Margaret-Mary Hollins
Director

Margaret-Mary has been active in the performing arts industry spanning four decades as a Director, Actor and Teaching Artist. She loves to work with Massive Theatre Company, Red Leap Theatre, and Auckland Theatre Company including independent companies, most recently Rebel Alliance and Hand Pulled.  With creative partner Mike Hudson, she co-founded HouseofHudson, whose physical theatre style create works that address themes such as addiction, disability, migration, political corruption, colonisation and climate change, all with a keen sense of wit and imagination. 

“With an outstanding team of artists connected through a language of original composition and song, spoken word and a sense of the absurd, we will dive into our development season creative process, with sensitivity and recklessness. As resident artists at the Hannah Playhouse throughout November 2023, this unique, valuable, and terrifying opportunity is exceptional. It provides us with space to explore into the unknown toward our shared, emotional, and instinctive imagination, through an enriched and robust process in conversation with a live audience.” 

Mike Hudson
Writer

Mike Hudson is an award-winning Auckland based playwright who writes for adult and young audiences. His adult work includes Beautiful Losers and A Thousand Hills, performed throughout the country and were festival hits. He has won the NZ Playmarket Plays for the Young competition numerous times and his adaptation of Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer was produced by AUCKLAND THEATRE COMPANY to critical acclaim.    Mike is also a qualified teacher specialising in script writing and drama at Selwyn College Secondary School Performing Arts Department. 

Marshall Smith
Creator / Composer / Music Director / Ensemble

A well-established singer/songwriter composer and producer based in Aotearoa.  Marshall is the MD of The Sound Room (Est. 2003) who create music and sound design for film, TV, games, theatre, artists and bands globally.

Marshall moonlights as the artist Marshmellow and is also the co-founder of the Screen Music & Sound Guild of New Zealand.   As well as being an APRA Silver Scroll Finalist for song of the year he has also won a NZ Film Commission - Professional Development Award, been awarded a place at the Berlinale Talent Campus, along with being the recipient of an ART Venture Trust Professional Development Award. 

Stephen Blackburn
Creative Producer & Mentor To Director

Stephen has a career in the arts spanning over 40 years working in Aotearoa, the UK and Europe. He has either designed and or produced projects ranging in scale from intimate theatre to multi million dollar immersive exhibitions. The Royal NZ Ballet brought him back to Aotearoa since when he has worked for NZ Opera, Toi Whakaari, National Theatre For Children and held governance roles with Bats and the Hannah Playhouse and producing a number of new NZ works. He was the producer for 5 years for the World of WearableArt annual Awards Show and exhibitions and is currently Producing events for the Wellington City Council.

Jackie Clarke
Lead Singer/Performer

Jackie Clarke MNZM, is a renowned artist from Aotearoa.  Her maverick performance style, be it acting, singing, making music with friends or MCing has enriched Aotearoa’s entertainment industry for over 30 years.  She’s toured with Dave Dobbyn & Annie Crummer and starred in musicals including Once, Mamma Mia, Anything Goes, Joseph, Porgy & Bess & Sweet Charity. Jackie has performed with every orchestra from Aotearoa and was awarded an MNZM in 2018 for her services to the arts.

Phil Peleton
Lead Singer/Performer

Phil Peleton is an actor with over 20 years’ professional experience. After completing two years’ study at London’s Poor School, he appeared in numerous theatre, film and television productions for New Zealand, the US and the UK.  Screen highlights include Nothing Trivial, Legend of The Seeker, Ash vs Evil Dead, Spartacus, American Playboy, Outrageous Fortune and Shortland Street. He plays the pharmacist Neil Bloom in recurring seasons of The Brokenwood Mysteries and Mr Talbot in Rebecca Gibney’s new comedy series, Under the Vines. In 2021 he appeared as Matt in Joseph Gorden-Levitt’s existential comedy, Mr Corman.

Phil has a strong affinity for comedy and an excellent facility with accents, particularly with US and UK dialects. Phil is also a musician and singing is a key skill

Tara Canton
Lead Singer/Performer

Born and raised in the Hutt Valley, Tara Canton is an ambitious actor, musician, dancer, singer-songwriter who has spent the last three years studying at Toi Whakaari New Zealand Drama School. She is majorly passionate about Musical Theatre, thanks to her upbringing of showtimes and dance competitions, with her love for performing expanding into an appreciation for screen acting since beginning her studies at Toi.

Her latest theatre credits include Into the Woods with WITCH Music Theatre (Jack),  Ladies In Black with Wellington Repertory (Lisa), and the Toi Whakaari production of And What Remains (Ana). Most recently, Tara has come off the set of TVNZ’s After The Party, working closely alongside Robyn Malcolm and Peter Mullan (releasing later this year), all the while writing music on the side and performing gigs around Pōneke.

Tara is stoked to be back in front of a live audience with House On Fire and feels incredibly privileged and thankful to be a part of such a rich and challenging project as she nears her graduation. 

James Ladanyi
Lead Singer/Performer

James Ladanyi is an actor, producer, and podcaster based in Te Whanganui-a-tara. He studied his Bachelor of Arts in Theatre and History at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington, from 2014-2016, before moving to the U.K. in 2018 to train at the prestigious Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.

During 2018, he was awarded the Dame Malvina Major Foundation 'Arts Excellence Award' for Wellington. James' recent theatre credits include 'Where The Water Lies', 'Off The Page', and 'Batch'. 

Bryn van Vliet
Ensemble / Brass & Winds

Bryn van Vliet is a Wellington based professional musician, educator, composer & arranger, originally from Kerikeri, Northland. Bryn has had an illustrious career that spans over a decade in Wellington. He has worked with the likes of TOI, Rodger Fox Big Band, Creative Natives (to name a few) on a regular basis and has featured on almost 100 recordings to come out of Aotearoa. He has completed various national and international tours with these artists and has worked/played supporting slots with some of the world's leading musicians such as; The Red Hot Chilli Peppers, NZSO, Fat Freddy’s Drop, UB40, Katchafire, Steve Gadd, Dave Weckl, Sticky Fingers, Lalah Hathaway, Joey DeFrancesco, Black Seeds, Ocean Alley and more.

Bryns passions include writing for large ensembles, creating hybrid genres, teaching/sharing knowledge and practicing towards mastery on his instrument; saxophone.  Throughout his career he has released many projects himself, some highlights of which include a full length quartet album; “Wanderings” in 2021 with the Bryn van Vliet Quartet, a 2 EP's with alternative pop project NOVA and a variety of singles in addition to a self-titled singer/songwriter EP in 2019. Bryn is also a passionate teacher and is currently the artist teacher for jazz saxophone at Tē Kōkī New Zealand School of Music, where he also teaches latin ensemble & big band papers

Julian Kirgan Báez
Ensemble / Guitar & Trombone

Julian is a composer and multi-instrumentalist from Wellington who has enjoyed a diverse freelance career over the last decade as a trombonist spanning a wide range of genres and ensembles including the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Wellington, The Royal New Zealand Air Force Band and numerous Jazz ensembles. Julian is a member of acclaimed bands Richter City Rebels and Raw Collective and in 2015 was appointed Sub-Principal Trombone with Orchestra Wellington.

Julian became a SOUNZ composer in 2021 and was elected as emerging composer in residence with Orchestra Wellington in 2021-22 with mentorship from John Psathas. He has recently had new works performed and commissioned by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and Orchestra Wellington. Julian enjoys film-scoring, songwriting and producing music in a range of other styles including jazz hip hop, psychedelic rock and electro-acoustic.