Convenor, Performing Arts
Associate Professor
DipTchg MA(Otago)
Tel +64 3 479 8925
Email hilary.halba@otago.ac.nz
Research interests
Hilary's research interests include:
- Bicultural theatre in Aotearoa/New Zealand
- The study of acting methodologies
- Actor training
- Verbatim and documentary theatre
- New Zealand post colonial theatre – theory and practice
Hilary has studied acting and the teaching of acting at the prestigious Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City, and is one of New Zealand's only accredited teachers of the Meisner Technique. She contributes to international theatre journals and presents regularly at national and international conferences. In 2010, Hilary and Professor Stuart Young were keynote speakers on documentary and verbatim theatre at the “Acting with Facts” conference at the University of Reading, UK. In 2009, she was guest co-editor of the Australasian Drama Studies journal special edition (issue 55), focussing on the theatre of Aotearoa and the Pacific.
She is a founder member of southern bicultural theatre collective Kilimogo Productions, and has directed a number of works for this company.
She continues to investigate the artistic practice of the actor, and has acted through New Zealand as well as in Europe and the USA. She is a founding member of Wow! Productions Trust, a Dunedin professional theatre collective. Hilary has worked on numerous Wow! Productions as an actor, including Dancing at Lughnasa, Twelfth Night, Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love and Arcadia. In 2010, with Quartett Theatre Company, Hilary completed a European tour of New Zealand playwright Gary Henderson's Skin Tight (as director) and Mo and Jess Kill Susie (as actor). Hilary has also appeared in over 25 professional theatre productions in New Zealand, most recently In the Next Room by Sarah Ruhl, Play by Samuel Beckett and Jumpy by April de Angelis for the Fortune Theatre (Dunedin), Backwards in High Heels by Stuart Hoar for Circa Theatre (Wellington) and Winston's Birthday by Paul Baker for the Court Theatre (Christchurch). She was named Best Female Performer in the 2012 Dunedin Theatre Awards for her role in Samuel's Beckett's Play (Fortune Theatre, Otago Festival of the Arts) and Dunedin's best actor of 2003 by the NZ Listener for her role in Three Days of Rain (Greenberg, USA).
Supervisions
- Fran Kewene, MA, The creation of Documentary and Verbatim Theatre, co-supervision with Associate Professor Stuart Young
- Kiri Bell, MFA, “Exploring a range of theatrical techniques to make fact-based theatre”, co-supervision with Dr Janis Balodis.
Publications
Halba, H. (2015) "Poetry, Politics, the Past and the Present: Interweaving Maori Postcolonial Theatre with Brecht in Kilimogo's Production of Apirana Taylor's Whaea Kairau: Mother Hundred Eater." Journal Of New Zealand and Pacific Studies, Vol. 3, No. 2, pp.133 – 148.
Halba, Hilary, and Bronwyn Tweddle. (2015) " Re-Framing Pākehā Narratives: Interweaving Māori-ness into Performances of Two Plays by Gary Henderson." In Casey, M. (ed.) Embodying Transformation: Transcultural Performance. Melbourne: Monash University Publishing.
Halba, H. (2014) "Cleansing the Tapu: Nature, Landscape and Transformation in Three Works by Māori Playwrights." In Maufort, M. & Dawes, B. (ed.) Enacting Nature: Ecocritical Perspectives on Indigenous Performance. Brussels: Peter Lang.
Halba, H. & Young, S. (2014) "Theatre as an Artistic Intervention in Post-Trauma Situations: Hush: A Verbatim Play About Family Violence." in Barnes, H. and Coetzee, M-H. (ed.) Applied Drama/Theatre as Social Intervention in Conflict and Post-Conflict Contexts. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Halba, H. (2012) “'Play, but don't play games!': The Meisner Technique Reconsidered.” Theatre Topics, Vol. 27, No. 2.
Halba, H. (2012) “Robert Lord's New York: Big and Small, Notes on Life and Art.” Australasian Drama Studies, 60, pp. 33-41.
Halba, H. & McCallum, R. (2011) “Tū Taha, Tū Kaha: Transcultural Dialogues.” Australasian Drama Studies, 59, pp. 60-87.
Halba, H. (2010). Performing identity: Teaching bicultural theatre in Aotearoa. Australasian Drama Studies, 57, 22-37.
Halba, H. (2009). The flames of hope: The representation of prophecy in two New Zealand plays. Australasian Drama Studies, 55, 44-58.
Halba, H. (2009). Creating images and telling stories: Decolonising performing arts and image-based research in Aotearoa/New Zealand. About Performance, 9, 193-211.
Halba, H. (2010, 14 October - 9 November). (performer) Mo and Jess Kill Susie by Gary Henderson, with Martyn Roberts (designer), (14 October) Studio 77, Wellington, New Zealand; (21 October) Kulturzentrum Triangel, St. Vith, Belgium; (28 October) Consol Theater, Gelsenkirchen, Germany; (5 - 6 November) Studiobühne Essen, Essen, Germany; (9 November) Faculty of Theatre and Television, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
Halba, H. (2010, 14 October - 11 November). (director) Skin Tight by Gary Henderson, with Martyn Roberts (designer), (14 October) Studio 77, Wellington, New Zealand; (27 October) Consol Theater, Gelsenkirchen, Germany; (11 November) Fabrica de Pensule, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
Book chapter
Halba, H. (2007). ″Let me feel the magic″. In M. Maufort & D. O'Donnell (Eds.), Performing Aotearoa: New Zealand theatre and drama in an age of transition (pp. 209-218). Brussels, Belgium: P.I.E. Peter Lang.
