Appropriate

AP•PRO•PRI•ATE

adj.

1. 2. v. 3.

6.

suitable or fitting for a particular purpose, person, occasion, etc. belonging to or peculiar to a person; proper. to set apart, authorise, or legislate for some specific purpose or use. to take to or for oneself; take possession of. to take without permission or consent; seize; expropriate. to steal, especially to commit petty theft.

4. 5.

The very best of political, business, and sports analysis from journalists who dig deeper than the usual headlines.

NAU MAI HAERE MAI

We warmly welcome you to this exciting play at The Court Theatre. As well as presenting the very best of our own unique Aotearoa works, we also look for what makes heads, hearts and minds stir in the diverse international theatre scene.

Appropriate is just that!

It is our great pleasure to bring this incredible story to life and welcome the hugely talented and exceptional Director Nathaniel Lees for his Court Theatre debut. You will read his very interesting biography later in this programme book. My thanks and kudos to Artistic Director Dr Alison Walls and her team for their work in bringing to the stage the production you are about to see.

In other exciting news at The Court, on Friday 28 April we launched the public campaign to fundraise for our new home

in the city. We are now offering you the opportunity to TAKE YOUR SEAT, where your name will grace a seat for the next 10 years. We’d love to have you join us in this next phase; more information is on the back cover.

As always, we are incredibly grateful to our funders, sponsors and partners, and warmly welcome Stuff as our show sponsor.

But now it's that time to settle back and be transported to Arkansas. Thanks to the entire Court whānau for all that you do to bring incredible stories such as Appropriate to our theatre.

Barbara George Chief Executive /

Tumu Whakarae

"Your father was a somebody long before you came along. And certainly somebody else when you weren’t in the room."

- RACHAEL KRAMER-LAFAYETTE (APPROPRIATE)

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NGA MIHI NUI

Some plays stay with you. I first encountered Appropriate in New York in 2014. It was a memorable discovery of an incredible play and an incredible playwright. Branden Jacobs-Jenkins is one of the most exciting (and lauded) playwrights in America today. A writer fascinated by dramaturgy and genre, with Appropriate, Jacobs-Jenkins skilfully takes on the familiar family drama genre but adds new layers and bitingly sharp comedy that is simultaneously confronting and hilarious. Woven into the Lafayette family drama is the deeper, far-reaching drama of U.S. history, race, racism and identity.

A play like this requires a director who can appreciate the complexity of the text - its depth, its bite, its humour and its poetry. It also requires a director who understands the work of the actor. Nathaniel Lees - wellknown as one of Aotearoa’s finest actors - is just such a director.

With nuanced and complex characters and finely tuned writing, it is the kind of work that allows skilled actors to really exercise their craft and spark off each other. Our superb cast has seized this challenging

material with both hands. Stage Manager Jo Bunce supports the process with capability and care. The focus and energy in the rehearsal room is gripping and I know will be even more thrilling on stage.

The other, unlisted character in the play is the crumbling Arkansas estate. Set design by Mark McEntyre and Tony De Goldi captures not just the place but the weight of history - from all those boxes to the staircase and chandelier. Sheena BainesAlhawamdeh’s lighting evokes time and place but also mood, while Matt Short’s sound design reinforces the haunting and haunted atmosphere - the music and wordless complexity of time. Daniella Salazar’s costume design captures the realness, the familiarity of the characters.

This is an exhilarating combination of creative talent, sure to create a memorable night of theatre - theatre that stays with you.

Dr Alison Walls Artistic Director / Pou Kaitohu Toi

APPROPRIATE

WRITTEN BY BRANDEN JACOBS-JENKINS

CAST / KAHUI KIRIWHAKAARI

Character

Antoinette 'Toni' Lafayette

Rachael Kramer-Lafayette

François 'Franz / Frank' Lafayette

Beauregarde 'Bo' Lafayette

Cassidy 'Cassie' Kramer-Lafayette

Ainsley Kramer-Lafayette

River Rayner

Rhys Thurston

Performed by

Eilish Moran

Serena Cotton

Tom Eason

Roy Snow

Laurel Gregory

Barnaby [Barney] Domigan

Franklin [Frankie] Domigan

Lily Bourne

William Burns

CREATIVES / RINGATOI

Director Nathaniel Lees

Set Co-Designer

Set Co-Designer

Costume Designer

Sound Designer and Operator

Fight Choreographer

Lighting Designer

Stage Manager

Assistant Stage Manager

Rehearsal Assistant Stage Manager

Properties Manager

Set Construction

Mark McEntyre

Tony De Goldi

Daniella Salazar

Matt Short

Tom Eason

Sheena Baines-Alhawamdeh

Jo Bunce

Haydon Dickie

Rosie Gilmore

Julian Southgate

Matt McCutcheon, Richard van den Berg, Nigel Kerr, Seth Edwards-Ellis, Richard Daem

