14 “OUR OWN STORIES” Hilary Halba Interviews a Different Light Hilary Halba HH: MP: IT: PR: IT: DB: HH: DB: GB: AD: HH: GB: How many of you were into acting before you joined Different Light? A long time ago, in the 1990s, I lived in Auckland, and I started out there in the Helen O’Grady Drama Academy.1 I went to Original Scripts,2 and I did it at high school. I did a Shakespearean play, which was Romeo and Juliet, as part of a school assessment. I played the part of Tybalt, which was really awesome. From there I was in a couple of high school plays – one of them was The Three Musketeers. I played two parts: I was the Royal Page and a pirate. I did Under Milk Wood. I did a production called The Apple.3 I was playing two parts: I was playing the hunter and also the servant . . . two characters. In one part I was the hunter – and then I’d come on as another character, and I had do the character, then I had to put make-up on and put another costume on. What was that like – to make that switch back and forth? It was good. It took a bit of time. With [a different] voice [and mannerisms] for the characters. At school I played Axl Rose in an assembly. I love Guns ‘n’ Roses. I wasn’t in school uniform. I started singing with a choir. I have Glen to thank for bringing me to Ara4 and to A Different Light. Glen and I used to live in the same house. Glen, you’ve been with Different Light for a while, right? Since 2008. DOI: 10.4324/9781003397717-19 208 Acting in Aotearoa FIGURE 14.1 Different Light Theatre in rehearsal for Faust.Us. From left to right: Tony McCaffrey, Peter Rees, Biddy Steffens, Matthew Swaffield (partly obscured) Glen Burrows (in wheelchair), Isaac Tait, Damian Bumman, Angie Douglas (in wheelchair), Josie Noble, Matthew Phelan. Photograph by Ana Olykan. TM: HH: GB: HH: IT: TM (to Josie): JN: GB: MP: Fifteen years! You need a medal! Are you a musician as well, Glen? Yeah – I play the guitar. So what brought you all to A Different Light? What made you want to join this company? My flatmate brought me to this company. You know [Isaac’s flatmate], don’t you? Yeah – I know him through Jolt.5 [A Different Light] gave me a place to meet other people, to do work on my own and to say things, express myself. Before we became A Different Light Theatre Company, previously there were monthly drama classes at Hōhepa Hall in the Barrington area. And that started out with some of the residents there at Hōhepa. And that encouraged a couple of the residents there to check it out to see what it was like, and I think it went ok. And our first performance was in 2004 at the Southern Ballet Theatre. And then we did more performances and we relocated to Ara Polytech, and we did “Our Own Stories” HH: MP: HH: IT: GB: HH: JN: GB: AD: GB: HH: TM: 209 performances like Dante6 and The Birds7 – all sorts of performances. It went very well and (pointedly to Tony) it was actually very well directed. (Laughter) Yes! And I was very into the whole experience of the theatre company. We work very well with learning the techniques of script organising, and learning when to say your lines, and when to come on. And I also see from lots of these pictures here,8 your performances not only involve spoken text, but also about shapes and movement onstage, and it seems from looking at those pictures that a lot of the messages of your performances are communicated through your bodies as well as through talking. Would that be a fair comment? And how we work together and how we’re together as a big group. And connection, we have a big connection in our group. It’s not just the one person in performance; it is all people connected together into a full experience of performance. Do you think that idea of helping each other, supporting each other, being an ensemble is something that attracts you as actors to A Different Light? Yes, I think so. Yes it did. We are all mates. Sometimes you use your own stories in your work – is that right? Yes – that’s rights [nods]. Yes. [My friend] with red hair. She was taken away in an ambulance. [Another friend] came to pick me up on the back of a truck to go to Lyttleton. I wrote about my mum and dad. We wrote about Binky, Bonky and Glonky9 – me, Isaac and Ben.10 When I first started with Different Light I had trouble speaking, and I got someone to write it for me in an exercise book. And some of those words show how my life used to be compared to now. And how to cope with other people helping me. You do a play and you haven’t seen these people before and you go, “I’m the odd one out,” but – Glen, can I say this? – Glen made it easier by coming with me the first couple of times. He was part of the reason I was communicating – to help Glen with communicating with people. Would that be fair enough, Glen? Yeah. Angie, did some of the words that you wrote down and spoke end up in any of the plays? Right now, we’re working on Faust.Us and so there’s an introduction of Different Light . . . 