Eleanor Bishop

The writer and director of feminist plays, including Auckland Arts Festival production Body Double, shares favourite food moments from her life in New York and New Zealand.

How do you t eating into working on productions? I studied for three years at Carnegie Mellon School of Drama in Pittsburgh, and every day, class would stop at 5pm before rehearsals at 6.30pm. So everyone would eat at 5pm, usually out of Tupperware. For a year after I graduated, I would get hungry at 5pm on the dot. Rehearsing during the day and not eating from Tupperware still feels like a treat.

What’s the best thing about eating in New York? Bodegas. They’re corner stores, like dairies, but with deli counters and lter co ee. They’ll make you a hot egg-and-cheese breakfast sandwich that you eat en route to the subway. Breakfast sandwiches are my favourite food thing about America and something New Zealand should start doing. How would you describe your lifestyle? I try to eat healthily. I like to cook for myself and friends. I try to walk most places as my main form of exercise. I think and listen to music when I walk and solve a lot of work problems in that time.

What’s your typical breakfast? Today, I had muesli with yogurt, banana and a co ee. It’s usually eaten sitting up in bed doing emails before rehearsal. What about in Brooklyn? Oatmeal – made exciting by varying the toppings. Often I’ll have raspberries or blackberries – fresh berries are cheap. My New York whanau are my directing professor, Marianne Weems, and her daughter Suni, and on Saturday mornings we eat pancakes with maple syrup.

What do you like for lunch? Today’s was tomato on toast.

What’s your favourite evening meal? Often, I’ll stir-fry a bunch of veges, usually broccoli, maybe with chicken or sh, and with heaps of chilli, garlic and ginger. Are you a snacker? Not really, but I will eat apples, muesli bars and anything left on the Auckland Theatre Company sta room table.