New York Premiere originally produced by Signature Theatre, New York City

James Houghton, Founding Artistic Director

Erika Mallin, Executive Director

Acknowledgements and Additional Credits

We thank the entire Court Theatre whānau for their exceptional work and dedication in producing this play. Also:

Marcella Herrera, Mandy

Perry and Juliet Robertson (Chaperones)

Kira Josephson, Cameron

Clayton and Cameron Douglas

Scarlett Letters and Charlie

Rose Creative

Angela Pethig

Proudly printed by Caxton

RUNNING TIME: Approx. two hours and thirty minutes, including a 20-minute interval

WARNINGS: Strong language, confrontational content including racism, violence and sexual behaviour

VIDEOTAPING AND PHOTOGRAPHY: The videotaping and photography of this production is strictly forbidden.

Appropriate was produced by The Court Theatre

6 May – 3 June 2023

World premiere production in the 2013 Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theatre of Louisville and at the Victory Gardens Theater, Chicago, IL - Chay Yew, Artistic Director / Chris Mannelli, Interim Managing Director

APPROPRIATE, recipient of the Sundance Institute Tennessee Williams Award, was developed, in part, at the 2011 Sundance Institute Playwrights Retreat at UCross Foundation and at the 2012 Sundance Institute Theatre Lab at the Sundance Resort with the Sundance Institute | Time Warner Fellowship Program

APPROPRIATE was developed, in part, at Vineyard Arts Project Ashley Melone, Founder and Artistic Director

BRANDEN JACOBSJENKINS THE AUTHOR

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins is a Brooklynbased playwright and producer and twotime Pulitzer Prize finalist. Recent credits include showrunner, executive producer and writer for HULU / FX’s drama series, Kindred, based on Octavia E. Butler’s groundbreaking novel.

Previously, Jacobs-Jenkins was a consulting producer on HBO’s Emmy-winning limited series The Watchmen and Prime Video’s sci-fi western, Outer Range.

Theatre credits include Girls; Everybody; War (Yale Rep; Lincoln Center / LCT3); Gloria (Vineyard Theatre); Appropriate (Obie Award; Signature Theatre); An Octoroon (Obie Award; Soho Rep, Theatre for a New Audience) and Neighbors (The Public Theater).

A Residency Five playwright at Signature Theatre and a 2020 Guggenheim Fellow, his honours include a USA Artists

Fellowship, the Charles Wintour Award, the MacArthur Fellowship, the WindhamCampbell Prize for Drama, and the inaugural Tennessee Williams Award.

In addition to holding an MA in Performance Studies from NYU, Branden is also a graduate of the Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program at the Juilliard School.

He currently serves as Vice President of the Dramatists Guild Council and sits on the boards of Soho Rep, Park Avenue Armory, the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and the Dramatists Guild Foundation. This autumn, he joins the faculty of Yale University as Professor of Practice.

"No “we” should be taken for granted when the subject is looking at other people’s pain."

- SUSAN SONTAG, REGARDING THE PAIN OF OTHERS

DIRECTOR'S NOTE / TA TE RINGATOHU KUPU

Talofa lava, tēnā koutou katoa, Appropriate has been an extraordinary journey of exploration for all involved - myself, the amazing cast of actors, designers, staff and crew.

Very rarely do we encounter such wonderfully crafted writing and I have felt privileged to be able to direct this Aotearoa premiere production here at The Court Theatre. My congratulations to Alison for her vision, and to The Court Theatre for understanding the need for such storytelling in Aotearoa.

I would like to acknowledge my Pacific Underground fanau here at Ōtautahi for their support and wish them all success in their future endeavours.

My extraordinary cast of actors - it's been an honour to guide this journey.

Finally, to my fanau, Cath, Jessica, Talei and Esther - I cannot do what I do without your love and support.

Ia manuia lava le soifua.

Nathaniel

NATHANIEL LEES DIRECTOR

Nathaniel is an accomplished actor and director who has been a well-known presence in the New Zealand dramatic arts for many years. He has appeared in multiple Aotearoa theatre, TV and film productions, as well as many international movies.

