Mycah Keall and Brooke Wharehinga (Waenga play)

7th June Conversations with Wāhine - Access Radio, Wellington

Mycah Keall, Brooke Wharehinga, and the radio presenter Harita in the studio

Excerpt of interview transcript (lightly edited)

Harita: Welcome, ladies. So tell me about what inspired you both to pursue acting.

Mycah: 

I don't know if it was like any one particular thing. I think growing up, I was very much in the performance world through dance and music, actually, predominantly. And I didn't come into acting until I was probably a teenager, like doing drama at high school.

And then it wasn't until my last year of high school that I joined a youth theatre company in Palmerston North with Centrepoint Theatre. And so once a week, we'd sort of train there with professionals and got to do a proper professional show. And I was like, oh, wow, people actually do do this as a career because before it was something that I like kind of wanted to do. Wasn't really sure about if it was viable. So, yeah, that was kind of my path in there. 

Brooke:

Yeah, honestly, like similar to Maika, I grew up doing other sorts of artsy stuff like kapa haka, dancing, singing when more my thing playing instruments. But then through getting involved with Te Rakau, I realised that acting is something that I actually do really enjoy. And I think what got me into it is just being inspired by the people that I've seen, like Hariata and Tamati are incredible in their roles. And I think it's just the inspiration from other people who are similar to me in age and just seeing what you can do with acting and the way it can empower people and empower yourself, the people you work with, the people who come to watch.

And it's just such a free form of art. Like I feel like you can incorporate all arts into the art of acting, you can be singing, you can be dancing, you can be doing anything. So I think it's just such a cool, big bubble that a lot of creative arts sits under.

Harita:

I want to know like when you touch on these difficult topics within your plays and like you know last year with “Out the Gate” some of the themes that were covered in that were very hard hitting and I remember Hariata told me that some of the storylines in the play were actually some things that some people in the play had actually been through in their lives so how do you, what's the right word, how do you stay positive knowing that you're performing in a play with such heavy topics?

And how do you make sure that your mental health is ok throughout all of this when you know day in day out you're performing this piece where obviously you have to feel what you're performing but how do you keep your mental health in a happy space while you're doing all this? 

Brooke:

I think like because it is run by people who have degrees in like psychology and that sort of thing in mental health that helps a lot.

And we have a lot of systems set in place like in the morning we will all sit in a circle and it sometimes takes ages, but we go around the circle and say how we're feeling, and just like honestly probably overshare what's going on in our lives, and it's just a good way to connect and feel like we're starting the day off knowing where everyone's at and even if people are like I'm feeling like a 3 out of 10 today, just wanted to let you guys know I didn't get much sleep.

Then we can cater to that, and so it's not like us starting the day and getting straight into it and being like oh why is that person acting like weird or sad. So I think having that system and we also close it off the same way and we do karakia before and after everything so it feels very spiritually tau.

And also very supportive like we always know that if if somebody's ever going through a raru we always help them,  we've got kai, we can support them emotionally, mentally, like there's always room for having a bad day, that's completely fine and we all know that.

Harita:

What do you hope that the audience will take away from watching Waenga?

Mycah:

I want audiences to go away knowing that their voice matters, that they matter.

Harata:

Anything else you want the audience to know about Waenga?

Mycah:

Well there is heavy subject matter in it but it's also funny as well. We'll make you have a few laughs and there's some dancing in it, we're doing some hip-hop and stuff. Brooke has written a beautiful waiata, which she hasn't mentioned yet, but it's very nice.

There are other songs in it as well very comedic, there's some good comedic parts in it. We always make sure our shows even within the heaviness … and we hold you throughout the whole thing, we got you, and usually kai at the end too. 

Listen to the full interview LINK

Starts proper at 3.37