Hungry for success since sausage debut

With two, soon to be three, shows under her belt, a 17-year-old playwright credits a cured sausage costume for sparking her passion for performance.

Having been raised in a family without any particular love for theatre, Anna Secker says it was her role as a slice of salami in a production of The Very Hungry Caterpillar at the age of five that started her love for the stage.

Malfunctions Of Being Human – a play she co-wrote with friend Georgia Kellett, a performing arts student – opens on Thursday. It will be the third show Secker has written, directed and performed in as many years.

The Sacred Heart College student, from Upper Hutt, says her feelings of excitement and stress tell her that opening night at Sacred Heart’s Notre Dame des Missions Performing Arts Centre is quickly approaching.

Despite the nerves, she is looking forward to seeing the group of ‘‘malfunctions’’ – people exiled from a perfect world – come to life in the science-fiction comedy.

Set in a time when humanity is using technology to create a perfect society, the plot follows a pilot who crashes among a population of outcasts as he tries to figure out who he is and why he is there.

The show has been completely selfproduced by Secker and Kellett, who fundraised and used proceeds from their last play, Missing Time.

Now on to her third production – the second she has written with Kellett – Secker says she has found a passion for directing.

‘‘I like telling people what to do,’’ she laughs. ‘‘I love making happen what I can see in my head.’’

Sacred Heart drama teacher Rachel Veale says Secker’s talent for writing, directing and performing makes her unique among other students her age.

‘‘My role is not so much as a teacher but a supporter who gives her advice when she asks for it.’’

During her last year of school, Secker plans to carve out a career in theatre. She and a group of friends are in the process of establishing their own theatre company in anticipation of future productions.

Malfunctions Of Being Human runs from Thursday to Saturday at the Notre Dame des Missions Performing Arts Centre, Sacred Heart College. Tickets from eventbrite.co.nz

Anna Secker, right, has written, directed and performed in three shows in as many years. She is pictured with friend and Malfunctions Of Being Human co-author Georgia Kellett.