Anna Henare is having a break from hunting murderers on Shortland Street and, frankly, she doesn't give a damn.
The actor plays Detective Inspector Lara Wade on the popular television soap opera, but is in Dunedin to perform in the latest Fortune Theatre production, Moonlight and Magnolias.
"It's great to be back at the Fortune. I've really missed theatre,'' she says.
"It's a very intense schedule on Shortland Street. You're there just to act; that's all they want from you. They're big days and there's no time for anything else. I'd have time to get Dunkin' Donuts on my way home and that was about it.''
Shortland Street is Henare's first television role, but the set has been a home away from home for the former Logan Park High School pupil.
"One of my interrogation subjects [as Det Insp Wade] was Tim Foley [who plays Dr Mark Weston], who also went to Logan Park. He's helped me a lot. It's nice to see so many Dunedin people doing well up there,'' she says.
"It was an amazing experience. Shortland Street is a rite of passage for New Zealand actors,'' she says.
"It's a fabulous training ground. It was scary and exciting. You think you've got it all under control, but you get in there and your heart starts pounding.''
Henare (31) moved to the United States in 1995, where she spent 10 years in Seattle and studied acting at Cornish College of the Arts.
She returned to Dunedin in July, 2005 to make her Fortune debut in The Graduate and most recently appeared in The Clean House last year.
Moonlight and Magnolias was the original title of American Civil War epic Gone with the Wind by 1937 Pulitzer winner Margaret Mitchell.
The play, which is based on fact, is set in Hollywood in 1939 during a week when Gone with the Wind producer David O. Selznick fires the director and shuts down production of the film.
He decides to rewrite the script and engages the reluctant services of script doctor Ben Hecht, who has never read the book, and director Victor Fleming, who is straight off the set of The Wizard of Oz.
With his studio and reputation on the line and the press on his tail, Selznick locks the group indoors for five days and nights to produce a new script.
"It's a very funny comedy; straight farce. That's a lot of fun as an actor and it stretches you,'' Henare says.
Moonlight and Magnolias has gone like the wind since it debuted in Chicago in 2004 and will be the fourth most-produced play by professional theatres in the United States this year.
The play is directed by Murray Lynch and features Henare as Miss Poppenghul, Malcolm Murray as screenwriter Ben Hecht, Julian Wilson as producer David O. Selznick and Matt Wilson as director Victor Fleming.
Moonlight and Magnolias runs at the Fortune Theatre from Tuesday, April 1, until April 20.
Buy two tickets during opening week and you'll get another two tickets free.