A fluent Samoan speaker, Nathaniel is an active advocate of the cultures, languages, theatre and arts of the Pacific Islands and has used theatre and film projects to showcase these. Underscoring his career has been a commitment to share his knowledge, skills and culture, and to support others to do the same.

Highlights of his long career include directing American-Samoan John Kneubuhl’s Think of a Garden, for which he won Chapman Tripp Best Director of the Year in 1995. He directed Fresh off the Boat, written by Oscar Kightley and Simon Small for Ōtautahi Christchurch’s Pacific Underground, in 1993. He also directed another Kightley tale (co-written with David Fane), A Frigate Bird Sings, for the 1996 New Zealand International Festival of the Arts. The production was nominated for multiple Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards.

In 2004 he was awarded the Senior Pacific Artist Award at the Creative New Zealand Arts Pasifika Awards. He cast and produced The Orator - O Le Tulafale, a Samoan language feature film which won accolades at the 2011 Venice Film Festival.

Nathaniel’s many TV roles include Shark in the Park; Power Rangers; The Lost Children; Young Hercules; Hercules: The Legendary Journeys; Xena: Warrior Princess and The Dead Lands, amongst others.

His feature film credits include roles in Rapa Nui; The Matrix Reloaded; The Matrix Revolutions; Lord of the Rings; 30 Days of Night; Under the Mountain; Mr. Pip; Mortal Engines; and New Zealand classics Sione’s Wedding and Sione’s Wedding: Unfinished Business.

Nathaniel continues to be an active presence in Aotearoa theatre and film, most recently on movie screens in Red, White and Brass.

CREATIVES / RINGATOI

Mark has been a set designer for numerous Court Theatre productions including The Slapdash Assassin; August: Osage County; Hui; Postal; When the Rain Stops Falling; Constellations; Waiora; The Curious Incident of the Dog in the NightTime; The Biggest; Mum’s Choir; Elling; Les Liaisons Dangereuses; Flagons and Foxtrots and RENT.

Mark has also designed sets for New Zealand International Festival of the Arts; Christchurch Arts Festival; Showbiz Christchurch; New Zealand Actors Company; Southern Opera; New Zealand NBR Opera Company; Tawata Productions; Taki Rua Productions; Auckland Theatre Company and Fortune Theatre.

Mark’s latest work includes Lucia di Lammermoor (Wellington Opera, 2023) and Dawn Raids (Pacific Underground and Auckland Theatre Company, 2022).

Tony is a Scenic Artist working predominantly as a Theatre and Exhibition Designer and has been designing sets, props and costumes for the past three decades.

Tony has taught design at tertiary level and is presently Senior Tutor Production and Design at Toi Whakaari.

Theatre credits include Kiwi Moon; Seasons; Odd One Out and Hinepau (Capital E - National Children’s Theatre); The Biggest (Tikapa Theatre); The Vultures (Tawata Productions); Riverside Kings (IKenSo Productions); the set for Fresh off The Boat and costumes for A Streetcar Named Desire (The Court Theatre).

Tony and Set Designer Mark McEntyre (together as Arts Collective ‘G.O.M’) designed set, costumes and props for La Traviata and Lucia di Lammermoor (Wellington Opera, 2023) and Dawn Raids (Pacific Underground and Auckland Theatre Company, 2022).

Daniella joined The Court Theatre's Costume Department in March 2021 as Costume Technician and gained the Costume Management role later that year. She had recently returned to Ōtautahi Christchurch after working in the fashion and textile industry in Melbourne, managing garment production workrooms followed by a sales role in wholesale trade materials.

Daniella is thrilled to have landed her dream job in costuming at The Court Theatre. Her Court Theatre credits include Ladies Night; Once and Frankenstein (Costume Technician); Little Shop of Horrors; Flagons and Foxtrots; RENT and Sense and Sensibility (Costume Manager); and The Girl on the Train (Costume Designer).

Mark McEntyre SET DESIGNER

Tony De Goldi SET DESIGNER

Daniella Salazar COSTUME DESIGN

CREATIVES / RINGATOI

Matt began his career working in marketing for a major London record label. He has since worked as a senior camera operator in broadcast television and other media platforms.

Matt returned to New Zealand to co-film, record sound and compose music for an adventure guide series for TVNZ. Over the last ten years he has composed music and designed sound effects for many major brand advertising and marketing films.

