Romy
Hooper
DIRECTOR & PRODUCER
Romy is an award winning theatre director in Auckland, and has coached many performers in audition technique and performance for film and television.
Romy’s directorial voice emerged at a young age during high school through her NCEA Drama Scholarship studies, where she directed students in Chook Chook by Fiona Farrell and Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls. She then worked in leadership roles directing youth in Speech and Drama examination material independently and through Shine School of Confidence from 2016.
In 2017 she became a facilitator for Hobson Street Theatre Company and ran drop-in drama classes through Flock Charitable Trust in conjunction with the Auckland City Mission. She directed and was dramaturg for multiple iterations of the company’s Let Me Tell You About Auckland, a promenade show collectively devised with Anders Falstie.
In 2019 she directed Albert Belz’ Morningstar for Sapphire Productions, co-directed Ngā Puke by Peter Broughton for Waīti Productions’ Auckland and Dunedin seasons, and tour managed I Ain’t Mad Atcha by Turene Jones for Te Tairāwhiti Festival in Gisborne.
She also became a resident teacher for the Pop Up Globe Youth Companies. These classes involved voice, movement and skill based techniques for delivering effective Shakespearean characters in the Globe theatre space specifically, and culminated in performances at the end of each term.
Shut Eye premiere - Hollywood Avondale
Directing Richard Nightingale for Let Me Tell You About Auckland - Hobson Street Theatre Company
Morningstar - Sapphire Productions at Te Pou Theatre
In 2020, she went on to become a core member of the Taurima Vibes team to re-launch Te Ahurei Mōwaho o Tāmaki Makaurau - Auckland Fringe Festival. She was Engagement Coordinator for the festival for 2 years, managing key events, liaising with sponsors, stakeholders and judges, orchestrating a robust artist development programme of workshops and discussions and supporting the publicity of over 60 shows delivered over the 3 week festival. In 2021, she pitched and developed the Fringe Satellites Initiative; smaller festivals designed to encourage artists from wider Auckland regions to experience the nature of Fringe within their home districts. These were successfully implemented in the North West, West and Whau council areas, with special performances by the 2021 participants of Greenstone TV’s reality show K-Pop Academy.
From early 2022 she directed multiple iterations of the play Skin Hunger written by Tatiana Hotere that celebrated 2 sell out seasons at Auckland’s Basement and Q Theatres, and won 4 Fringe Festival awards including Best Director and the PANNZ Tour Ready Award. The play had a return season at Q Theatre and Adelaide Fringe festival in 2023, where Romy was dramaturg and developed the show into a solo.
In 2022 she worked again with Hobson Street Theatre Company co-devising and producing The Dilemma, a documentary drama piece that went into Nga Wha prison and toured to Kerikeri, Whangārei and Hamilton. In 2023 she was co-facilitator of an artistic exchange between Hobson Street Theatre Company and equivalent organisation Pauluskerk Rotterdam, collaborating with their members to build a show for the International Community Arts Festival (ICAF) in Holland.
All of this experience has led to Romy being called upon for her expertise in various ways over the years, including being asked to judge for the Fringe festival, various high schools’ drama, speech, and Sheliah Winn competitions, facilitating in organisational and structural discussion for Fringe Festivals across the country, and she has been a reviewer for RNZ’s Culture 101 Podcast with Perlina Lau and Mark Amery. Episodes from the 2024 Auckland Arts Festival can be found here.
Let Me Tell You About Auckland cast - Hobson Street Theatre Company
Directing Pop Up Globe’s Youth Company 2019
Capturing Ragamuffin Festival 2015
All of this experience has led to Romy being called upon for her expertise in various ways over the years.
Let Me Tell You About Auckland cast - Hobson Street Theatre Company
AWARDS
2022 / Best Director + PANNZ Tour Ready Award, Auckland Fringe Festival – Skin Hunger
2020 / Best Organised Chaos, Auckland Fringe Festival – Let Me Tell You About Auckland
Winners of 4 Auckland Fringe Festival Awards 2022 - with Tatiana Hotere for Skin Hunger
REVIEW QUOTATIONS
“In the words of Director Romy Hooper, the text offers an intricate playground for actors. Hooper has most definitely honoured that text, finding the depth, subtlety and pace required to guide her superb cast. It is astonishing that this is her first time in the role of Director as this play was simply excellent. Romy has recently finished a four-month stint with Pop Up Globe and her classical stage acting experience is obvious in the delivery of this piece.”
/ Broadway World NZ
“The structure of the show was impressive, interweaving flashback and present-day sequences to create a floating, mnemonic space where Eva’s tumultuous mind could be foregrounded. This lack of linearity was a strength, emphasising the timelessness of grief and the lingering effects of memory…I’ve never seen a play so personal. It doesn’t rely on sexual gimmicks to uncover the often-neglected importance of female pleasure, nor does it blunt all the sharp bits of grief and suffering. Every moment was pure, wretched honesty, not attempting to disguise itself as anything but.”
/ Ratworld
“Sex, masturbation, and an impressive collection of dildos interweave with the themes of grief and shame, both of which Eva must overcome. Humour is the coping system. You’re going to watch this with a heavy sinking feeling in your chest, tears in your eyes, while simultaneously laughing as Eva re-enacts a tragic string of failed tinder dates with dildo puppetry.”
/ Theatre Scenes NZ