CAST / KAHUI KIRIWHAKAARI

Katrina Baylis

‘RANIA’

Katrina is a graduate of The Acting Shop, David Myles, The John Bolton Theatre School; Conservatory of Music, Dance and Art Dramatique in France; and The Victorian College of the Arts Australia. This is her first experience with The Court Theatre. Her other theatre credits include A Respectable Family; Death in Gaza; The Master Builder and Gaudi and the Turtle.

Katrina’s television credits include Neighbours; The Secret Life of Us; Karaoke High; The Insider’s Guide to Love and her own storytelling programme on TVNZ, Storytree. Her recent film credits include Poppy and Prince.

Katrina is a storyteller and children’s performer, fitness instructor and loves nature and fairies! Her family is from Palestine and the United Kingdom.

Donna Brookbanks 'PENNY'

Donna is an Auckland-based actor, comedian, improviser and writer. She is a graduate of The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York.

Donna previously appeared on The Court stage 10 years ago in The Women. She has been a Billy T nominee twice with The New Zealand International Comedy Festival and has written three solo comedy shows. Her television credits include 7 Days; Mean Mums; Raised by Refugees; Creamerie and Funny Girls; and she has written for and appeared on Shortland Street, Jono and Ben and The Project Donna has provided voices for popular TVNZ cartoons Night Eyes and Tu Meke Space

Donna is a proud member of Equity New Zealand and is a co-founder of cult hit Auckland improv show, Snort

Kathleen Burns

‘NIKKI’

Kathleen began her career as a Court Jester in 2003 and still performs in Scared Scriptless. She is a graduate of the National Academy of Singing and Dramatic Art. Her previous Court Theatre credits include Ladies Night; Educating Rita; The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time; Steel Magnolias; Pink Hammer; RENT and Sense and Sensibility. Her other theatre credits from around the country include A Servant to Two Masters; Under Milkwood; Cinderella; The Little Mermaid (Circa Theatre); Avenue Q; Five Women Wearing the Same Dress and Flagons and Foxtrots (Fortune Theatre); Perfuct Storm; Dungeons and Comedians and Feminist Yarns with Kathleen Burns (Little Andromeda).

Kathleen’s screen credits include Sextortion (TVNZ); Working Class; Ghost Shark 2 and the soon-to-be-released The Push.

Kathleen made her mainstage directorial debut with Flagons and Foxtrots at The Court Theatre in 2022.

Anne Chamberlain

'BARB'

Anne is a graduate of the University of Otago (Bachelor of Arts).

Her previous Court Theatre credits are Lovebirds and Witch Mother. Her other theatre credits include The Pink Hammer (Circa Theatre); Long Gone Lonesome

Cowgirls (Old Red Lion, London) and The Molecatcher’s Daughter (Jack Straw’s Castle, London).

Anne’s television credits include Shark in the Park; Worzel Gummidge Downunder and voice artist for Deutsche Welle (Berlin). Her film credits include In My Father’s Den and Te Rua.

Anne wrote and performs

EGLANTYNE, a solo play about Eglantyne Jebb, a pioneering children's rights activist. Anne has toured the show in New Zealand and widely internationally including to London (Solo Theatre Festival), StratfordUpon-Avon (RSC’s The Other Place), Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Cambridge, Buxton, Birmingham, Shrewsbury, Brighton, Beirut, Geneva, Zurich, Dar Es Salaam, Nairobi, Adelaide and Melbourne.

Lynda Milligan

‘BEV’

In her long career, Lynda has been seen on the stage of most of the theatres throughout New Zealand, having toured around the country or starred at Auckland Theatre Company, Centrepoint, Circa and Fortune theatres. The majority of her work has been at The Court Theatre, where she first appeared in Canterbury Tales in 1974.

Since then, she has enjoyed performing in over 85 productions, her last shows being Mum’s Choir and The Pink Hammer Lynda is a proud Associate of The Court Theatre.

Lynda began singing at an early age and fell in love with musical theatre, which led to her being cast in numerous leading roles in shows such as The Sound of Music; Oliver!; Les Misérables; Annie; 42nd Street and Blood Brothers

Her television credits include Close to Home and many children’s TV programmes including It Is I, Count Homogenized; What Now? and Son of a Gunn, to name a few.