Mitch Tawhi Thomas

Mitch Tawhi Thomas (born 8 September 1972) is a New Zealand playwright, actor and drama teacher.[1]

Education

Thomas affiliates to Ngāti Maniapoto.[2] Thomas graduated from Toi Whakaari: NZ Drama School in 1997 with a diploma in acting.[1]

Career

Tawhi Thomas is principally a playwright although he has also appeared in a number of plays as an actor to critical acclaim.[3] Shakespearean roles he has played include 'Cobweb' in Midsummers Nights Dream directed by David O'Donnell at the Dell, Wellington Botanic Gardens in 1991, and 'John of Gaunt' in King Richard II directed by David O'Donnell and Rachel Lenart at Studio 77, Victoria University of Wellington in 2009.[4]

In 2010 Mitch worked at Centrepoint Theatre in Palmerston North, running drama workshops with teenagers in the Basement Company over five months writing a play with them called Smashed.[5][6] In 2021, Mitch is the Senior Acting Tutor at Toi Whakaari.[1][7] He appeared at the Auckland Writers Festival in 2018.[8]

Tawhi Thomas's play from 2001 Have Car Will Travel depicts "the collision of white trash with brown trash" according to director Rachel House.[9] Tawhi Thomas was appointed writer in residence at Waikato University in 2003.[6] Jangle (2010) had in the cast musician Jhan Lindsay. Critic John Smythe described the play as a "bizarre black comedy",[10] and Pakaru (2019) is described as a "poignant tragedy about our hard-working, hilarious whānau".[11]

Plays
Date Play title Venue Director Producer Notes Ref.
1994 Coupling BATS Theatre Wellington Fringe Festival [12]
1996 Doughboy BATS Theatre Rachel House [4]
2001 Have Car Will Travel BATS Theatre Rachel House [13]
2010 Jangle BATS Theatre Mitch Tawhi Thomas [10][14]
2010 Smashed Centrepoint Theatre Kate Louise Elliott (Centrepoint Theatre) [5]
2019 Pakaru BATS Theatre, Kia Mau Festival. Mitch Tawhi Thomas Hāpai Productions [11]

Awards

In 2001 Thomas received The Absolutely Positively Outstanding New New Zealand Play of the Year at the Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards for his thriller Have Car Will Travel.[1] This play also won Best Director for Rachel House in the Chapman Trip Theatre Awards and the New Zealand Listener awards.[15]

In 2002 he was awarded the Bruce Mason Playwriting Award.[1]

Thomas won the Adam New Zealand Play Award in 2012 for Hui. Hui premiered with Silo Theatre at the Auckland Arts Festival in 2013.[1]

His play Pakaru won five awards at the 2019 Wellington Theatre Awards.[16] It premiered at the Kia Mau Festival in 2019.[1] Pakaru also won the Adam New Zealand Play Award, making Thomas was the first playwright to win the award twice.[17] Both Hui and Pakaru also won Best Play by a Māori Playwright.[1]

Published works
  • Have Car Will Travel (Wellington: Tawata, 2010)

References
  1. "Mitch Tawhi Thomas". www.playmarket.org.nz. Archived from the original on 9 February 2021. Retrieved 4 August 2021.
  2. "Writer: Mitch Tawhi Thomas - Writers • Auckland Writers Festival". www.writersfestival.co.nz. Archived from the original on 4 August 2021. Retrieved 4 August 2021.
  3. Coleman, Ewen (16 February 2010). "Jangle - Exciting to watch". Theatreview. Archived from the original on 22 August 2021. Retrieved 22 August 2021.
  4. "Mitch Tawhi Thomas". Theatre Aotearoa database. Archived from the original on 22 August 2021. Retrieved 22 August 2021.
  5. "Show a real slice of life". Stuff. 30 September 2010. Archived from the original on 22 August 2021. Retrieved 22 August 2021.
  6. "Te Hau Tūtū – Independent Māori Theatre Producers' Room". Toi Pōneke. Archived from the original on 5 June 2021. Retrieved 22 August 2021.
  7. "MITCH TAWHI THOMAS". Creative Company. 24 June 2020. Archived from the original on 4 August 2021. Retrieved 4 August 2021.
  8. "2018 Auckland Writers Festival". Scoop News. 14 March 2018. Archived from the original on 4 August 2021. Retrieved 4 August 2021.
  9. Marc Maufort; David O'Donnell, eds. (2007). Performing Aotearoa: New Zealand Theatre and Drama in an Age of Transition. City of Brussels: Peter Lang. p. 466. ISBN 978-90-5201-359-6. ISSN 1376-3199. OL 23674269M.
  10. "Jangle - Undoubted potential yet to be realised". www.theatreview.org.nz. Archived from the original on 21 August 2021. Retrieved 21 August 2021.
  11. Parsnip, Josephine (7 June 2019). "Everyday Aroha: A Review of Pakaru". Pantograph Punch. Retrieved 4 August 2021.
  12. "Mitch Tawhi Thomas". Ramp Festival. Archived from the original on 22 August 2021. Retrieved 22 August 2021.
  13. "PAKARU - A riveting, powerful and intensely moving experience". www.theatreview.org.nz. Archived from the original on 5 June 2021. Retrieved 4 August 2021.
  14. Dean, Uther (23 January 2015). "Jangle — Salient". Salient. Archived from the original on 23 January 2015. Retrieved 22 August 2021.
  15. "Rachel House". Arts Foundation. Archived from the original on 23 August 2021. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
  16. "Success At The Wellington Theatre Awards". www.toiwhakaari.ac.nz. Archived from the original on 4 August 2021. Retrieved 4 August 2021.
  17. "Lowdown #40: Live Action Dramas". The Big Idea. 3 April 2019. Archived from the original on 4 August 2021. Retrieved 4 August 2021.


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