Conference contribution – other
Jaffe, J., Warrington, L., Halba, H., & Huber, R. (2006, June). Performance space as dialogic space [Panel Workshop]. Verbal presentation at the On Space Conference, Dunedin, New Zealand.
Halba, H. (2005, December). ″I thank thee for not being like other women″: The actor's body and the physical grotesque in Wedekind's Lulu. Verbal presentation at the (Trans)Figuring Bodies: 4th Annual Symposium Cultural Transformations Research Group, Dunedin, New Zealand.
Halba, H. M. (2003, December). Kilimogo Productions: Aspects of Bi-cultural threatre practice in Te Waipounamu. Verbal presentation at the Transforming Tradition - Cultures on the Move: Cultural Transformations Symposium 2, St Margaret's College.
Conference contribution – refereed
Halba, H. (2009). Dialogues between cultures: Bicultural theatre practice in Aotearoa/Te Waipounamu (New Zealand). Proceedings of the Sixth International University of Exeter Conference: Researching Applied Drama, Theatre and Performance. Retrieved from http://spa.exeter.ac.uk/drama/appliedconf/welcome.shtml
Halba, H. (2009). Poetry, politics and the past: Interweaving Maori postcolonial theatre with Brecht. Proceedings of the 16th Annual Conference of the New Zealand Studies Association. Retrieved from http://www.nzsa.co.uk/conferences.htm
Young, S., & Halba, H. (2009). Breaking the silence: Hush: A documentary theatre play on family violence. In M. H. Serôdio, M. Rosa, G. Filipe, et al (Ed.), Proceedings of the International Federation of Theatre Research Conference: Silent Voices, Forbidden Love: Censorship and Performance. IFTR. Retrieved from http://firt2009lisboa.org/firt/poster/poster.html
Halba, H. (2007). Torture and Tango: Politics, socio-biology and the dance of intimacy in Stuart Hoar's Backwards in High Heels. Proceedings of the Australasian Association for Theatre, Drama and Performance Studies (ADSA) Annual Conference. Retrieved from http://www.adsa.edu.au/conferences/past-conferences/2007/adsa2007abstractsandbios.pdf/view
Halba, H. (2006). The past is in front of us: Aspects of bicultural theatre practice in Te Waipounamu. Proceedings of the Australasian Association for Theatre, Drama and Performance Studies (ADSA) Annual Conference. Retrieved from http://www.adsa.edu.au/conferences/past-conferences/2006/adsa2006abstracts.pdf/view
Creative work
Halba, H. (2010, 14 October). (performer) Mo and Jess Kill Susie by Gary Henderson, with Martyn Roberts (designer), Studio 77, Wellington, New Zealand.
Halba, H. (2010, 21 October). (performer) Mo and Jess Kill Susie by Gary Henderson, with Martyn Roberts (designer), Kulturzentrum Triangel, St. Vith, Belgium.
Halba, H. (2010, 28 October). (performer) Mo and Jess Kill Susie by Gary Henderson, with Martyn Roberts (designer), Consol Theater, Gelsenkirchen, Germany.
Halba, H. (2010, 5-6 November). (performer) Mo and Jess Kill Susie by Gary Henderson, with Martyn Roberts (designer), Studiobühne Essen, Essen, Germany.
Halba, H. (2010, 9 November). (performer) Mo and Jess Kill Susie by Gary Henderson, with Martyn Roberts (designer), Faculty of Theatre and Television, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
Halba, H. (2010, 27 October). (director) Skin Tight by Gary Henderson, with Martyn Roberts (designer), Consol Theater, Gelsenkirchen, Germany.
Halba, H. (2010, 14 October). (director) Skin Tight by Gary Henderson, with Martyn Roberts (designer), Studio 77, Wellington, New Zealand.
Halba, H. (2010, 11 November). (director) Skin Tight by Gary Henderson, with Martyn Roberts (designer), Fabrica de Pensule, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
Publications
Halba, H. (2009). Creating images and telling stories: Decolonising performing arts and image-based research in Aotearoa/New Zealand. About Performance, 9, 193-211.
Halba, H. (2010). Performing identity: Teaching bicultural theatre in Aotearoa. Australasian Drama Studies, 57, 22-37.
Newlands, E. (performer, researcher & writer), O'Connor, S. (performer, researcher & writer), Halba, H. (performer, researcher & writer), Shaw Bennett, N. (performer), Young, S. (director, researcher, writer & stage manager), & Roberts, M. (designer & lighting operator) (2009, 12-22 March). Hush, Mary Hopewell Theatre, College of Education, Dunedin, New Zealand.
Halba, H. (director), & Roberts, M. (designer) (2010, 11 November). Skin Tight, by Gary Henderson, Fabrica de Pensule, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
Halba, H. (2007). ″Let me feel the magic″. In M. Maufort & D. O’Donnell (Eds.), Performing Aotearoa: New Zealand theatre and drama in an age of transition. (pp. 209-218). Brussels, Belgium: P.I.E. Peter Lang.