Food poisoning the road to fame

In the 1990s, actor Ross Gumbley treaded the boards at Centrepoint Theatre, directing and writing, and bringing the stories of the Manawatu to life.

Now, he is director of The Court Theatre in Christchurch, helping produce 23 plays a year. MICHELLE DUFF finds out why he credits Palmerston North with getting him there.

If it hadn't been for food poisoning, a young Ross Gumbley might never have staggered his way to Palmerston North.

The year was 1988, and rehearsals for a play at Christchurch's Court Theatre were halfway through, when Gumbley was struck down for the count.

His part was given to another actor, leaving the jobless Gumbley to find his way to Manawatu and come under the wing of Centrepoint Theatre artistic director and New Zealand theatre stalwart Alison Quigan.

"I look back on it, and that was the best case of dodgy chicken I've ever had," says Gumbley, on the phone from Christchurch.

"I would possibly never have come up to Palmy, and never started to work with Alison."

During the 90s, Gumbley's name was synonymous with Centrepoint Theatre. As trainee artistic director, he acted, directed and co-wrote a series of plays with Quigan, which have gone down in local and national theatre history.

These days he is artistic director of The Court Theatre in Christchurch, New Zealand's largest theatre.

Despite his prestigious role, Gumbley was audibly excited to be contacted by the Manawatu Standard.

"I thought everyone had forgotten me in the Manawatu," he said.

"I've been gone for ages."Upon his arrival in Palmerston North, Gumbley dossed down at the Jockey's Lodge, a 60-room boarding house at the Awapuni Racecourse.

Frequented by travelling salesmen and other Centrepoint actors, the Jockey's Lodge offers cheap rent – $10 a week – and the kind of basic rooms "you'd expect a monk to be in", Gumbley says.

As Centrepoint's trainee artistic director from 1994 to 2000, Gumbley worked with Quigan to make theatre part of the community.

The pair worked on a series of plays – Five Go Balmy in Palmy, The Newbury Hall Dances, The Big OE – that have been remembered long past their run dates, and performed in theatres across the country.

The idea was to write plays that reflected life in Manawatu, Gumbley says, and the theatre-goers loved it.

"They were wildly popular. We just hit a vein.

"The best thing Alison and I did was act as a conduit from the community to the stage – and the connection with the community was amazing."

Before writing The Newbury Hall Dances, based on the (now infamous) dances that took place there in the 1960s, Gumbley and Quigan asked locals to come in and share their own experiences.

"We invited people to come along if they remembered the dances and share their stories, and we packed the foyer at Centrepoint.

"These stories were put straight into the play, and the community came to see it.

"It was just a wonderful time. I think we made really good theatre that connected with the audience, and that's what good theatre does."

In 2000, Gumbley took up a position at local radio station Classic Hits, anchoring the breakfast show.

Six months later, he left, after realising he enjoyed performing to a live audience over dead air.

After a series of acting stints at the Circa Theatre in Wellington and Dunedin's Fortune Theatre, in 2003, he was back in Christchurch as associate artistic director of The Court Theatre.

In 2006, he was appointed artistic director, and he has been there since.

The Court Theatre produces 23 plays a year, a number approached only by Auckland Theatre, with its eight productions.

There are workshops and an on-site wardrobe to preside over, children's plays to produce, a studio programme and Fringe Theatre productions to organise. But Gumbley is happy to be busy, he says.

"I don't have any work-life balance. I think that's for people who do something for 40 hours a week that they don't really want to be doing.

"[Theatre] is just good for your soul. It teaches you so much about yourself and others."

And Manawatu, Gumbley says, has much to do with his success.

"It's a massive theatre down here, but I could only do this job because of what was handed to me by Alison Quigan."

He had a ball during his time in Palmerston North, and says Centrepoint Theatre is incredibly valuable.

"Centrepoint is extraordinary. It's amazing that a town the size of Palmy can have a professional theatre. It's a credit to the Manawatu that people get out and support the theatre.

"It's an incredibly important stepping stone for the industry. Long may it remain."

- © Fairfax NZ News