(INTRIGUING THEME MUSIC) Welcome to Dream Catchers, a series about New Zealanders living in the United Kingdom. I'm Hilary Timmins. This is a series that will enthral and inspire us as we meet some of those Kiwis living their dreams and taking a little piece of New Zealand to the rest of the world. Captions by Shrutika Gunanayagam. Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2018 (MAN SINGS OPERA, PIANO PLAYS SOLEMN MUSIC) This is the London Coliseum, one of the largest and most magnificent theatres in the UK. Built in 1904 originally as a variety theatre, it was known as the 'people's palace of entertainment'. Now home to English National Opera, it's the perfect place for us to introduce you to our New Zealand entertainers hitting the high notes and living their dreams. (SINGS OPERA) The world is a stage for Grammy-award-winning bass baritone Jonathan Lemalu. Over the last 20 years, he has performed at almost every operatic mecca, including Covent Garden and the Metropolitan in New York, and he is a familiar face and voice to audiences and fans at the London Coliseum. I've performed at ENO probably almost, I'd say, about 50 performances, so 50 or 60 performances. The great thing about this house ` they have long seasons. Think ENO has a tradition of using lots of different types of directors ` film directors, straight theatre directors ` to bring a different angle to their music here. Jonathan arrived in the UK on a Queen Elizabeth Queen Mother Scholarship at London's Royal College of Music and quickly made an impact. (SINGS OPERA) (PIANO PLAYS LIVELY MUSIC) To make a career out of this business is like anything entertainment ` there's a lotta luck involved; there's a lotta timing involved, and I came here in '99 thinking, 'My scholarship lasts three years. I'll be here for three years. 'I'll go back and try and get a job with my law degree,' because once again, in the mindset for a New Zealander ` particularly for me ` 'How can you compete on a world stage? I don't know if you can. 'Just do your best. You know, absorb as much as you can and go home.' (SINGS OPERA) I think the success in a really quick space of time still, looking back, surprises me, but I think it wasn't necessarily a conscious decision. I sing; I enjoy singing. You put me in any room or any hall, I will do my best to show my love for what I do. Essentially, I'm an entertainer; essentially, I'm a storyteller. (SINGS OPERA) (PLAYS GENTLE MUSIC) I guess the voice showed itself, particularly in my teens. I started a boy soprano, or a treble, in a cathedral choir in Dunedin. My voice broke around 12 and just broke, so I literally didn't have to leave choir; I just sat in the back row as opposed to in the front with the high voices. So I think that was a really lucky break for me, because I kept the love of singing and the enjoyment. (APPLAUSE) I do still get nervous. I enjoy the nerves, because I know that's part of the process. If I'm nervous, then I'm caring. (SINGS OPERA) (PLAYS STACCATO MUSIC) The myth about the bass voice is that you reach your potential in your 40s, and I used to think that a myth, whereas now I truly believe I'm singing better as a result of more knowledge and more understanding. I think it's still in a really development; I think we're really starting to hit our straps. (SINGS OPERA) The soundtrack I'm working on is one on Mozart's life, and I'm doing some excerpts from one of his trilogy operas, Don Giovanni ` will be put as a soundtrack to essentially the way he composed the music. One of his operas he wrote the morning of the premiere. When you see the beauty of this music and how quickly it came out of someone's imagination, think that makes him even more spectacular. The main advice for young opera singers is to try and maintain who you are. I think tryin' to spend time and hours in a room tryin' to sound like someone else ` but they could just get that someone else. I think that thing about particularly New Zealand singers, we're a long way away, and that's a disadvantage in a lot of ways, but also, we're not necessarily... seen as though we're going to be in mainstream, or we don't necessarily follow all the traditions here. I think there's a certain uniqueness and a certain... difference. Any way to make you memorable, make you different, make you stand out is the only way that you'll be able to survive in a business where there are just so many great musicians. How are we gonna remember you? But I think the highlight has just been having being in this business for almost 20 years and still enjoying it and probably enjoying it more now, knowing what