Interview: Ewen Coleman a QSM Recipient for services to Theatre

As many of you will know, Ewen Coleman received a Queens Service Medal in the New Years Honours list.  A great number of you will know Ewen by sight and been directed by him. I sat down with him to find out more.

Family and work life

Ewen was born in Stratford Taranaki. His parents owned and ran a sheep farm of 200 acres about 10 kms south of Stratford in a place called Ngaere. His grandparents owned another sheep farm of a similar size across the road, so Ewen and his brother were kept busy as he was growing up. 

He went to high school in Fielding, where he was to learn farming skills together with traditional schooling, with the intention of returning to work on the farm after he had completed his School Certificate and University Entrance. After completing School Certificate, he decided that the farming life really wasn’t for him and spoke to his teacher who suggested that he continue his education but focus on the sciences, as he had a talent and interest of them.

After leaving school, he gained a cadetship for the DSIR (Department of Scientific and Industrial Research) with a three-year secondment working and studying at night school to earn a diploma.  Ewen was now able to follow a profession in microbiology.

On finishing with DSIR, Ewen then did his OE, living overseas for five years. He spent two of those years in London at the Nuffield Institute of Comparative Medicine located at London Zoo.

He came home in 1975 and didn’t want to go back to Taranaki, so decided to live in Wellington. It was here that he got a job at the University of Otago Medical School, based at Wellington Hospital, where he stayed until he retired five years ago.

Theatre

When growing up, Ewen attended speech and drama classes with Nan Russell. She also directed pantomimes in Hawera and Ewen was in a few of these growing up.  After moving to Fielding, there was no real opportunity to get into theatre as the high school he attended did not have a program.

When he moved to Palmerston North in 1968, his parents were not keen for Ewen to go flatting, so they found a boarding house for him, which coincidentally was across the road from Palmerston North Repertory. A month or so after moving in, he was passing their building where he saw a group of people loading up a trailer. Being the curious kind, he approached them to ask what they were doing and to express an interest for being involved. They offered him a position of sound operator in their upcoming production, Barefoot in the Park and his love of theatre had been rekindled.

Palmerston North Repertory amalgamated with Manawatu Theatre shortly thereafter and in his time there did half a dozen shows. He was cast in Brigadoon, a show which involved complicated Scottish country dancing, and was relieved to be cast in another straight play at the same time so he could pull out and avoid having to learn the tricky dance steps.

When Ewen was overseas, he only performed in one production, being The Doormat which was performed in a theatre in Leicester Square. He was too busy working, doing tourist things and seeing shows to do any more.

When he came home and started work, he went and saw a Wellington Repertory theatre production and thought that at some stage he would join that group.  Funnily enough, he was approached at work by someone who asked if he was interested in theatre and when answering in the affirmative, was asked if he might like to play a Mexican in a play called The Night of the Iguana at Wellington Rep! He went down to the theatre and has been a member ever since.

He also performed with Stagecraft Theatre and a group called New Theatre in Cuba Street.

This theatre had been set up by a doyen of NZ Theatre Nola Miller where she ran a theatre school as well as putting on productions. When she died in 1973 the NZ Dept of Education picked up her school and turned it into the NZ Drama school. But New Theatre continued after this for several years running workshops and classes and it was here that Ewen got the opportunity to hone his skills at directing.  He was able to direct short plays which were critiqued on a regular basis. He was then given the opportunity to direct a one act play at Wellington Repertory.

He decided this was the path he wanted to follow as he felt he was a better director than actor. He attended a course to become an adjudicator, completed that and then was approached to see if he would write reviews for the Evening Post. Despite not being a trained journalist and getting a C in English, he did his first review which was published and then was approached again to do another and became a contracted reviewer from 1989 until 2019 when the paper was digitized.

He has directed over 100 shows in his career as far afield as Otaki. In fact, the only community theatre group in the region he has not directed for is Butterfly Creek.

Administration

After a year at Wellington Rep, he was asked to be on the committee and has been there ever since. He was also asked to be a representative for Wellington Rep with the NZ Theatre Federation (now Theatre NZ). One of their main activities is the One Act Play festival called Theatrefest and he now has the role of Theatrefest National Coordinator where he organizes the festival.

He is also a committee member of the local Wellington District Theatre Federation.

He is looking ahead to 2026 when Wellington Repertory will celebrate their 100th anniversary. He was there when they celebrated their 50th back in 1976 and helped in a minor capacity to organize that celebration and is leading the planning for the 100th.

After that he plans to step back from the administration side of things.

Memories

I asked Ewen what was the show that invokes his fondest memory. After some careful deliberation he said that it would have to be Come Back to the 5 and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean which he directed in the late 80’s. One of the characters was a transgender role and Hillary Timmins (of Lotto and It’s in the bag fame) came in to audition for the part. She arrived to audition in character, was awarded the role and did a wonderful job. Her boyfriend worked for TVNZ and wanted to do the set design and with his skills produced an excellent result. As this show was set in the US, Ewen wanted to get some accent coaching and it was then that he first met Jane Keller who had just arrived in the country.  Turns out she went to university with the playwright! He also has fond memories of directing The Mother by Brecht, where a number of the cast have turned out to be long time friends. Both were Wellington Repertory plays.  

Ewen does not know who nominated him for his award, but judging by his history, there are a large number of contenders. I’m sure you will agree that it is well deserved for a lifetime of dedication to theatre in New Zealand.

After all these years, one of the last things he says to me that day about theatre is “I love it.”

We do too. Thank you Ewen for contributing so much of your time to it.

  

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