MTNZ President’s Report September 2008

With all the wind, rain and snow we sometimes wonder if it can ever end.  But we have spring surely just around the corner and our Queenstown conference in summer to look forward to.  Planning is well under way for this and I for one cannot wait to get down to one of my favourite NZ destinations for a bit of fun and frolic - not to mention hard work.

As you will see from your conference papers we have many stimulating seminars arranged for you. The presenters are from the top of their fields and we appreciate the time they are donating to our organisation.  A huge thank you to Marty, Fae and Hilary and team from Showbiz Queenstown and also to Kate our administrator, for all their organisation thus far.  This promises to be yet another fantastic conference so I encourage you all to come and learn and network. 

We have had a great deal of excitement over the past few months with the release of “Miss Saigon” for community presentation.  The consortium is well down the planning track, with the first production scheduled for Christchurch in April 2009, travelling throughout the country until the North Shore Music Theatre show finishes off in 2011. For those who may not have see “Miss Saigon” you have a treat in store. I can still remember seeing this memorable show in its opening week in New York (a number of years ago!).

The highlight of the year has been the generous sponsorship from J. Herber Ltd and N.Z. Fire-Shield Ltd and the recognition from them of the importance of musical theatre to their trade and all the associated theatre industries. We hope this will encourage others to follow their lead, to enable us to plan for a secure future.

I have attended zone one and two meetings and was delighted to see the enthusiasm generated by these societies. There was a presentation to Ray Spence in Hamilton for his services to zone two over many years. Unfortunately he was unable to attend due to illness, but best wishes were forwarded by all. (Pity we could not manage a video link up!) Zone two also found out how awful I am at quiz games – even if our team did win!

I wish you all a successful end to the year, with many interesting shows still in production.

I kook forward to seeing all you Mainlanders at the combined zone 4 ad 5 meeting in Dunedin on 6 September.

Regards

John