A respected presence in SC theatre
Dawn Somerville, who died in Christchurch in August, was a respected figure in New Zealand theatre and a driving force behind the Aoraki Festival and South Canterbury Drama League’s Little Theatre Section.
Dawn was born in Dunedin and grew up in the high country around Tekapo. Her parents divorced when she was very young, and she didn’t get to know her father Norman Sligo, who was captured in World War Two and died in a prinsoer of war camp camp in Borneo.
Her mother Elsie married Fred Smith, who inspired Dawn’s love of the outdoors.
In recent years, Dawn researched the Sligo side of her family and was delighted to meet several long-lost cousins, aunts and uncles.
As a young girl Dawn excelled at ice skating and competed at national level, winning the NZ Junior Champion title in her late teens.
A childhood skating friendship was rekindled earlier this year when Dawn moved into the Merivale Retirement Village in Christchurch and discovered that her new neighbour was Caro Murray, one of her childhood skating companions, whom she hadn’t seen for nearly 70 years.
The Mackenzie Country also sparked Dawn’s love of literature. On tramping expeditions with Fred and her siblings, she would devour any books left behind by musterers and hunters in the high country huts: everything from hard-boiled American detective novels by Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett, to Jane Austen and the plays of Shakespeare.
After finishing her schooling at Sacred Heart College in Timaru, Dawn completed her dental nurse training and also worked in Australia for a year as a ‘jilleroo’ in the Queensland outback. She returned to Timaru and met local businessman Jim Somerville. They married, had two sons (James and Todd) and were together for more than 60 years until Jim’s death in July 2016. Dawn continued her studies in Speech and Drama and in 1975 was awarded a Fellowship of Trinity College, London, with a thesis entitled The Literature of the Maori.
She was also an active member of the South Canterbury Drama League, initially as an actor but later excelling as a director in Timaru and Christchurch. She took several plays to the New Zealand Theatre Federation’s national competition and in 1977 won the National Final with Federico Garcia Lorca’s The Love of Don Perlimplin.
She also directed the world premiere of Pearse, a play about South Canterbury’s pioneer aviator written by local playwright John Leask, which was selected by the Drama League to celebrate the Little Theatre’s first ten years.
Dawn was also an accredited adjudicator, and judged international drama festivals in the United Kingdom and Europe as well as NZTF festivals around New Zealand.
In 1986 Dawn was the founding Artistic Director of the Aoraki Festival of the Arts, working with her friend Fiona Elworthy and a dedicated local team (including Aunty Kera Brown and the Arowhenua Marae) to organise the biennial event showcasing the best of New Zealand’s Maori and European artistic talent.
Under her leadership, the team staged nine highly successful festivals over 18 years, always staying true to the grassroots vision and relaxed family atmosphere of the original event.
Dawn was an intrepid traveller and particularly loved long journeys by sea. Jim’s contacts in the shipping industry enabled them to travel extensively on cargo ships, car carriers, cruise liners and container ships. Dawn is survived by her sons, James and Todd, and her three grandchildren Harry, Charlotte and Georgina.