly the same time, I was
involved with a short film by Charlie Bleakley called
A three dollar day and so at
the completion of the projects I felt it was time for a well earned break.
I hammered my way back on stage with
Hamlet performed by The Bacchanals
in the 2002 fringe festival, Then throughout the rest of the year I was
doing various corporate entertainment for Possum Productions and then got
involved as Manuel from Fawlty Towers
at the museum hotel over the Christmas period, I also got a minor role in
a feature film called Event 16
My next major involvement with anything was
Twelfth night by The Bacchanals
which we toured around for a week or so up the lower north island, and
that pretty much brings you up to date on my career so far...
James Stewart
It all began in 1971 (making me the oldest Bacchanal, ever since that Carey
Smith left the country) when I reared my ugly head to the world in a
hospital in Christchurch. I spent my school years as a very quiet,
shy introvert, whose friends even had to time to see how long it would
be before I would say a word, doing well academically but not sure what
I wanted to do with my life. My first foray into the performing world
was in my last year of high school when I was almost literally dragged
kicking & screaming into the chorus of the school production of
Bye Bye Birdie by my best friend
who had the lead & thought it would be fun. Ironically, after all these
years, he is now looking at getting back into acting after leaving it
behind for a career in computers, and is asking me for advice.
School came to an end & still uncertain on what career to pursue (I had
always enjoyed singing - in the privacy of my own bedroom, of course -
but my parents weren't too keen on me trying to become a rock star), I
didn't want to go & follow all my friends to university to do a degree
I wasn't sure I would use, so since I had always been good with figures,
I opted to enter the big, wide world and take a job as a banker?!
During my stay with Trust Bank Canterbury I decided to take some
evening acting classes, solely to increase my confidence so I could
deal better with people day to day & not be so quiet & shy. Little
did I know what it would unleash. Not that I'm not still an introvert,
but it helped me to find my inner extrovert & release it to the world
when I'm not being me. The more classes I did, the more I enjoyed this
acting thing.
Finally after four years in the banking industry I decided it was time
to see how serious I was about acting as a career, so quit my job and
did two years at the newly started Linwood Performing Arts Centre (LPAC).
I came away from there knowing that acting was what I wanted to do
with my life & haven't looked back since. Following several unsuccessful
auditions for both Toi Whakaari (3 times) and Unitec (twice), I went
about getting the practical experience myself, starting with a group
of us from LPAC starting up our own theatre company called Scrambled
Legs (which, since its founding in 1995, is still going strong now).
We specialised in mixing comedy & drama with contemporary dance, with
myself & a friend writing all the material we performed. During all
this I worked for both Hoyts and Rialto Cinemas as duty manager, and
projectionist at the latter, all fuelling an ever-increasing fascination
with film.
Then, in 1999, I felt like a change to get out of a rut, so moved up
to Wellington, taking a position at Rialto Cinema up here to help
pay the bills while I tested the waters. Had my first dabble in the
theatre world at the end of that year in
Margaret & Vanessa's Xmas Special
put on by a workmate & her friend at Bats Theatre, in which they got
me to run onstage & sing a song, then realise I am in the wrong play.
They wrote the character in after they liked the song I sang in the
audition so much. Lighting this show was one David Lawrence, fresh
back from the UK, who wanted to start up a new theatre company and at
the end of the season he asked if I would like to be a part of it.
And so began the Bacchanals and my involvement with them. It's been
a fantastic ride.
Started out as a spear carrier in our first show,
The Frogs, then had a promotion
up to Roderigo in Othello.
The roles have been numerous and very enjoyable & challenging.
Highlights include an angry lodgemaster dad & bored goth in
Wealth & Hellbeing (most
workmates who saw it couldn't believe the profanities that came out
of my mouth in that one), a school uniform wearing Demetrius in
Titus Andronicus (always fun
playing a nasty, remorseless villain), the Ghost of Hamlet's father in
Hamlet (despite feeling older
than my actual age for the first time in my life, due to the full, bushy
beard I grew for the part), A in Crave
(one of the scariest & most exhilarating opening nights I have ever
done), and the very physical Andrew Aguecheek in our tour of
Twelfth Night. All the roles
have been great to do & special mention must be made of the challenge
I was presented with when David decided to entrust the title role of
Volpone in Volpone or The Fox
to me. Another very scary & exhilarating experience, it was a true
test to me to see, if nothing else, that I could learn & retain an
excessive amount of lines, including a rather large, terrifying
monologue in the form of a mountebank scene. Volpone, and the trilogy
it was part of, is an experience I will never forget.