Matt’s previous Court Theatre credits include Things I Know to be True; Easy Money; In the Next Room, or The Vibrator Play; The Littlest Ninja; Stephen King’s Misery; Mum’s Choir; Hansel and Gretel; Thumbelina; Elling; Les Liaisons Dangereuses; The Arsonists; The Pink Hammer; A Streetcar Named Desire; The Girl on the Train; Flagons and Foxtrots and Sense and Sensibility.

Sheena BainesAlhawamdeh LIGHTING DESIGNER

Sheena is the Events Manager for Spectrum Lighting and Sound and is a lighting designer with over 30 years’ experience.

Her previous Court Theatre credits include Mother Courage; Great Expectations; Proof; Angels in America; Kiss me Kate and Frankenstein. Her other theatre credits include The Wedding Singer (NASDA); Suor Angelica (Toi Toi Opera); Peoria Ballet (ONU) and Copenhagen (Auckland Theatre Company), as well as touring extensively with Mark Hadlow.

Sheena is an accomplished Event Manager and spent 13 years at the Christchurch City Council, where she produced Classical Sparks, Summer Theatre and Botanic D’Lights.

Sheena moved to Spectrum Lighting and Sound in 2018 after being a client, having been impressed with the passion on site and the problem-solving expertise within the team.

Jo Bunce STAGE MANAGER

Jo graduated from Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Drama School with a Diploma in Technical Production in 1996 and has been working in theatre for over 25 years. She freelanced for many years in Wellington as a lighting designer / operator and stage manager, as well as working overseas in London and Edinburgh and in film. She was an on-set production assistant for King Kong.

Jo is the Head Stage Manager at The Court Theatre and has been involved in over 50 Court productions going back to 1996, including End of the Rainbow; The Hound of the Baskervilles; Blood Brothers; One Man, Two Guvnors; Shepherd; Constellations; Waiora; The Events; Venus in Fur; Ideation; Stephen King’s Misery; Les Liaisons Dangereuses; The Arsonists; A Streetcar Named Desire; Ladies Night; Frankenstein; The Girl on the Train; Flagons and Foxtrots and Sense and Sensibility.

Matt Short SOUND DESIGNER AND OPERATOR

CREATIVES / RINGATOI

Haydon has worked on and off camera for both stage and screen. He starred in the short film Mr Savant (Winning Film, Somedays Stories Film Challenge 2019), and starred in and worked behind-thescenes on the short film Truth. exe (Official Selection: Boston SciFi Film Festival; Science Fiction Film Festival (Sydney); Monthly Finalist - Changing Face International Film Festival; and Winner - Best Student Film, Miami International SciFi Film Festival). He is also a producer and actor in the yet-to-bereleased feature film based on Truth.exe, entitled The Bostrom Scenario.

Haydon was a member of The Court Youth Company 2019 / 2020 and stage managed the Company’s 2021 productions of Boys and The Unauthorised Biography Of…. He was Assistant Stage Manager for RENT and Stage Manager for Cinderella. Haydon has also worked with New Zealand Opera.

Rosie is a graduate of Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Drama School (Bachelor of Design: Stage and Screen).

Her previous Court Theatre credits include Katzenmusik; Whā and The Unauthorised Biography of… (Designer).

Rosie’s other theatre credits include Cubbin Theatre Company's production of Sportsball (Designer); Red Scare's production of Homemade Takeaways (Set Designer); Toi Whakaari’s production of Women Beware Women (Set Designer); National Theatre / New Zealand Festival’s production of The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phill (Assistant Designer) and various productions with Two Productions as a Designer.

Haydon Dickie ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER

Rosie Gilmore REHEARSAL ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER

Tom Eason FIGHT CHOREOGRAPHER

Tom's biography is listed under CAST

"All this life you live - what’s it for if no one’s there to tell you about it? To hold on to it and then give it back to you?

To remind you of the things you forgot or never knew you even knew? I always thought that was what family was for."

- ANTOINETTE 'TONI' LAFAYETTE (APPROPRIATE)

CENTRESPREAD

CENTRESPREAD

REFOCUSSING THE LENS ON RACE AND IDENTITY IN AMERICAN THEATRE

“Hi, everyone. I’m a black playwright. I don’t know exactly what that means, but I’m here to make you feel something.”