210 Acting in Aotearoa [Mine is:] My name’s Angie, I have a voice, I want the world to listen HH: What’s it like performing your own words? JN: Really cool. MP: I think when we don’t have a script in front of us . . . to just put it aside . . . we just try really hard to memorise it without a script in front of us. HH: How does that make your acting different? MP: I think for the performers, there’s quite a relaxed performance. Because if you’re relaxed I think you can – and you know – get the words out from your own mouth. HH: What’s your favourite thing about acting? BS: I love meeting new people . . . helping people as well. To discover more about acting – with disabilities. DB: Well, my favourite part about acting is to work with other people and meeting them, and giving the script what it needs, and giving lots of energy out to the audience. IT: I like Method acting. . . . I like trying to be different people. I like watching people . . . in real life. And I think of what it would be like to be to be them. HH: What’s that experience like? IT: Empathetic. Empathy and lots of feelings. HH: What about you, Angie? AD: I would like not to be in this [wheel]chair [but with A Different Light] when I am with them, they include me. When I went up to Auckland [to perform] with these guys, I never thought it would happen. With acting, it was a new thing for me, and the people were new to me and they were kind. This really does touch my heart. Sometimes I can’t do things ‘cos I live with very difficult challenges. TM: But we work with what you can do. [General agreement] HH: What about you, Josie? JN: I learned a new way of acting through Tony – ‘cos in the past, I’ve been acting [in a mainstream group] – it’s a lot different from being in A Different Light. It’s been really cool and great to connect to people with my own disability. It’s a great way of learning a new way of acting . . . in a way that I didn’t normally act in the past. HH: What are those new ways of acting? JN: About having our own stories. Because in the past, it was more musical theatre, but it’s really different acting in a group of people with different abilities. It’s been really good. AD: “Our Own Stories” HH: JN: MP: HH: MP: MS: HH: MS: HH: PR: HH: PR: IT: HH: IT: TM: 211 Do you find you really throw yourself into the experience? Yes! I’ve been with A Different Light since 2011 when I moved to Christchurch from Palmerston North. It’s an excellent opportunity to explore the experience of the world of becoming an actor, and I enjoy just working and interacting with other people. What do you like about being on the stage? An absolute honour! It’s an honour to be performing with A Different Light. If I was to decide to leave this theatre company, I would leave with an actual reason and to explore a different style of acting experiences somewhere else. There’s different sorts of acting. Like acting in television commercials, acting as a presenter in the world of the television industry. There’s all kinds of acting that I’d like to try out. There’s all sorts of things that I’d like to try and explore. I like acting – and dancing and singing – to an audience clapping and cheering – everyone. Learning the lines and speaking out to the audience, and the audience loving to watch what the actors are playing. Like a drama group and Jolt dance. And especially doing a performance in the Arts Centre in Christchurch. The relationship with the audience? Yes! What about you, Peter? Being part of different projects . . . like we’ve got a new book.11 I like to be part of a company. Not only this company but I’m also acting with another drama company run by Tony’s brother Paul. Tony and Paul have different styles when it comes to acting. What are those two different approaches? When I’m with Paul we start off small – with an idea and we expand on that idea and we put that idea on its feet into space. And with Different Light, we do different things like we work on a performance and we take that performance and we would perform that at a conference overseas. Me and Glen were in Still Lives – a play we devised with Tony – and we took it to San José.12 In one part I was tied up in a chair – it was like trying to be like Glen. And that really plays into that idea you were talking about to do with empathy and asking what would it be like to have someone else’s experiences. What was that like for you, Isaac, to have that experience on the stage? It was good. And having Glen’s rock star energy . . . And Glen did a song in that called Fight Club which he’d written . . . 212 Acting in Aotearoa IT: HH: GB: HH: GB: HH: AD: HH: AD: HH: AD: TM: JN: HH: MP: AD: . . . about his past. Isaac says you have a rock star energy, Glen . . . what are your interests as a performer? Guns ‘n’ Roses. Wrestling. Guitar playing. At the moment I do love listening to the three sisters of The Warning.13 It’s my kind of rock star music. [In San José, we] went into the hotel swimming pool. There was a wheelchair hoist. The waitress at Johnny Rockets made me a smiley face with ketchup. Lots of people in wheelchairs in the audience. There was a dance at the conference. It’s quite an emotional thing doing acting. Do you agree with that? Yep. I like to laugh. I like to give lots of energy onstage. I like to swear. Isaac and I have had some good moments together on stage. Sometimes those emotions are happy and upbeat but – and you touched on this, Angie – sometime acting can bring up more sad emotions. I want to do a part – not in this play but maybe in the next play we do – maybe I write the words . . . about what