About us
Trick of the Light is an award-winning theatre company from Te Whanganui-A-Tara (Wellington) in Aotearoa / New Zealand, founded by Hannah Smith and Ralph McCubbin Howell.
We like to make theatre that is playful, inventive, thought-provoking, and that speaks to the here and now.
Our shows range from dark cross-over works for adults and older children to biting political satire, but are unified by their engaging, nuanced stories, inventive design, and belief that theatre should resonate with the wider world.
Check out what we’ve done, where we’ve been, our kaupapa and our approach to green theatre below.
WHO ARE WE
Hannah Smith
Co-director – Hannah is a Wellington based director, designer and producer who grew up in Ōtepoti (Dunedin). She has an honours degree in English and Theatre from Victoria University of Wellington. She was awarded Most Promising Director at the 2013 Wellington Theatre Awards for The Road That Wasn’t There, and Director of the Year for The Griegol in 2022. In 2023 she received a FAME Trust Mid-Career Award. She has a background in puppetry and paper-art, and her work with Trick of the Light has been performed around Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia, the UK, USA, Canada and South Africa.
Ralph McCubbin Howell
Co-director - Ralph is a Wellington based theatre maker who grew up in Waikari in Te Waipounamu. He was a member of the NZ Young Shakespeare Company and completed a BA (Hons) in Theatre & English at Victoria University of Wellington before training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in the UK. He was awarded Outstanding New Playwright at the 2011 Wellington Theatre Awards, and Outstanding New NZ Play for The Road That Wasn’t There in 2013. He won the Bruce Mason Playwriting Award in 2014 and received a Masters in Scriptwriting at the International Institute of Modern Letters at Victoria University.
Rebekah de Roo
Admin Assistant – Rebekah is a Wellington-based theatre artist who grew up in Ōtautahi. She has a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Practice and a BA from Victoria University of Wellington. She works as a Technician for Victoria University theatre department and freelances as a projection, set and lighting designer. She was nominated for most promising newcomer at the Wellington Theatre Awards in 2022. Recent work includes Only Bones V1.10 (NZ Fringe Melbourne & San Diego Tour Ready Awards), ratKing (NZ Fringe Grand Design Award), Pinocchio: The Pantomime and Prima Facie.
2011
Our first show, The Engine Room premiered at BATS Theatre in Te Whanganui-A-Tara. It was nominated for five awards at the Wellington Theatre Awards, winning Outstanding New Playwright.
2012
While living in the UK we premiered The Road That Wasn’t There at the Edinburgh Fringe - our first overseas season.
2013
We returned to NZ and set out on our first national tour with The Road That Wasn’t There, which went on to win Outstanding New NZ Play, Most Promising Director, and Production of the Year at the Wellington Theatre Awards. This year we also received our first major commission to produce Broken River, for STAB at BATS.
2014
This was followed by a much smaller show The Bookbinder, first staged in a secondhand bookshop as part of the NZ Fringe Festival where it won Best Theatre, and Best in the Fringe. The show was picked up by festivals around Aotearoa, and later in the year we embarked on our first Australian tour, to Melbourne and Sydney, where it received the International Excellence award.
2015
We were commissioned by Capital E National Children’s Festival to make a new show Beards! Beards! Beards! which premiered in Ōtepoti (Dunedin) before touring around the country. We also toured The Road That Wasn’t There, and The Bookbinder which won the BDO Children’s Theatre Award at Fringe World in Perth and had extended, sell-out season at the Edinburgh Fringe.
2016
We produced a new work, The Devil’s Half-Acre, as a commission for the NZ Festival, and returned to it for a run at the Dunedin Arts Festival later in the year. We toured the UK with Beards! Beards! Beards! and The Bookbinder, which was the first work by NZ artists to be programmed for the Edinburgh International Children’s Festival, and had another sell-out run at the Edinburgh Fringe. The play had its North American premiere at the New Haven Festival of Art and Ideas. We returned to Australia with The Bookbinder and The Road That Wasn’t There, which received Best Children’s Theatre awards at Fringe World and the Adelaide Fringe.
2017
We premiered a new work-in-progress, Tröll, as part of the NZ Fringe Festival in Te Whanganui-A-Tara. The Bookbinder returned to the USA and Australia, with seasons at The Lincoln Center in NYC, Belvoir Theatre in Sydney, and Awesome Festival in Perth, and made its South African debut at the ASSITEJ Cradle of Creativity in Cape Town. The Road That Wasn’t There was reworked with Auckland Live before touring to the Edinburgh Fringe.