This is the opening line to An Octoroon, another Branden Jacobs-Jenkins play, written just after Appropriate. The line represents the dilemma that Jacobs-Jenkins has faced since his earliest plays achieved notice, and acclaim - that of writing about race, not writing about race (but the assumption that you were, because of your race), and resisting being defined by race.

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins undoubtedly brings a voice on race and identity into his work - sometimes explicitly, often not. When he was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2016, the Foundation noted (amongst other things), his use of a “historical lens to satirise and comment on modern culture, particularly the ways in which race and class are negotiated in both private and public settings."1

Partly for that reason, his work has been described as both ‘subversive’ and ‘innovative’. But as Jacobs-Jenkins points out, race is, and has always been, part of the conversation. Playwrights such as Sam Shepherd, Tennessee Williams and Eugene O’Neill, he says, have been telling stories about race long before him, but it has gone unnoticed by the majority, because the dominant viewpoints being expressed were their own: “So, do you think that you’ve not been making work about race? You’ve been making work about whiteness.”2

The very urge to define him as ‘an African American writer’ highlights the otherness that his work seeks to highlight. “If you look at every classic American play, they’re basically all about the idea of race and relation and an evolution of culture, otherness and how we deal with it. So I

don’t know, it’s a tricky question to ask because if you’re going to ask me, you’ve got to ask everyone.”3

“I feel like I’m put in a position where I have to engage with what people bring to my work, which is an expectation for me to talk about race because it’s not normal for a black writer to be writing in the theatre,” he says. “So I have to like explain my presence, my skin colour.”4

In Appropriate, Jacobs-Jenkins has written a story about family, relationships, otherness, and most definitely one about race, whilst not showing a single character of colour. What - or rather, who - is missing from the stage speaks even more loudly by absence. This is undoubtedly part of why Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ work is so remarkable - he amplifies the conversations we may not have heard or had chosen to ignore…“he makes the audience work. It’s about never letting us be comfortable, never allowing us to occupy a place of feeling like we know it all - because we don’t.”5

Appropriate, and other works by Jacobs-Jenkins, remind us that the familiar can look completely different, with just a change of focus.

“I think theatre is about checking in on some controversial ideas among the people and seeing where we all square in our relationship to those ideas and also with each other.”6

The ideas presented in Appropriate may, or may not, be controversial to you, but we hope that you

1 Gans, Andrew. "Playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins Among MacArthur “Genius” Grant Winners" Playbill, September 22, 2016

2 Branden Jacobs-Jenkins Is, and Is Not, Writing About Race - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

3 Playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins: 'Theatre is about controversial ideas' | Stage | The Guardian

4 Playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins: 'Theatre is about controversial ideas' | Stage | The Guardian

5 Lileana Blain-Cruz quoted in Not Black and White | Princeton Alumni Weekly

6 Playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins: 'Theatre is about controversial ideas' | Stage | The Guardian

CAST / KAHUI KIRIWHAKAARI

In 1969, Eilish first tiptoed onto the stage at the age of four in Dame Ngaio Marsh’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. She joined The Court Company at 18 as a student actor and since then has become a regular on The Court’s stage.

She has appeared in more than 80 productions at The Court. Some of her favourites include August: Osage County; Homeland; Suddenly Last Summer; Dancing at Lughnasa; Travesties; Cabaret; End of the Rainbow; Blood Brothers; Ropable; Chicago; Titus Andronicus; In The Next Room, or The Vibrator Play; Les Liaisons Dangereuses; The Pink Hammer; Flagons and Foxtrots and Sense and Sensibility. Her television and film credits include the drama series Hope and Wire on TV3 and the short film Run Rabbit, directed by Robyn Paterson. Eilish is an Associate of The Court Theatre.

Serena is a graduate of the University of Otago (BA in Theatre Studies) and a ‘drop out’ of Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Drama School (she left in her second year to play one of the leads in the critically acclaimed television drama series The Insider’s Guide to Love).

This is Serena’s third Court Theatre show. She previously appeared in Five Women Wearing the Same Dress (the first show post-February 2011 earthquake, before The Court had its own venue) and the immensely popular The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

Other recent stage credits include seasons in Auckland, Sydney and around New Zealand with Pop Up Globe (Julius Caesar; Comedy of Errors; Macbeth; Hamlet and Measure for Measure) and two new New Zealand plays: The Hall (Bullet Heart Club) and Timberrr…! (Circa Theatre / Centrepoint Theatre).