I've done and making the mistakes and having the success. I think it's just allowed me to be much more of a rounded artist, and I think I really do enjoy this business. (LIVELY ROCK MUSIC PLAYS) MAN: Put your hands together for your host, Jarred Christmas! (APPLAUSE, CHEERING, WHISTLING) Christchurch comedian and actor Jarred Christmas is a staple of the British comedy circuit, but it was here in the heart of London's West End at The Comedy Store that he got his first big break. Regarded as London's premier comedy club, it's not an easy place to get into. JARRED: My first day in London, I find The Comedy Store, you know, from a phone booth across the road from my cousin's house and... just said to them, 'Hi. I'm a comedian from New Zealand. I'd love to come down and do a paid 20-minute set, please,' and they kinda laughed and went, 'No. We don't know who you are. So you'll have to do an open spot.' I was like, 'Great. I'll come down this weekend,' and they were like, '(SCOFFS) No. No, we'll book you in.' I was like, 'OK, when ` next week, the following?' 'No, in nine months.' Are you from New Zealand? Oh my God! (LAUGHTER) Oh my God! I'm from New Zealand as well! Do you know Tim? (LAUGHTER) Jarred's stand-up career began as a dare while he was at the Hagley Theatre Company in Christchurch, and he spent two years on the New Zealand comedy circuit before making the move to London in 2000. I think New Zealanders have a very unique comedic perspective, because we get the American influence, and we get the British influence, and it just... goes into this little melting pot of our own sort of can-do, 'we're at the bottom of the world sort of just shouting up at it' sort of attitude, you know? I think there's a great future for New Zealand comedy. You gotta have a thick skin, especially with comedy. If you're an actor and you're in a play and the play sucks, it's fine, cos you're just an actor in that play. Nobody comes up to you afterwards and just attacks you about it. They might go, 'Jeez, that play was rubbish.' But stand-up, it's just you ` everything about you, so if a roomful of people don't like what you're doing comedy-wise, they don't just not like your comedy; they don't like you personally, and they will let you know. Hey, well done, mate! I'm not gonna take the piss. You got outta the country, so well done. (LAUGHTER) There's a lot of you that don't know how to leave your country. (CHUCKLING) Which part of the US? MAN CALLS: New York. New York! One of the best heckles I ever got ` brutal heckle ` was I was playin' in a place called Croydon, and 'bout 150 people in and just playin' to complete silence, and then this guy just shouted out, 'You have ruined my birthday.' And, I mean, I find that really funny now, but at the time, all I was thinking was, 'Ah. I probably have,... 'and we're only five minutes in, mate. I've got another 15 to go, 'so probably gonna ruin next year's birthday as well.' (DISTANT LAUGHTER) So, I'm hosting the show tonight, so I get to spend a lotta time in this area... just listening to my fellow comics rip up the gig. Such a individualistic, egocentric job... where everyone is wanting to be the best; it is incredibly supportive, because we all know we're in the same situation. Any comedian worth their salt has died on their arse. You know, so we all know what it's like; we all know what it goes through, and also, you know, that's part of the process, especially when you're bedding in new material. I'm not havin' a go; I just think Americans are born whooping and cheering ` just come out of the womb going, 'Whoo! Yeah! C'mon! (GRUNTS REPEATEDLY)' (LAUGHTER) Especially when you're established, that can be the scariest thing. Whereas the British, when you're born, you just come out of the womb going... '(SIGHS) (LAUGHTER) '(SIGHS) (CHUCKLING) 'It's still raining. (LAUGHTER) If I could give some advice to anyone who's wanting to be a comedian, I would say full commitment ` there's no successful part-time comics, certainly in this business they call 'show'. It is tough, because, you know, you've got your dreams, your aspirations, your goals, and I think it's easy to get really frustrated with it, but I think it's really important to take stock at times. You just go, 'Well, hang on a second,' you know. 'I've got a family; I've got a house, you know. 