The Playhouse Theatre has started a youth theatre group to bridge the gap in Dunedin between its children’s theatre group and adult and professional theatre.
The Playhouse’s committee chose first-time director Sebastian Cumming, 19, to step in to lead the group’s first production of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, which opens on Thursday.
Mr Cumming said it was difficult for young people between the ages of 18 and 25 to get involved with the children’s theatre due to conflicting schedules, so they wanted to make something that would suit that age group.
"I think it fills a gap we’re missing," Mr Cumming said.
He was the right man to lead the initiative because of the connection he had with the Playhouse, having been a part of it since he was 12.
"I was known in the Playhouse and have also got experience with the area and acting in Dunedin."
Over the years, he had played a variety of roles for the company, including as Winnie the Pooh in Winnie the Pooh and the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz.
He remembers getting his start as a background troll in a play called Vanish.
Now the theatre felt like family for him and being at the forefront of the new group was special, he said.
The youth theatre group would produce two shows a year that would be a driven by more adult themes.
The Importance of Being Earnest was a play many people were familiar with and was really fun to do because of the different character dynamics, Mr Cumming said.
He enjoyed that it was a one-set-per-act play and he could use the same space for an extended amount of time, Mr Cumming said.
There were eight actors and three crew members involved in the play who had all been a part of the theatre since they were children.
The group had been working on the play since the start of the year and he was feeling confident it would be a success, he said.