Recent screen credits include Shortland Street; The Brokenwood Mysteries; Ablaze and The Gulf.

Serena is a proud member of Actor’s Equity.

Tom began his training here in Christchurch at Original Scripts Theatre School. Since then he has gained a Bachelor of Performing Arts (Acting) from Te Kura Toi Whakaari O Aotearoa: New Zealand Drama School.

His previous Court Theatre credits include Astroman; The Pink Hammer; A Streetcar Named Desire; Frankenstein; The Girl on the Train and Māui Me Te Rā. His other theatre credits include Sea and Dust Pilgrim (Red Leap Theatre); The Wholehearted (Massive Theatre Company); The Breath of the Volcano and Skin of Fire, performed in the Auckland International Arts Festival (Group F).

He has taught and directed for Toi Whakaari, The Court Youth Company and Original Scripts Theatre School. He is co-artistic director of Two Productions and has performed in their works Moemoea; If You Only See One Show In Your Life; The Disaster Brothers; Balmy; The Powerful Event; Open for Business; Moby Dick and The Little Prince.

Eilish Moran ANTOINETTE ‘TONI’ LAFAYETTE

Serena Cotton RACHAEL KRAMER-LAFAYETTE

Tom Eason FRANÇOIS ‘FRANZ / FRANK’ LAFAYETTE

CAST / KAHUI KIRIWHAKAARI

Roy Snow

Roy is a Court Theatre regular with numerous appearances over the last 15 years, most recently in The Girl on the Train and Little Shop of Horrors. Further Court Theatre credits include End of the Rainbow; The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time; Chicago and Ladies Night.

Last seen with the Auckland Theatre Company in their acclaimed production of North By Northwest, his other theatre credits include The Rocky Horror Show and Cabaret (ATC); The Threepenny Opera (Silo Theatre); The Phantom of the Opera; Les Miserables and Evita (Showbiz Christchurch).

Roy can be found renovating his old house in Geraldine, keeping his wife happy and walking his daughter’s pug Tibbers.

Laurel Gregory

Laurel is a graduate of the National Academy of Singing and Dramatic Art (NASDABachelor of Performing Arts). This is her second production with The Court Theatre, her first being The Wind in the Willows in 2019.

Her other theatre credits include As You Like It (Third Bear); Les Miserables; Wicked and Hairspray (Showbiz Christchurch) and Oliver Twist (Lyttelton Arts Factory).

For the last two years, Laurel has been performing for Universal Studios Beijing, where she sang and danced as a Hogwarts Student in the Frog Choir and the Triwizard Spirit Rally (Wizarding World of Harry Potter), and also as a punk rock porcupine in Sing on Tour (based on the 2016 film ‘Sing’).

Only recently returned, she is excited to be back performing in the city she calls home.

Lily Bourne

Originally from Palmerston North, Lily moved to Ōtautahi to attend the National Academy of Singing and Dramatic Art (NASDA) and graduated with a Bachelor of Music Theatre in 2022.

Lily first stepped onto The Court Theatre main stage last year as Rita Vincent in Flagons and Foxtrots, and more recently worked behind-the-scenes for Sense and Sensibility. Her other performance credits include The New Regent Street Spectacular (World Buskers Festival, Strut’n’Fret); Merry and Bright (Blackboard Theatre Collective); Grease and The Wedding Singer (NASDA); and Mamma Mia! (Act Three Productions).

She is also a Teaching Artist in The Court Theatre Education Programme and is a former Jester Youth Company member. She is an avid choral enthusiast and is proud to have recently been selected to represent New Zealand in one of our national choirs.

Lily is proud to be a member of Equity New Zealand.

BEAUREGARDE 'BO' LAFAYETTE

CASSIDY 'CASSIE' KRAMER-LAFAYETTE

RIVER RAYNER

CAST / KAHUI KIRIWHAKAARI

Barnaby is in year six at Burnside Primary School. Appropriate is his first Court Theatre show and he’s also rehearsing for Frozen JR. which goes on stage in July.

His other theatre credits include singing in Arohanui - From Christchurch with Love; the role of Eric in Matilda the Musical (Showbiz Christchurch); several shows and music videos for the Music with Michal dance troupe, including NYE22 in Hagley Park; and annual dance recitals and medals tests for Anna Lee School of Dance, where he learns hip hop and jazz.

