Duncan Armstrong featured in the Touch Compass short film Drumming Is Like Thunder
DUNCAN ARMSTRONG WINS MAJOR ARTS AWARD Even as a toddler Wellington performing artist Duncan Armstrong couldn’t stop dancing to music and once he got a taste of acting at primary school he was hooked. “I didn’t really decide to become an actor, it came to me at primary,” says Duncan who is now 31 and a trailblazer when it comes to breaking down the barriers that face disabled performers. Duncan, who has Down syndrome, has spent the past 14 years pursuing his career with singleminded determination. He’s not about to be pigeon-holed: he wants to do everything. “I want to do more stage and screen roles, music, dance and acting. And I’d like to make my own
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film one day too.” As Wellington director Isabel MacKinnon, who worked with Duncan on his 2018 award-winning solo theatre show Force Field observes, he embodies motivation and professionalism. “He’ll routinely arrive at rehearsal before me, get changed and undergo his own personal warmup while everyone else is still trying to find the coffee plunger,” she says. That determination and persistence was recognised at Te Putanga Toi Arts Access Awards 2020 on 13 October when Duncan won the Arts Access PAK’nSAVE Artistic Achievement Award for the outstanding artistic achievement and contributions of an artist who has a physical, sensory or intellectual impairment, or lived experience of mental illness. The award carries a prize of $3000. In their comments the judging panel said: “ E ve r y t h i n g a b o u t D u n c a n A r m s t ro n g ’s artistic achievements has the wow factor! He’s produced a significant body of work across a range of artforms. He’s demonstrated enormous perseverance in overcoming obstacles and pursuing his career, and his list of achievements is thoroughly deserved. Duncan has transformed perceptions about disability and in doing so has
