Drama-filled days and nights
Cameron Lines spends many hours a day teaching drama at Timaru Girls’ High School then his evenings directing junior drama league actors in its latest production.
Theatre is his way of relaxing, the 26-year-old English and drama teacher said.
At the moment Lines is busy directing Curtains the Musical Whodunnit – the first show for the league’s new juniors – high school section for young actors aged from 13 to 18.
From a Nelson thespian family which had its own theatre company, Lines never tires of drama. He directed his first play, Bittersweet Love by T J Ramsay in 2017 for the One-Act Play Festival and won best production of a New
Drama teacher
Zealand play award. He wrote his first play the following year.
Lines started acting from the age of four and his childhood, along with two older siblings, was spent in a never ending whirl of rehearsals and performances.
‘‘We came home from school had dinner at five and rehearsals five days a week.’’
This offered him a practical insight into every aspect of theatre. The family did not have their own theatre so performed in restaurants and working men’s clubs so he was excited about Playhouse theatre after moving to Timaru in February 2019.
‘‘South Canterbury Drama League is a fantastic place to stumble across,’’ he said.
South Canterbury Drama League president Chris Thomas said Lines was chosen for the role to bring new blood to the company and also because he was a talented actor, dancer and singer. Last year he acted in two drama league shows – as Emmett Forrest in Legally Blonde, and as Officer Pope in The Jailhouse Frocks.
‘‘He [Lines] has brought his knowledge of the theatre,’’ Thomas said.
With a ‘‘scarcity’’ of directors and many of the regulars ageing, Thomas said Lines had fresh ideas and a different way of looking at things.
Curtains the Musical Whodunnit is a backstage murder plot satire. It is the first show for the league’s new juniors-high school section aged from 13 to 18. Last year the junior section was split into two sections and expanded its age group from 10-year-olds to 8-year-olds.
It will be performed at the newly upgraded Playhouse Theatre, on Church St, from March 24-April 4.
‘‘South Canterbury Drama League is a fantastic place to stumble across.’’ Cameron Lines