Barnaby sings lead in his school band, sings in choir, plays piano in the orchestra, and loves to play touch rugby and rugby for his school and Burnside Club. Last year Barnaby found a GIANT worm in his backyard and became a global sensation, interviewing with news networks all over the world.

Frankie is in year four at Burnside Primary School. Appropriate is his first Court Theatre show and he’s also rehearsing for Frozen JR. which goes on stage in July.

His other theatre credits include singing in Arohanui - From Christchurch with Love; several shows and music videos for the Music with Michal dance troupe including, NYE22 in Hagley Park; and annual dance recitals and medals tests for Anna Lee School of Dance, where he learns hip hop and jazz.

Frankie sings backing vocals and plays keys for his school band, sings in choir, plays piano in the orchestra, enjoys triathlons, runs cross country and loves to play basketball, touch rugby and rugby for his school and Burnside Club. He’s recently started leading a kapa haka club at school and he has written some original haka.

William is a theatre director, actor, maker, tech and teacher. He was most recently seen at The Court as Pinkie in Flagons and Foxtrots. Other Court Theatre credits include being a member of the The Court Youth Company; sound and audiovisual designer for Katzenmusik; co-director of Vernon God Little and director of The Unauthorised Biography Of....

His other theatre credits include Les Miserables and Miss Saigon (Showbiz Christchurch); Assistant Director of Mr. Burns: A Post Electric Play (NASDA) and various projects with Two Productions.

William’s self-produced solo shows include Shit Finds Love, three shows with his alter ego Peter Partridge and The First Annual Parnell Croquet Club Facebook Live Telethon.

William is a Teaching Artist for The Court Theatre Education Programme and is a member of Equity New Zealand.

Barnaby [Barney] Domigan

AINSLEY KRAMER-LAFAYETTE

Franklin [Frankie] Domigan

AINSLEY KRAMER-LAFAYETTE

William Burns

RHYS THURSTON

LOOK AT THIS PLACE"

SETTING THE SCENE FOR FAMILY DRAMA

“The house is a holding place of a lost white society” Tony says. “The house is a memento mori of this White Culture in a way. The reminders of this life are still there but the next generations struggle to acknowledge that this has shaped them.”

Set Designers Mark McEntyre and Tony De Goldi (who together form G.O.M Arts Collective) have created the perfect frame for the dysfunctional family get together that is Appropriate. This space is “not just a backdrop - it is part of the action. It is an actor and contributing to the text” says Mark.

Tony and Mark have endeavoured to bring not just the house, but the histories of generations of the Lafayette family to faded, jaded, multi-layered life by creating a visual ‘under history’ - objects and visual elements that subtly hint at all that has occurred in this house and on this land.

All the mementoes and remnants of the family’s past are hoarded here. But it is not chaos. “The set reflects the turmoil of this family and its history. The overwhelming clutter in the space is a type of cataloguing of the histories this house holds” Tony says.

Each element has been carefully chosen to enhance our overall experience of the play and to contribute to the narrative in some way. “You could take away the walls and the props would nearly hold the space. Every element is doing its job” Mark notes.

That attention to detail sees the props include legal papers, referencing the father’s life as a judge, military memorabilia, and fur coats, alluding not only to the Lafayettes' dead mother, but the early history of Arkansas as a French Settlement. These elements also hint at the whiteness of the inhabitants and their history.

The set was constructed to reflect this disappearing act, says Mark. “There is a ghosting aspect to the set, an ephemerality about it. It’s quite architectural, but we wanted it to feel as if it could evaporate out of the space.” Elements such as an old TV hint at the idea of the old patriarch, sitting and watching TV, living his last days watching life vicariously through his Trumpian lens, while gradually disappearing, evaporating into the walls of the Lafayette family homestead.

Because photos are a central focal point of Appropriate, Tony and Mark have added multiple prop cameras to the set. “This was a way to capture the idea that cameras are a form of power - they catalogue views and ideas” says Tony. But there can be multiple viewpoints - who is capturing the image, and for what purpose? The found images are the one thing of actual monetary value in the house and “some of the family want to sell them off” says Mark. “They are unfazed by the horror of what they are seeing because they haven’t acknowledged the influence of their own history. The set is the last decaying remnant of this thinking. It helps to make the audience question their history and ethical dilemmas.”

And, in the end, it is the set as ‘performer’ that gives us the final word on all we have seen.

"It must be this house.. There’s so much pain here.. You all just have to get this place out of your bones."

