Wellington Young Actors present Twelfth Night

Wellington Young Actors are back, hot on the heels from our sold-out season of To Sunder where we won Best Newcomer at the NZ Fringe.

We are twelve 12-17 year olds, preparing to storm BATS with Twelfth Night by Will Shakespeare.

Since NZ Fringe, we have gained two new members, we are getting bigger (and taller) and more and more professional, hoping to win more awards and also the hearts of our audiences. We are in training as we work towards presenting theatre that can stand up to professionals. We aim to impress.

Twelfth Night is going to be at BATS theatre, which is a huge feat for actors as young as us! We need to raise money to shift the BATS Dome space into traditional Elizabethan thrust staging. We're eager to learn this style of stagecraft and The Dome is one of the very few spaces in the whole of Wellington that can accommodate it. Our teacher/director, Deborah Eve Rea has just returned from training at The Globe, London and would love to pass on her knowledge to us.

We can't pack in during normal hours- we have school! We need to raise money to pay for BATS staff to be present after hours so that we can set everything up and rehearse before our opening night. Because this is such a big project, our teacher needs some help. We need to employ a fight choreographer and someone to help us with the music so that Debs can concentrate on directing and producing the show and coaching us to do great performances.

We have already raised enough money to cover most of our costumes, set, tech and rehearsal space thanks to the generous backing of Wellington City Council- now we just need to put the audience in the right place!