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KC Kelly is co founder of EnsembleImpact, a theatre company specialising in performing extracts from classic NZ plays in secondary schools.  The 2014 production, Asian Invasion (the title is deliberately provocative), is touring and hitting schools and community venues in the North a

KC Kelly is co founder of EnsembleImpact, a theatre company specialising in performing extracts from classic NZ plays in secondary schools.  The 2014 production, Asian Invasion (the title is deliberately provocative), is touring and hitting schools and community venues in the North and South Islands. Featuring scenes from ten plays by Kiwi playwrights who are either Asian or write about Asians, it will be the first exposure to Asian-Kiwi themes in literature for many students.  Renee Liang, whose work is part of the programme, interviews KC Kelly.

What drew you to theatre initially?

Words. While searching for my own identity, I loved the words that playwrights would find for all sorts of life confronting/affirming situations. As a kid, I remember Len Cariou (the original in Sweeney Todd) galvanizing me with a couple of performances at the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis. And the plays of Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams (I think Glass Menagerie is my favourite American play). I ran out and bought David Mamet’s Glengarry Glenn Ross because I’d never heard anything like it before.

Teacher, director, producer - what's your favourite role?

I’d throw actor into the works, too. And, as I’m getting past a lot of  roles – I’ll never do Hamlet, have never played Tom in Menagerie - I’m seeing others open up. Prospero in the Tempest would be worth a shot and, courtesy of Centrepoint Theatre and Directors Alison Quigan and Simon Ferry, have helped me through Lear and Shylock. Again, with age, comes respect, some patience (some impatience, too)  and ... change. I enjoy being a part of  good theatre. You win some, you lose some. Recently had to turn down a great role in a public reading of an unproduced screenplay about the death of Walt Disney by Lucas Hnath to be directed by Danny Mulheron for Circa ... Because I got a film, Labour of Love, from Andrea Bossard and Shane Loader, the people who did Hook, Line & Sinker.

Where did the idea for EnsembleImpact come from?

Emma Robinson, Jude Gibson and a REAL NEED to see New Zealand stories in New Zealand schools.  I was on tour with Love Hurts a collection of Shakespeare scenes that we did across the North Island when Emma Robinson (who would later join the EnsembleImpact company as a Trustee) and Jude Gibson (who directed a stunning Metamorphosis for us) came up with a working title and the concept of doing only NZ works in NZ schools.

You've done four previous seasons.  How has the concept, and the shows, evolved?

I knew from the get-go that an all New Zealand series would not be needing me and my execrable New Zealand accent. So I turned to reading  and with the help of Jean Betts at Playmarket, read and re-read  lots and lots of NZ plays.  She'll Be Write, our first effort, combined “classic” material with “contemporary” plays which, I thought, would soon reach “classic” status: contrasting End of the Golden Weather with Mo and Jess Kill Susie; Daughters of Heaven with Joyful and Triumphant.

Coordinating over 70 shows in non-theatre venues all over the country sounds like a huge task. How do you do it - any tips?

Email early. Email often. And keep your fingers crossed. We’re fighting over-worked teachers and low budgets, weather and (you read it here) full driver’s licenses for the actors in the company that MUST be accounted for. We’ve struggled on two occasions with “we like you but can’t cast you,” on another season with fog, another with a sprained shoulder. Big thanks to Emma Bishop at Drama New Zealand and Nick Brown from Dramanet for keeping us in the public eye, too.

What's the best way to connect with a school age audience?

Be real. Watch the ‘language’ and don’t talk down. A stage kiss means you lose the audience for a while, similarly, a badly placed “f*ck you” can get the crowd tittering for all the wrong reasons. Very luckily for me and the EI Company was my very astute and opinionated daughter, Caitlin – she’s about to turn twenty-one – who six years ago saw and critiqued the first and every subsequent programme for us.

How did you put together the program for this year's Asian Invasion?

I didn’t, really, and that probably speaks volumes. I ‘bought’ a good director and let her cast the show. I read a lot of scripts and came up with a ‘plays I like’ list for our director Kerryn Palmer to chose from. Being in school had to feature in it and, quite obviously, being Asian had to figure in the compilation. The actual structure of the piece was left to the actors and the director to work on and decide. We ‘do’ the plays – we don’t talk about it – and the segues evolve as the actors work. Kerryn realized we had a very talented musician in our company, Nikita Tu-Bryant, a playwright as well as actor, Benjamin Teh, and two other stunning actors, Mayen Meta and Chye-Ling Huang – they ‘made’ the piece in three weeks (with the help of some damned fine material from a host of New Zealand playwrights).