Since completing her theatre studies course (with honours) Catlins-born Heidi Geissler (a former recipient of an Otago Daily Times Class Act award) has had little time to draw breath between one performing arts contract and the next.
''I handed in the last assignment for my honours degree in 2012, and the day after, I got a phone call offering me a job for the next year.''
Looking back, embarking on a traditionally more stable career was something Geissler came close to doing.
''When I was leaving school, and heading towards a theatre studies course at Otago [University] there was a lot of encouragement from family and teachers but it was always with the assumption that it would lead on to something safer.
People would say: 'Take a degree that you'll enjoy and then train for teaching after that'.''
The more Geissler began to enjoy her course (and excel in it), the more she heard people around her saying how notoriously difficult the industry was to break into. And this time, the comments came from those who knew what they were talking about.
''First it was: `New Zealand's such a small country. It's so difficult to start from scratch'. Then it was: `Worldwide, its such a competitive industry to be working in'. So, straight away, before I'd even finished my degree, I was hearing it's hard, it's hard. I was quite intimidated by that. I guess, in a way, I still am.''
While Geissler has good reason to be, her track record to date is promising.
Her first contract, a six-month stint touring New Zealand secondary schools as an actor with the Theatre in Health Education Trust's Sexwise troupe, led to a second contract in 2014.
This dovetailed into a second year contract with the Dunedin City Council's primary school education programme Keep Dunedin Beautiful, which was so successful it was snapped up by Porirua City Council.
Towards the end of that contract, Geissler, never one to sit around, began work on The Mall, the recent Dunedin-based Counterpoint production that she directed, and which attracted strong audiences and high praise from reviewers.
Opting for a cast and crew in the 20s age bracket, and featuring the work of talented young New Zealand writer Thomas Sainsbury, Geissler is outspoken about the need for young people's theatre.
''Right now, in New Zealand, I think there's a gap. In Dunedin, especially, the theatre audience is mainly drawn from an older age group. There is experimental theatre coming out of the university, but once you leave that institution there just aren't the opportunities unless you make them for yourself. I want to create space for young voices and young audiences. I want to give my fellow theatre practitioners opportunities to air their work, and that's where The Mall fitted in. It also gave me the challenge of fulfilling a post-uni ambition. I learned some valuable directing skills through my theatre studies course, and I wanted to see if I could maintain and enhance them outside of the institution.''
Challenge is a word that comes up frequently in conversation with Geissler, someone who actively pushes herself in multiple directions.
''Yes, it would be nice to specialise one day, but right now I want to be involved in all aspects of the industry. If I know how to stage-manage really well, it will help with my directing. And by being a better director, I become a better actor.''
Besides which, according to Geissler, in New Zealand a performing artist must be able to multitask in order to gain employment, and even then there's no guarantee of finding it.
''I'm fortunate in the sense that I'm open to a whole range of possibilities within the industry. It's never going to be easy carving out a living from performing arts, no matter what you're doing, but if your focus is quite defined, and your area of expertise is something like dance or improvisation, it's going to be even harder. Out of the group I graduated with, the people who have had the most success at finding work are those who trained as drama teachers.''
Geissler is also grounded enough to recognise that to take advantage of opportunities she must be ready to live what most regard as a nomadic lifestyle.
''At the moment, I'm able to make a living from performing arts but that's a lot to do with the fact that I'm OK about moving around the country for several months of the year. If I find I need a greater degree of stability in the future, I really might have to think about retraining for teaching. But I've decided to cross that bridge when I come to it.''
For now though, Geissler's practical do-it-yourself approach is paying off.
''New Zealanders are down-to-earth enough to know that although acting seems like the glamorous part of theatre, you can't be an actor without a director and a producer, a stage manager and a lighting crew. Theatre caretakers and cleaners, they're all part of making it happen. It's big-team stuff, and once everyone you're working with realises that, you have a great atmosphere going on. Audiences pick up on that. They can tell when the people they're watching are getting along with each other. So, yes, I like to be involved in all aspects of performance. I keep my finger in a lot of different pies.''
Those pies include film as well as improvisation theatre and drama teaching.
''While I was directing The Mall, I auditioned for a film that Rape Crisis is making. It's going to be used in schools as an educational tool. I was fortunate to get the main part so that's what I've just been working on. Now I'm rehearsing for a show called Mary's Christmas, which will be on at the Playhouse on December 11 and 12. It's with an all-woman company called Discharge. They're based in Dunedin and Wellington and they do fantastic comedy. The performing arts industry has tended, historically, to be male dominated so the company performs plays written, directed, and produced by women, and with an all-woman cast.''
Proceeds from Mary's Christmas, which Geissler is directing as well as acting in, will to go Women's Refuge.
Does Geissler ever sleep?''I do sometimes work quite late at night,'' she laughs.
''Every second week, I stage-manage for Improsaurus. That's an improvised comedy troupe that performs late night, downstairs in The Fortune.''
Is there anything else she's forgotten to mention? (We're talking here about a 23-year-old, not quite two years out of university.)''Well, I did stage-manage for Opera Otago last year when they were touring their show Cross Roads. And I have ongoing acting work with Outstanding Performance. I play a range of patients so medical students can practise and be examined on their clinical skills.''
Geissler pauses (something I suspect she doesn't often have time to do).
''And then there's the after-school classes I teach at Interact Drama. I was assisting Cindy Diver, who owns the company, but now I'm co-leading the class. I enjoy the challenge ...''
(that word again) ''... of learning how to tutor all ages. When you're passing on what you know to other people, it solidifies your own knowledge because you have to be really confident about what you're doing.''
Does she have plans to slow down at some stage?
''Dunedin is an amazing environment in which to study and practise the performing arts. Theatrically, it's strong and exciting, but it's also fun, and it's a safe, supportive place to make mistakes in. You don't have to move to a larger centre in New Zealand into order to be involved in theatre. But I've decided to travel next year. I need to figure out my next step in the industry and, internationally, I need to see what's going on out there. So at some stage, I'll head to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.''
Currently writing lyrics, Geissler, a talented vocalist, is also expressing an interest in furthering her involvement in music. And there's been an invitation to audition for a professional theatre company production in 2015.
