The Star: April 27, 2017

The Star Latest Christchurch news at www. .kiwi
Thursday April 27 2017 21
Theatre/Arts
Performer treks into unknown
• By Georgia O’Connor-Harding
KATHLEEN BURNS has always
been captivated by the dangers
of travelling into space.
A Star Wars, Star Trek and
Battlestar Galactica enthusiast,
the 31-year-old had always loved
the “high stakes” and drama of
shows set in the galaxy.
After being heavily involved
as a performer with The Court
Theatre for more than 13 years,
Burns has taken her career in a
new direction crafting her first
original play.
The Parklands resident has
transformed one of the world’s
most well-known fairytales into
an adventurous sci-fi about a
slave space mechanic named
Cinderella.
Cinderella In Space is a new
adaptation to the 1950 Disney
animated film, telling the story
of a young heroine forced by an
evil “Captain Step-Mummy”
to clean a space station even
though she would rather build
robots.
Burns described the original
character of Cinderella as a “bit
of a victim” who gets helped out
NEW DIRECTION: Kathleen Burns on set of her first original show at The Court Theatre. ​
of her situation so she can marry
rich.
“I just think we can do better
than this . . . we can make her
a woman who does things
SHOW BROUGHT TO LIFE: Monique Clementson as
Cinderella and Ralph McCubbin Howell as Captain
Step-Mummy in Kathleen Burns’ first original show Cinderella
in Space.
and affects change to her
environment and makes her a
role model worthy of aspiring
to,” she said.
Since she was a child, one of
Burns’ favourite past-times was
“writing dialogue.”
“What I didn’t know about
myself was I wanted to write
plays . . . I loved using those
speech marks,” she said.
For the past decade her
writing dreams were put on hold
to pursue performing.
She ditched her double
degree in psychology and
gender studies at Canterbury
University, going onto to study
at the National Academy of
Singing and Dramatic Art.
“I got two-and-a-half years
into it and I was like, I don’t
want to spend one more second
going down a path I don’t
want to go down, and literally
overnight I was like, I am
throwing all of this in,” she
said.
Before then, she first cut her
teeth entertaining youths on
a Friday night with The Court
Jesters.
“Definitely, you have to love
it. For starters, nobody in this
industry is paid enough to
warrant doing it without the love
and drive for it,” she said.
So far, the highlight of her
performing career was working
with well-known actor George
Henare.
“His approach to the work is
so uncomplicated and it reminds
me acting should be really
simple,” she said.
Her first gig as a writer had
her frightened but she said she
needed to try something new.
“I always knew writing is
hard. I have so much respect
for writers . . . I am still outside
thinking it is a magical allusive
thing other people do,” she
said.
•Cinderella In Space runs
at The Court Theatre until
Saturday. To book tickets go
to https://courttheatre.org.
nz
High profile
faces for
Court
production
BEST KNOWN for his role
in Australian television soap
opera Neighbours, actor Stephen
Lovatt will take the stage in
The Court Theatre’s newest
production Uncle Vanya.
With a career spanning 30
years, Lovatt has performed on
stage, television and in film.
He will now play the leading
role Vanya in a show about family,
love and
heartbreak.
As part
of the story,
Vanya and his
niece Sonya
have laboured
for years on
Stephen Lovatt
Shane Bosher
their family’s
country estate
in relative harmony.
But when
Sonya’s father
returns from
the big city with
a glamorous
new bride, unfulfilled
desires
and fierce family
loyalties collide to destroy the
status quo.
The show is by Russian
playwright Anton Chekhov
(1860–1904), who is known for
his fictional short stories.
Lovatt is not the only high profile
performer involved with the
show, with four-times The New
Zealand Listener magazine’s “director
of the year” Shane Bosher
set to direct.
Bosher said he had Uncle Vanya
at the top of his “must direct”
bucket list. He said audiences will
be able to identify themselves and
the people they interact within
the show.
•Uncle Vanya runs from
May 13 - June 3. To book
tickets go to https://
courttheatre.org.nz