I Carried This

60 years in the making, this play portrays the life long impact of adoption on a generation of women we try to forget.

Please help us stage the premiere of this important documentary theatre production. Your financial support will enable us provide fair and reasonable pay to our small team of dedicated theatre makers.

'I Carried This' is a documentary theatre show, illuminating adoption experiences of New Zealand women in the 1950s and 60s, breathing, new life and the stories held into for decades. The show will debut at Wellington's Hannah Playhouse this June and features five distilled real life stories from women, Interviewed by writer Nicola Pauling.  

The show captures the diverse experiences of adoption from the birth mother's perspective during an era where unmarried mothers had little choice but to relinquish their babies. Over this period in New Zealand, more than 100,000 young women were often sent away by their families. Some forced to work while pregnant, and finally sent back home to act like nothing happened. Decades later, the lasting impact of these experiences proves to be as diverse as the women themselves.

The team bringing you this work is:

Director: Jacqueline Coats has a Master of Theatre Arts in Directing from Victoria University of Wellington and Toi Whakaari: NZ Drama School. She has worked as a director, restage director or assistant director for the NZ Festival of the Arts, NZ Opera, Victorian Opera, Opera Hawke’s Bay, NIMBY Opera, NZ Opera School, Capital E, Voices NZ, Wanderlust Opera, Opera Otago, Orchestra Wellington, and Auckland Philharmonic, winning accolades from the NZ Fringe, Wellington Theatre Awards, and Dunedin Theatre Awards. In 2019/20, she was the Pettman DARE Fellow at Opera North, University of Leeds and NZ Opera and was awarded a postgraduate diploma (with distinction) in Arts Education Management from the University of Leeds.  

Writer/Cast: Nicola Pauling is the founder and Creative Director of Voice Arts, an award winning charitable trust supporting human development through applied improvisation (play) and devised theatre (performance). She has developed numerous documentary performance projects working across the mediums of theatre, film and radio. Nicola is an Associate of the New York based East Side Institute and a graduate of their International Programme; she works internationally as a performance coach. Nicola is herself an actor, improvisor and playwright. “She Danced on a Friday” and now “I Carried This” both bring to the stage the real voices and stories of those unheard.

Cast: Hilary Norris is a professional actor, director and teacher. Her theatre experience has seen her feature in over 70 productions in most of the country's theatres. She is a recognised and respected director, directing many plays for the Fortune Theatre, Dunedin, with extensive experience directing and acting throughout Aotearoa. Since moving to Wellington she has been seen in television drama and feature film, appearing in "How to Murder your Wife" on TVNZ, in "The Battle of the Five Armies" the last in the Hobbit trilogy and "The Light between Oceans" a major feature film. In 2023 she appeared in “ The Rule of Jenny Pen” directed by James Ashcroft, a major feature film to be released in 2025. Hilary has worked extensively in the area of vocal coaching, both in one on one voice production and as a dialect and accent coach for film and stage. She teaches voice at Toi Whakaari and teaches adult drama for Voice Arts Trust.

Cast: Mycah Keall (Taranaki Iwi, Te Whānau a Apanui) is a graduate from Te Auaha: New Zealand Institute of Creativity. Since completing her training in 2020, she has worked with various theatre companies around Aotearoa including Circa Theatre, Tawata Productions, Taki Rua, Capital E, Young & Hungry, Te Rākau Hua O Te Wao Tapu, Kia Mau Festival and Pūtahi Festival. In 2021 she received the Tūngia Baker & Taki Rua Emerging Māori Writers and Actors Scholarship and in 2022 was a nominee for Most Promising Newcomer at the Wellington Theatre Awards.  

Publicity: India Worsnop (she/her, Waikato Tainui) is a freelance Marketing Designer & Publicist. She works in the live arts industry, creating marketing collateral and publicising shows for a variety of artists. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre & Film and in February 2024, she completed a Master of Fine Arts (Creative Practice) in Theatre. India has worked as a designer and/or publicist on shows including: THE LOBSTER (2024), Heartbreak Hotel (2023), HAUSDOWN (2023), Slowing The Sun (2023), & Hell School: The Musical (2023), as well as the Six Degrees Festival (2023-24) at BATS Theatre.

 Set Design: Lucas Neal is a theatre designer based in Pōneke Wellington, he is known for his work designing for shows such as Lads on the Island, The Coven on Grey Street, The King of Taking, Skin Tight and Hir. Lucas is the recipient of two Wellington Theatre Awards, Set Designer of the Year in 2022 and Most Promising Newcomer Award in 2017, he also received nominations for set design in 2019, 2021 and 2023. Lucas received a Masters in Fine Arts from Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington in 2018, and in 2023 he joined Victoria University as a lecturer of scenography.