The Old Cold Hearts Club

DIRECTORS’ NOTE

It is such a thrill to present this work to you all in its final form; we've been working on this piece in collaboration with this company of actors over the past two years, and this is the first time they're performing a full, professional season of their work. The three of us feel honoured to be creating with such a talented bunch of actors who are brimming with individuality, drive, and curiosity.

This work has been built from the myriad expressive physical, vocal, gestural, emotional, character, and narrative offers of the actors themselves. We find our way to Plot by drawing on their interests, their stories and concerns, their passions and humour, and the ways they experience the world. We create a scaffolding for these things to emerge and develop in an organic way, and build opportunities for them to express themselves in ways that feel most genuine to them. Finally, we help to shape a text — or a score of words, music, and movement — that we hope reflects the richness of our creative explorations.

We are grateful for the incredible commitment of the families and support workers of each of our actors, without whom this work would not be possible. We are in awe of the work that the Macartney Paine whānau and the SNS Charitable Trust do to sustain this wild dream… the advocacy, fundraising, constant scoping out of new opportunities, administrative load, and support of the artistry required to create the work is astounding, and our work would not exist without it. Thank you, thank you.

To our brilliant design and production team, thank you for coming on this wild ride with us — you’re wonderful makers, and we’re so glad you’re here.

To our beautiful actors… you got this!! Have fun out there.

We hope you enjoy this première!

Madeline, Hannah, & Stevie