Theatre Company turns 30 but refuses to rest on its laurels
audience.’’
She said the ATC had taught her endless lessons about how to approach her work and life – as well as having her one and only panic attack in the wings of one of its productions. Her co-stars had been on stage wondering what to say to cover for her, but when she heard her cue she pulled herself together.
‘‘No-one would have known,’’ she says. ‘‘Everything was apparently fine, and yet I was a blithering idiot only moments earlier.’’
Others to emerge through the company include Kiwi acting mainstays like Jennifer WardLealand, Michael Hurst, Antonia Prebble, George Henare, Danielle Cormack and Craig Parker.
Remembering the ATC’s early days, Prast takes great joy in how far both he and the company have come. It has given him the chance to grace the stage at the Civic as Atticus Finch and take a treasured phone call with Arthur Miller – in which he made sure not to mention the famed playwright’s former wife, Marilyn Monroe.
And through all those years they have never failed to open a show on time, a point in which he takes great pride. ‘‘I used to say that when we were at the Maidment, if we had a full house that was the equivalent of landing a fully-laden [Boeing] 747, full of cultural tourists, in the middle of the city.’’
Although the company has had many homes over the years, as of 2016 it has based itself out of the ASB Waterfront Theatre. To Prast, it’s a physical manifestation of the hard work of hundreds of people over the years as well as the private, public and arts sectors all coming together for a worthwhile cause.
But Prast doesn’t want those now in charge to rest on their laurels, especially given Auckland mayor Wayne Brown’s comments about arts funding cuts. ‘‘[The arts are] like the most sacred pole that holds our tent up high. After we’ve been through Covid, after [the floods], the arts have a crucial role to play, and now isn’t the time that we should be negotiating their existence... because they’re needed more than ever.’’