Arts Foundation Laureate receiving the Burr/Tatham Trust Award

Shane has been a director, actor, dramaturg and producer for over twenty years. Following training at Toi Whakaari: NZ Drama School, he has worked for most of Aotearoa’s mainstage companies and festivals including Auckland Theatre Company, Court Theatre, Downstage and the NZ Actors Company.

He creates work which galvanises audiences. He tells stories which interrogate the contemporary experience, with a particular focus on the culture of sexuality, the faultlines of class and the revolution of family. His productions are characterised by powerful ensemble playing and a true spirit of collaboration; Shane challenges actors to celebrate contradiction: creating authentic, multi-dimensional evocations of the human confusion.

His productions have a lifeforce both kinetic and visceral, pushing audiences into a space of transformation through risk, adventure and surprise. Shane has a tenacious appetite for development: his own, of other artists, of audiences.

His repertoire includes celebrated productions of Angels in America, When the Rain Stops Falling, The Brothers Size, Speaking in Tongues, Cock and Holding the Man. He is renowned for his provocative excavations of classic texts by Chekhov, Ibsen, Moliere, Williams, Miller and Stoppard.

From 2001 to 2014, Shane was the Artistic Director of Silo Theatre. During his tenure, he created a distinctly contemporary programming portfolio and was responsible for creating one of the most distinct and multi-faceted audiences in the country.

During his career he has developed meaningful repeating working relationships with Aotearoa’s premier talent including Katie Wolfe, Stephen Lovatt, Danielle Cormack, Jarod Rawiri, Jennifer Ward-Lealand, Oliver Driver, Alison Bruce, Tama Waipara, Mia Blake, Julia Deans, Simon Prast, Rima Te Wiata and Morgana O’Reilly.

He was named one of the Aucklanders of 2005 by Metro Magazine and in July 2007 was named one of the Most Influential People under 40. Shane was selected by Creative NZ to participate in the Future Leaders Programme and he has also undertaken professional development at the Donmar Warehouse and Young Vic in London and Public Theater in New York. He is the recipient of three Auckland Theatre Awards and has been awarded Director of the Year by the NZ Listener four times. In 2018, he won the Adam Award for Best NZ Play for Everything After.

2021 has seen him directing Andrew Bovell’s Things I Know to be True in a co-production between Court Theatre and Circa Theatre, the premiere production of Everything After and Every Kind of Weather, a programme of solo works celebrating Bruce Mason.