2003 has been my busiest so far, also including the pleasure of working
with Jean Betts, with roles in
The Collective and
Fold. I continue to work in
cinemas, now doing projection at the Lighthouse Cinema in Petone, and
have also started a foray into film acting, which is where I would like
to ultimately continue, with roles including Billy in the short film
Billy & James, and a principal
role in the upcoming sci-fi feature film
Event 16. People seem to like
giving me multiple roles to do (I had 15 characters in
The Collective), all requiring
enough costumes & wigs to dress up a small city, and all I can say is
keep them coming 'cause I love doing them. I may be the oldest
Bacchanal, but doing all this keeps me much younger than many I know,
and I intend to stay young for a very long time.
Julia Harrison
Julia is a rather special member of the Bacchanals. As a child she
enjoyed knitting, and also played daily with a town of miniature animal
creatures called 'Sylvanians'. She dreamed of being an Amazon princess
and later, a cat, though was constantly teased at school for being very
pale-skinned and having hairy eyebrows. And for being a nerd. She was
good at netball.
For a whole year Julia believed that she was John Lennon reincarnated.
For no particular reason this fantasy was abandoned in her later teens,
alongside a career in professional golf (potentially). In the late 90s
she ventured into the arts and for a time was a covergirl for the
Upper Hutt Leader.
Julia first met Bacchanals writer and performer, Walter Plinge, at the
Newtown SPCA in 2002, where he was recording sound effects for his
latest show. She's never looked back.
Irene Flanagan
With little theatre experience in previous years
(Shoot-out in 2001's Young & Hungry and
Between the Islands in 2002's Fringe Festival),
2003 has been a steady year. In the first half of the year I had the
delightful experience of taking part in Jean Betts'
The Collective, twice! Popular demand
had us perform at the Gryphon in June having had the experience of
performing at BATS in March. The role of Grete Steffin contrasted
sharply with my next casting as The Daughter in Jo Randerson's
Fold which was performed at BATS as
part of the Laugh! Festival in April/May. Two characters, worlds apart
and yet connected by the trauma they suffered at the hands of their
supposed loved ones. August found me filming with The Bacchanals for
their approaching production of Euripides'
The Bacchae, a fun and challenging
experience. Inspiration to meet the early morning call times was
definitely a character-building experience, especially when you're
anticipating freezing cold water or the attempt to drive in a
sleep-like state causes you to crash your partner's car! Still,
I look forward to Romeo and Juliet
and whatever trials it has to offer!
Natasya Yusoff
It all started in the middle of the day in early January 1977!!! An ugly
child was born into to world (my mum keeps telling me how I was an ugly
baby!! Nice huh!) Anyway there I was living in a small town in Malaysia
with fantasies of becoming part of ABBA!! Yes sad but true...However
after being an extra as the child of a war prisoner in the BBC drama
series TENKO and doing a few
"kindy" concerts as a flower and then
playing part of a train (yes, a choo choo train) in a Christmas nativity
play in England when I was seven I knew at that moment that...
I was going to be an actor!!!
Forgetting about the fact that I was an extremely shy child, I threw my
self into drama at school with a passion and geared all my education
toward the attainment of my goal. After high school, I spent a year at
a little performing arts centre in Christchurch and then headed off to
the bright lights of the big glowing city of Kuala Lumpur to hone my
craft in television and film. Seven years later and loads of local
"tele movies" and theatre and voice overs and anything else I could get
my teeth into, I realised I was bored with the whole Malaysian entertainment
industry. So I packed my bags and headed back to Kiwiland with my sights
set on Wellington. It seemed the best place to live in the north island.
So here I am.
This will be my first complete Bacchanalian experience. I did participate
in the film footage for The Bacchae
where my arse got a lot of screen time!
Joshua Judkins
I entered this world on the other side of it, namely mid-west USA, in 1978.
With my mother's family here in New Zealand, and my father's there in the
States, I've never felt particularly 'rooted' anywhere.
My theatrical experiences began at a very young age, playing 'the
mouse that ran up the clock'... I vaguely remember being told to "bow" at
the end of the performance and having absolutely no idea what that meant.
In the years that have followed, my views on theatre have moved from
interest, to idealism, to a fluctuating love/hate relationship - the
cynic and the idealist are still fighting it out to this day.
The world of professional theatre began for me in 1996, when I
came to Wellington to help run what was then the Repertory Theatre for
the Fringe Festival. Little did I realise it would be a nearly 24/7 job,
nor that it would capture my passion and imagination as it did. It was
meant to be a two-week trip, and I basically never left. After a variety
of projects, I went through the Toi Whakaari Technical Course (at that
time quite different to the ET diploma now offered). That was where I
discovered theatre isn't always an amazing, passionate, exciting industry
to work in - sometimes its just hard work. Which in turn taught me to
really appreciate the stuff that is good to be involved in (which the
course also offered, don't get me wrong). I was left with a desire to
take a break from theatre for a while, just make some money and gain
some skills... which lead me to a 2 � year stint as an AV Technician.