'We're doing great, and I'm still doing something that I love.' So, you know, there's a lot to be said for that. (APPLAUSE, CHEERING, WHISTLING) Best thing, I guess, is the creativity of it and just kinda being your own boss and it being a meritocracy, you know. Certainly in a live club, you know, there's no politics at play. You know, you get up there; you got 20 minutes; it's you and the audience. You live and you breathe in that 20 minutes, you know, and nothing else matters. Nothing else matters for that 20 minutes. Coming up ` we meet the Kiwi dancer pirouetting her way to the top. (INTRIGUING THEME MUSIC) (INTRIGUING THEME MUSIC) Just one-and-a-half hours by train from London, Birmingham Royal Ballet is the third-largest ballet company in the United Kingdom. Originally a sister company to the Royal Ballet in London they moved to Birmingham in 1990 and are now resident at Birmingham's Hippodrome Theatre. Regarded as one of the best ballet companies in England, young New Zealand graduate Delia Matthews joined them in 2008. Now a principal dancer, her performance in Swan Lake has been likened by some critics to that of the legendary Margot Fonteyn. (TCHAIKOVSKY'S 'DANCE OF THE CYGNETS' PLAYS) DELIA: It was my full-length principal role that I did, so I was kind of a bit thrown in the deep end. (APPLAUSE) It was always kind of the ultimate role that I really wanted to do out of all of them. I've love the whole acting side of things as well. In Swan Lake, you are both Odette, the White Swan, and Odile, the Black Swan, who are two completely different characters, and it's really fun playing the one for one act where you're, like, all, you know, soft and innocent and naive and, you know, in love, and then you go to Odile, who's... pretty evil. (CHUCKLES GENTLY) She's quite menacing. She's tryin' to trick the prince into marrying her. It's actually really fun to play the two. ('DANCE OF THE CYGNETS' CONTINUES) Actually just finished a run of Romeo and Juliet shows, so that was the first time I did Juliet, and that was over about six weeks ` performances. But we're going on mid-scale tour next week. We're just kinda going to smaller venues. We go to York, Durham and Shrewsbury, and we're doing an excerpt from Romeo, which was the Balcony Scene pas de deux. (UPLIFTING MUSIC) Delia was just 7 years old when she told her father, 'I'm a dancer; it's what I do.' Crediting her teachers at Tauranga's Dance Education Centre for nurturing her early talent, it would take a little parental convincing when in 2005, at just 15 years of age, she was offered a scholarship at the Royal Ballet School in London. Based at the Royal Opera House, she would become their most outstanding graduate in her year. Quite a shock coming from, you know, small-town New Zealand to London. (CHUCKLES SOFTLY) We stayed in a boarding house, all of the first-year students. So it's three years at the Royal Ballet School. Yeah, I'd absolutely love to dance back home. It would just be really special. (TCHAIKOVSKY'S 'DANCE OF THE CYGNETS' PLAYS) I think growing up in New Zealand, doing the wide range dance that I did,... I feel like I'm quite a versatile dancer, you know, from having that background. I enjoy all types of dance, you know. We do quite a big range here at BRB. Doing bit more of the contemporary or a bit more slightly jazzy alongside the classical is, yeah, really great. (UNSETTLED MUSIC) For me, one of the hardest things is, you know, I get very nervous, so I have to make sure that the build-up to the shows, I've got the very best kind of background to it before I actually get out on stage. So, we have class every morning, so an hour and a quarter of ballet class, which is how we warm up our bodies and work on technique. So that's every morning, and then it can really range, what we do for that day, depending on what we're working on, what roles we have. Rehearsal week, we'll work from 10.30 till 6.30. so we have an hour lunch break and two maybe 15-minute breaks. In a show week, we'll have class in the morning and then usually a matinee and then an evening performance, and if we don't have a matinee, then we usually have rehearsals before the evening performance. Literally just hard work; there's kind of no ways around it ` hard work, passion. If you don't have those, you know, it's a really hard career, and, you know, at times,... you do think, 'Why do I do this?' And then you get those moments onstage, and you kind of remember. * Every summer on London's South Bank, a giant upside purple cow takes up residence and grazes on a feast of circus, theatre, cabaret and comedy. This temporary performance venue is known as Udderbelly, and its festival features a line-up of stellar entertainment, including New Zealand mime artist Trygve Wakenshaw, whose show, Squidboy, gained cult status internationally. And his new show, Nautilus ` nominated for the Foster's Edinburgh