After 30 years as a professional actor, director and writer for theatre, television and film, Cindy Diver says she has been on "a rollercoaster of burnouts and reinvigoration", and knows the feeling well.
But the Dunedin playwright has no fear of it at the moment. She is one of 10 established New Zealand playwrights who have been selected for a workshop in Auckland next month with Tony Award-winning British playwright Simon Stephens.
"An event like this helps rekindle the fire.
"I went back to university in the early 2000s to reinvigorate myself with a postgraduate diploma — it was what I needed to give me a kick up the bum to get to the next step.
"Creatively, I think everyone has times where they get burnt out, but this will fill me up again nicely."
She said she was "blown away" to be accepted into the masterclass with such a high-profile playwright.
"Simon’s at the peak of his game. He’s a Tony Award-winning playwright.
"The quality of his work is amazing and some of the plays that he’s written are just so astonishingly beautiful. I love his work," she said.
"The group of people I’ll be working with is quite humbling, so it’s awesome to get a chance to go up to Auckland Theatre Company and do this workshop.
"Hopefully, we’ll infuse each other with passion for storytelling and share some of our techniques and our ways of getting there.
"Just being in the room with them and being able to soak up some of that clever passion - it’ll be inspiring."
Stephens’ work has won many awards, including the 2013 Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play and the 2015 Tony Award for Best Play, for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.
He will lead a masterclass series that aims to support and "embolden" a sustainable and highly-skilled future for New Zealand theatre playwrights, directors and actors.
He will also lead a professional development workshop for drama and literacy teachers, and a writing workshop for students and Auckland Theatre Company (ATC) Youth Arts participants and practitioners.
ATC artistic director and chief executive officer Jonathan Bielski hoped Stephens would be the first of many world-leading theatre practitioners to give masterclasses at the annual event.
"This is an opportunity for New Zealand playwrights to connect directly with one of the world’s leading dramatic voices in a masterclass aimed at strengthening their own work."