it’s like when things don’t go your way. That would be really powerful, Angie. Hilary, I had an experience a couple of weeks ago: I came to Ara to watch a show,14 and I picked up a lot from that. And what I picked up from that show is what I feel, and what it feels like every day when someone is different. But, I want you [Hilary] to see the real me in what I’m trying to say. There’s something about – when you’re an actor – that people respond to you differently and see you differently. Does that chime with your experience? When I’m at home, they see me differently, but when I’m acting, they see a different person but it’s not the same person they know. Angie’s quite famous in her house! In the past when I used to do mainstream acting, the people were really good and really supportive and really encouraging – and always included me, and I’m still friends with some of them now. Have any of you ever got stage fright? Never! What happened in Auckland, Matthew?! “Our Own Stories” 213 MP: I think that was only one time . . . [General laughter] TM: I think a lot of us were nervous in Auckland because it was the first time in three years that you’d performed in public. That was 2022. . . . previous to that it was 2019 in the Arts Festival here.15 So I talked to the audience [in Auckland], we introduced you to the audience, they clapped you . . . I forgot Josie . . . JN [laughing]: Yeah! He forgot me! AD: He forgot the name . . . HH: Did you have stage fright, Tony? [General laughter] GB: Doing The History of Different Light I was afraid of sparking.16 [A friend] from Sweden took me for a walk around the building and helped me calm down each night before the show. DB: Yeah – when I started here in – I think it was 2008 – I was actually a bit nervous ‘cos there was heaps of people looking at me on stage. I was scared . . . but now . . . I can perform to the audience now. HH: What happened to change that, to make your stage fright go away? DB: Umm – I got used to it, after all the years [since] I started here. I’m interested [and that] comes through, I learn the lines, and make sure I give plenty out to the audience . . . and go from there. IT: I don’t get stage fright but I get adrenaline. It’s more excitement. And it gives energy to the other [actors]. AD: I think that’s why you’re so good, Isaac, at helping me or Glen . . . when Glen or I need help, you’re always there. TM: That’s about Isaac’s empathy, I think. HH: I realise we’ve been talking for quite a while . . . . did we say there was going to be a waiata?17 MP: There was a song we did in our Auckland performance – it was a song called True Love by Daniel Johnston. . .18 he passed away and we sing his song in honour of him. TM: Angie knows that song . . . AD [sings]: True love will find you in the end, And you’ll find out just who’s your friend, Don’t be sad – I know you will, Don’t give up until, True love will find you in the end. [Applause from the company] 214 Acting in Aotearoa Notes 1 The Helen O’Grady Drama Academy is a worldwide organisation, in operation since 1979, that provides drama classes primarily for children and young people. 2 Original Scripts Theatre School ran in Ōtautahi/Christchurch from 1992 till 2023 with classes for children, young people and adults. 3 Not a Different Light show. 4 Ara Institute of Canterbury, New Zealand, where the National Academy of Singing and Dramatic Art (NASDA) is located. A Different Light meet and rehearse in a space there. 5 A mixed ability dance group. 6 Dante was created and performed by A Different Light and students from NASDA (National Academy of Singing and Dramatic Art) in 2006 and was presented for the Body Festival in Ōtautahi/Christchurch. 7 Based on The Conference of the Birds and performed in 2006 at the Southern Ballet Theatre in Ōtautahi/Christchurch. 8 Tony was showing images of A Different Light productions on an iPad. 9 Binky, Bonky and Glonky were characters developed by Glen Burrows, Isaac Tait and Ben Morris for the 2011/2012 Different Light work Still Lives (see also McCaffrey, Tony, Giving and Taking Voice in Learning Disabled Theatre. London, New York: Routledge, 2023, pp. 136–137). 10 Ben Morris – a performer with A Different Light. 11 McCaffrey, Tony, Giving and Taking Voice in Learning Disabled Theatre. London, New York: Routledge, 2023. 12 “[W]ith help from the CPIT Foundation, Christchurch City Council and the Society for Disability Studies, [A Different Light actors] Glen Burrows, Ben Morris and Isaac Tait [performed] at the Society for Disability Studies Conference in San Jose, California” in 2011 (“A Different Light,” http://www.differentlight.co.nz/. Accessed 1 Feb. 2024). 13 A rock band from Monterrey, Mexico, formed by sisters Alejandro, Paulina and Daniela Villarreal Vélez. 14 The performance referred to was a work devised by students of NASDA titled Honk, and was based on the folk-tale “The Ugly Duckling.” 15 In Ōtautahi/Christchurch. 16 The term Glen Burrows uses for the mild epileptic seizures to which he is prone. 17 Song. 18 Daniel Johnston, 1961–2019 American singer, musician and artist, diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Considered a leading figure in outsider art, he was made famous by the 2005 documentary The Devil and Daniel Johnston.