2018
We were invited back to the Edinburgh International Children’s Festival with The Road That Wasn’t There, The Bookbinder made its Canadian premiere at the Calgary International Children’s Festival and returned to Australia for the Darwin Arts Festival, and Tröll was further developed over seasons around NZ.
2019
The Bookbinder had sold-out seasons at the Auckland Arts Festival, Te Tairāwhiti Festival, and the Hawkes Bay Festival, The Road That Wasn’t There toured across Aotearoa with Tour-Makers, and Tröll saw us return to Fringe World, Perth, and the Edinburgh Fringe. Later in the year, The Bookbinder toured across North America with Boat Rocker Entertainment.
2020
We were commissioned to make Lysander’s Aunty in collaboration with The Court Theatre in Ōtautahi (Christchurch), however the pandemic forced the cancellation of this season just four days out from opening, as well as planned tours of The Bookbinder in China and the UK. Over the lockdown, we were commissioned by Circa Theatre to make It’s Behind You! which was rehearsed and performed over Zoom. The Road That Wasn’t There saw us return to live performance, and we toured Tröll around the North Island.
2021
We premiered a new work, The Griegol at the Auckland Arts Festival, and toured to Festival of Colour in Wānaka. With a travel bubble opened to Australia, we got back to international touring with a season of Tröll at DreamBig in Adelaide. We launched a new website to celebrate ten years of operation.
2022
We were commissioned by Aoteraoa / New Zealand Festival of the Arts, Auckland Arts Festival, and Auckland Theatre Company to present a new production of Lysander’s Aunty, but once again the pandemic forced the cancellation of this season, as well as a programmed season of Tröll at Sydney Opera House. We returned to international touring with seasons of Tröll at Darwin Arts Festival and Awesome Festival in Perth, as well as Tāmaki and Hawkes Bay. We belatedly celebrated our ten year anniversary with a reading of The Engine Room at BATS, and premiered The Griegol in Te Whanganui-a-Tara for which it was awarded Composer, Director, and Production of the Year at the Wellington Theatre Awards.
2023
The Griegol had its international premiere with a month touring down the east coast of the USA. We toured The Bookbinder to New Hampshire in the USA, to Bath in the UK, and performed excerpts with a full orchestra in collaboration with Auckland Philharmonia, .
Standing Room Only - RNZ 2019
Afternoons - RNZ 2015
Standing Room Only - RNZ 2014
Full details are available on our show pages.
Showreel 2011-2021
Green Theatre
We are in the midst of a climate crisis and we recognise that making and touring theatre comes with an environmental footprint.
As a company we are committed to adapting our work and ways of working towards environmental sustainability, and to using our platform to advocate better practices.
These are some things we do:
Foreground environmental practice when negotiating contracts (i.e. a Green Rider). Build carbon offsetting into budgets to highlight this cost to presenters.
Coordinate international touring to minimise long-haul flights. Use ground transport over short haul flights where possible. Explore opportunities for presenting work that does not involve physical travel.
Book accommodation within walking distance of the venue, and give preference to accommodation with environmental credentials / self-catering facilities.
Request that venues provide audiences with information about public transport, cycling, and car sharing options, and offer secure bike parking. Use environmentally friendly taxi and freight services where possible.
Request that venues provide recycling and composting facilities where possible, but also travel with our own set up and make use of services like ShareWaste.
Reuse and recycle materials in shows and throughout the rehearsal process, minimise single-use items (e.g. reusable cable ties instead of electrical tape, and chalk for floor markings). Use energy efficient electrical equipment (e.g. LED bulbs).
In working towards more sustainable theatre making, some particular resources we have found useful are the websites Julie’s Bicycle, the Theatre Green Book, and Sustainability Lab.
Green Touring Guidebook Project
Thanks to Manatū Taonga/Ministry of Culture and Heritage, we are currently collaborating with PANNZ and Playmarket to create a guidebook and toolkit on environmentally sustainable touring for performing artists working in and from Aotearoa. We are eager to hear from anyone who is already doing work in this area or is interested in this mahi. Please get in touch with us below or at greentheatre@trickofthelight.co.nz. You can also complete our practitioner survey by clicking the button below.
We recognise the rightful place of Māori as tangata whenua in Aotearoa / New Zealand, and Te Tiriti o Waitangi as the nation’s founding document.
As Pākehā theatre makers we acknowledge that we come to our industry from a position of privilege. We seek to consult, collaborate and make meaningful connections through the work we create and the stories we tell.
We try our best, we make mistakes, we learn, we strive to do better.
When we work overseas we bring our own kaupapa with us, but also engage with our hosts’ customs and practice, seeking open-hearted connection through art.
Many thanks to Boat Rocker Entertainment who represent our shows in North America,
and to Creative New Zealand whose continued support makes our work possible.
