Photo: Dargaville Little Theatre company
A group of eight amateur actors from Dargaville have been plucked from their local Northland theatre stage to perform on the French Riviera.
The team from the Dargaville Little Theatre will head to Monaco in August to represent New Zealand in Mondial du Théâtre, the World Festival of Amateur Theatre.
The festival takes place once every four years - celebrating community acting projects from around the world.
Dargaville Little Theatre president Eryn Wilson Collins was thrilled the small Kaipara town would be representing New Zealand amongst some of the most iconic international cities.
"This is just ridiculous - my favourite thing to do is to show people the Mondial du Théâtre website that shows all the teams going over, because there's London, England; Paris, France; Washington, America; and Dargaville, New Zealand."
Theatre New Zealand selected the group to audition after they won the national TheatreFest back in 2022.
The cast put together a recording of their play Out of Mind, and after a long wait, they were officially selected late last year.
The musical looks at Aotearoa's mental health system in the 1950s by following the lives of six women within a mental health institution.
The writer, Northland woman Deborah Steele, said she had been wanting to tell a story about New Zealand women when she got the idea.
"The director pulled out these textbooks, her grandmother had trained as a mental health nurse in Tokanui in the '50s, and as I read through them I found them really fascinating, and so I started to do a little bit of research into it, and that's how we came up with it."
Cast member Yasmin Bainbridge was beyond excited to be a part of the group going to Europe. The 41-year-old moved to New Zealand from Malaysia in 2008 and had no acting experience before she joined the Dargaville Little Theatre.
Bainbridge has since been a part of four productions, and said the sense of community kept her around.
"I love the positivity, the close community, you know, people are just like, 'It's okay, we're just supporting one another,' and [it] gives us a chance to grow and discover all of this talent you don't think you have."
In the lead-up to the festival, the cast will be busy rehearsing and fundraising.
While Theatre New Zealand was helping the small theatre group to get to Monaco. They still needed to raise a good chunk of money.
Cast member Brenda Polwart said the Dargaville community had been super supportive.
"Dargaville is really excited, it's been so nice, everyone's like wow, and you know it's so good for the town.
"We've had a heap of support from the town, and people are already starting to donate little bits and pieces, and put money in for us, because we're going to need quite a bit of fundraising."
The cast hoped to tour the musical around Northland in a bid to raise $40,000 by August.
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