The past two years I've gone back to being a poor student, and
finished off my Theatre & Film undergraduate degree. It's the contacts
I made there that have prompted my re-entry into the professional theatre
realm: co-designing set, AV and lighting for Theatre Pataphysical's
After Kafka, and now joining this
exciting team of people that are The Bacchanals. From what I can tell,
the ethos and approach of the group are ideally suited to my lifelong
goal of having a good time until I die... I suppose only time will tell.
Hadleigh John Walker
He was Born in the big smoke of Hastings. Raised in the rural calm of Waipuk.
A larrikin child was young Hadleigh. This fool of the class ran a-muck.
With big ears and a cricket bat he sent off to board. Private school was to be the fix.
But it sadly supplied a talented shirker with only more confidence and wit.
Given three great years of private primary directed towards applied academic thought,
Debating, school drama, chapel choir, academia, and an unusual level of sport.
Cricket was the lead, with others in between, most notably winter's football.
A role in Sweeney Todd the first guiding star. A lead? A comic? His call?
Wanganui Collegiate, scholarship in hand and spectacles wedged on his nose.
Took third form off to acclimatize, and focus on sport I suppose.
But Fourth form arrived, and with it came Kafka, Metamorphosis his debut run,
Addicted again to the rehearsals till late. The personal pressure. The fun.
House of Usher, King Lear, Into the Woods, and Medea.
Innumerable performances to recall,
Tour to Britain, Stags and Hens, from punks to lovers to princes,
He found his outlet, made friends and had a ball.
University brought pies, beer and hilarious hostel life.
B.Arts in Theatre and Media gave him three years of strife.
Fate had its way and along came a chance to impress Mr David Lawrence,
Soon James, Irene, Tina, Alex, Eve, Erin and Julia,
Were to be more than just an acquaintance.
One tour, one death scene and one hell of a good time
This hooligan from Hawkes Bay awaits annual re-for-ma-shi-on.
We shall take the world with 'Dream', or perhaps just Te Kuiti.
In a few summers' time, repertoire accumulating, just imagine where we could be?
Erin Banks
Born in Masterton in 1984 (making me the baby Bacchanal) I grew up in one
of those annoying families that sing all the time. At home, in the car,
alone or in company just give us half a chance and we're off, so I suppose
the performer in me was being nurtured from a young age. Musical theatre
and dance was what I saw and was involved in as a child, in fact I was 15
the first time I saw a 'play' (
Speaking in Tongues at Circa 1999).
By the time I reached High School I was grabbing every opportunity that
came my way; local theatre groups, school musicals, dance recitals,
singing competitions, theatre sports, Stage Challenge, The National
Youth Drama School and The Sheliah Winn Shakespeare Festival, from
which I weaseled my way into the SGCNZ Young Shakespeare Company for
2001. The trip to the Globe theatre in London was the nail in the coffin
for me; theatre was what I wanted to do. Upon returning home I discarded
plans to study medicine at Otago and moved to Wellington to start a BA in
Theatre. Young and Hungry was my introduction into the Wellington theatre
scene (as it is for so many) in
The Plum Tree directed by Kerryn
Palmer in 2002. Then after working with David in my university theatre
courses in 2003 he asked Hadz and I to join the company for the 2004 tour
of Romeo and Juliet a baptism by
fire into this amazing group. Other work in 2004 included
The Laramie Project Directed by
David O'Donnell at Studio 77 and
ActionDirected by Ryan Hartigan
at BATS. For 2005 the runaway train that is
A Midsummer Night's Dream kicked
us off, followed by Hate Crimes
which was an extraordinary production to be a part of. And so yeah...wow. Fin.
Carey Smith
Carey was born in 1969 and grew up in Te Kuiti before residing in Hamilton
and Christchurch. He shifted to Wellington in 1995. His theatre work
includes The Misandrist, Fold, Camelot
School and Arrrggghh! (The Live
Movie Experience). He was part of the comedy group
So, You're A Man who played sell-out
seasons in Auckland, Wellington and Melbourne. In 1998 he wrote and
performed the solo show Chortle
(described by the Evening Post as "the most seriously disturbed work
I've seen"), featuring a depressed clown who enjoyed depraved puppet
shows. Chortle had seasons at BATS and
the Silo. He directed the shows Margaret
and Vanessa's Xmas Special and
Insomnia at BATS and was a founding
member of The Bacchanals, playing Xanthias in
The Frogs, Eric in
Wealth and Hellbeing, Iago in
Othello, B in
Crave, Chiron in
Titus Andronicus, Bonario and
Peregrine in Volpone and the title
roles in The Jew of Malta and
Hamlet. In May 2002 he married
Hilary Willard (fulfilling a psychic's prediction in 1986 that he would
wed an American) and is currently travelling the world. If anyone has
winter work for them in Switzerland, let us know!