Comedy Award ` looks set to do the same. (MIKE SCOTT, AUBREY HAYNE, BRYAN SUTTON, MIKE COMPTON AND BEN ISAACS' 'BLUEGRASS BREAKDOWN') (SHOUTS) (LAUGHTER) (YELPS) This is the third show I've made. It... is... more... sketch-based than I've done before and a lot more... mime. It's really... quite mime-y. (CHUCKLES SOFTLY) (LAUGHTER) Me playing a whole range of different... characters ` there are a lot of animals ` and kinda subverting fairy tales and subverting ideas of, kind of, relationships between people and animals. (WHINNIES) (WHINNIES) (IMITATES GUNSHOT) (LAUGHTER) After Squidboy, made a show called Kraken, and I had two ideas and a costume, and I went round Australia, and every night I'd improvise some stuff. Some stuff would be awful, and the audience would sit there and wonder why they'd paid money to come and see me, but then other parts would be really excellent, and so I'd keep those parts and put them in the next night and see how they developed. And eventually, yeah, both these shows were developed that way ` through improvisation and in audience rather than a director and rehearsals. Growing up in the Hawke's Bay, Trygve moved to Auckland to pursue an acting career and ended up working backstage on an improv-threatre production. And during that time, I was meant to be stage manager. I was showing up to rehearsals every day, and eventually, I started, like, kind of playing little characters within the show as well, until the point where I'd created this character who became integral to the story, so they had to find another stage manager. Yeah, and so me and my friend Barnie ` Barnie Duncan ` we were these kind of, like, two... comic-foil kind of characters. And it sorta sparked our united love in slapstick comedy and physical comedy. Trygve would collaborate with Barnie on many productions before moving to Paris to study for two years with world-renowned clown master Philippe Gaulier. From there, he made the move to London, arriving with little money and uncertain of his future. After doing two years of school, I was very poor, and that is hard. Like, being without money in London is one of the worst` and without friends and, like, without support. Like, it was really hard. (JOANIE MADDEN'S 'THE TWISTING OF THE ROPE') Because I came out of school really confused, not knowing if I was an actor or a comic or a clown or whether I should give it all up and just get a normal job like a normal person, and so I made this show ` I just forced myself to make a show, which was based on just this costume that I'd had from working with Barnie ` the Squidboy character, and then that turned into a show. It's the thing that sort of launched me having a solo career, and it was really rough at the time,... but it was a thing that I then had. Trygve was able to improvise and improve Squidboy while touring before performing to sell-out crowds in Edinburgh, and his shows are much in demand on the comedy and festival circuit, including the much anticipated Udderbelly. Cos I'm improvising, I do use my body quite physically during that process, and I'm no good at words. And rather than working on refining them, so I always just sort of went to the physical side. I train really hard in the lead-up to Edinburgh especially ` go to the gym, take dance classes, get a personal trainer; I do a lot of yoga. The best moment is finding out that... it was possible to... create a show just for the sake of creating a show and to perform that show every night for five months on end ` your own little, tiny show. You can wrestle it into something beautiful if you just perform it enough. (LAUGHTER) (LAUGHTER) (LAUGHTER) I think it's just the joy... for being on stage and pleasing people. (PIXIE WILLIAMS' 'BLUE SMOKE') Possibly, it's something in the water in New Zealand, because there's three New Zealand mime comedians that have all had really great success over in the northern hemisphere, around Europe. So there's myself; there's Sam Wills, who's Boy With Tape On His Face ` who, like, went astronomical ` and another guy called Thom Monckton, who is now living in Helsinki. And he's had a show called The Pianist, which has been picked up and touring around, and he's the same ` he does this, like, mime comedy. I think we're also the three mime comedians in the world having any success, and we're all from New Zealand. ('BLUEGRASS BREAKDOWN' RESUMES) (SHOUTS) (LAUGHTER) (SQUAWKS) (CHUCKLING) (LAUGHTER, CLAPPING) (MOUTHS) (LAUGHTER) (APPLAUSE, CHEERING) (INTRIGUING THEME MUSIC) Captions by Shrutika Gunanayagam. www.able.co.nz Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2018