- RIVER RAYNER (APPROPRIATE)

Between 1882 and 1968, 4,743 lynchings were officially recorded in the United States. Seventytwo percent were African American people.1

Many of these crimes were photographed and, almost unbelievably, in the late 19th and early 20th century, some were turned into postcards. The cards were both mailed and kept as souvenirs; physical 'souvenirs' were even sometimes taken from the bodies of the murdered victims.

“In a typical lynching postcard, the victim is displayed prominently at the centre of the shot, while smiling spectators, often including children, crowd the margins of the frame, posing for the camera to prove their presence. Facial expressions suggesting remorse, guilt, shame, or regret are rare.”2

They served not only to ‘celebrate’ the power of the white majority and the ‘justice’ meted out on untried victims, but to intimidate African

Americans and other minorities, and those who supported them.

In 1908 the postcards were banned by the US Postmaster General. However, as late as the 21st century they were still available “from dealers who offered them in whispered tones and clandestine marketplaces.”3

In 2002 artist Ken Gonzales Day displayed altered images from the postcards in his Erased Lynching Series. He photoshopped the victims and the horror of their fate out, forcing the eye to focus on the people committing, observing and supporting the violence, thus forcing “the viewer to focus on the crowd and, in doing so, to address the underlying racism and bias that was so foundational to many of these acts of collective violence.”4

FRIENDS – THE FAMILY YOU CHOOSE

Appropriate’s dysfunctional Lafayette family certainly proves the old adage that ‘you can’t pick your family - but you can pick your friends’. The opportunity to pick new friends, and become one, is quite literally what being a Friend of The Court Theatre is all about. Best of all, you are becoming a Friend to the theatre which continues to bring brilliant creative art to Ōtautahi Christchurch, and beyond.

Joining The Friends of The Court Theatre offers you many opportunities to contribute to our city’s creative heart. Your membership helps The Court to keep making and delivering challenging, compelling entertainment to all ages and interests. In 2023, The Friends of The Court Theatre are even more involved in that onstage experience, once again sponsoring a show - Te Kuia me te Pungawerewere.

For those who want to be more active with their connection, there are plenty of Friendsonly events, many of which also raise funds for

Court operations and equipment. Friends can also volunteer to perform essential tasks for the theatre, such as serving audience members at the Coffee Bar, or joining the ushering team, a service which literally saves The Court hundreds of thousands of dollars each year.

A full year of membership is available at any time of the year for a modest fee and comes with many benefits, including ticket discounts, invitations to Friends-only events and access to behind-the-scenes information and experiences. But it is knowing what you can give as a Friend that makes membership so valuable – Friends are part of The Court’s fabric, because their commitment ensures that exciting and enthralling theatre, created by dozens of talented people, remains available to our local community.

To find out how The Friends of The Court Theatre can enable you to play a part in the theatre you love, visit courttheatre.org.nz/support/friends

From classic murder mystery to zombie horror, The Court Jesters’ autumn line-up has something for everyone.

Academy Funeral Services

Adgraphix

Calder Stewart

Cavell Leitch

Chamlang

CIPM Limited

OUR FUNDERS AND MAJOR DONORS

OUR SPONSORS

Coca Cola

Curtis Vision Optometrists

Digital Imports

Enlightened Fire Solutions

Elastomer Products Ltd

Foot Science International

Fulton Ross Team Architects

Garden City Chemdry

Green Acres

Metalcraft Roofing

Phantom Billstickers Security Specialists

Southfreeze Refrigeration

The Fitting Room

The George Christchurch TIMG (NZ) Ltd

Totalpos

SEASON SPONSOR

Pamela Webb Charitable Trust

Elizabeth Ball Charitable Trust

The Robert & Barbara Stewart Charitable Trust

Farina Thompson Charitable Trust

It's time to TAKE YOUR SEAT

TAKE YOUR SEAT, join the act and show your support for The Court Theatre.

Your new Court Theatre, being created in the heart of Ōtautahi Christchurch, is becoming a reality.

Take your place in our history by showing and celebrating your support and love of theatre with a bespoke Court Theatre seat.

A donation of $1,500 (per seat, tax-deductible) secures your personalised plaque for ten years. This can be your family name, in memorial of someone special or a pseudonym – whatever appeals to you.

YOUR NAME HERE

To reserve your seats online, scan the QR code or visit applause.courttheatre.org.nz/#resources

Render images courtesy of Athfield Architects Limited (NZ) and Haworth Tompkins (London, UK).