Trae Te Wiki is returning to her home territory to perform in Half of the Sky at TSB Showplace this month. Photo / Andi Crown Photography
Taranaki actor Trae Te Wiki is heading home with a pack on her back – again.
On August 30 and 31, she will appear in Half of the Sky, a play being staged at the TSB Showplace in New Plymouth.
That’s where she began her professional career as an actor, playing backpacker Lizzie in Dave Armstrong’s Anzac Eve during the 2017 Taranaki Arts Festival.
This time she plays Marika (Rika), the youngest of three sisters in the poignant and funny play written by Lennie James. He is best known for playing Morgan Jones in hit TV show The Walking Dead.
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.Hāwera-born Trae has also been on TV, playing Tippy in the comedy series Under the Vines, set in a vineyard in Central Otago.
“My only experience of wine was through working in hospitality and drinking it.”
She has also been testing fresh waters in Half of the Sky.
In the Massive Theatre Company production, her on-stage sisters, Nyree (Kura Forrester – Shortland Street, Golden Boy) and Ruihi (Roimata Fox – The Haka Party Incident, Waru, The Pā Boys) are four years older than Rika, and Trae is enjoying being the youngest – for once.
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.The 30-year-old comes from a mixed family, has eight siblings and identifies as the oldest. Her youngest brother is 10.
“The siblings who come before you, they can bear the brunt of things, but also pave the way.”
Rika is a traveller, who has spent a lot of time backpacking overseas.
“She’s an adventurer, she’s loyal, loving, mischievous, cheeky and she says what she thinks,” Trae says.
“It’s a really good show; I think everyone will relate to the characters… it’s about family and love. You will come to the show and be taken on a well-written and beautiful journey. You’ll want to reach out and connect with family.”
Max Palamo (The Sons of Charlie Paora, Super City II), and Pat Tafa (The Haka Party Incident, The Wholehearted, Westside) are the other actors in the play, directed by Sam Scott.
This will be only the third time Trae has performed in Taranaki since turning professional.
In 2018, she took self-written play Beneath Skin and Bone to Hāwera. She also produced and starred in the work, and cast sister Tial, who was 11 at the time.
“It started off as a way to fundraise for our Wellington season,” she says.
The community got on board, with the Hāwera Repertory Society providing its venue for free, musicians lending instruments and there were full houses, including matinees for high schools.
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.“We did all the ticket sales too, through Messenger.”
When she took the show to Bats Theatre, Trae gained accolades at the 2018 Wellington Theatre Awards, being named Most Promising Newcomer for writing Beneath Skin and Bone and for her performance in another play, Hine Kihāwai.
Trae, who grew up on Taiporohenui Marae just out of Hāwera, says te reo Māori was her first language.
“I went to Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Ngāti Ruanui Taiporohenui before it closed down in the late ‘90s. In my early life, I was raised by my two mums who were also teachers at the kura and my earliest memories of performing were doing kapa haka.”
When Trae started mainstream education (Turuturu School) at age 7, she had to grapple with English, but says she perfected the language through doing speech and drama, and performing in Hāwera Repertory Society plays.
Trae continued her love for performing arts at St Mary’s Diocesan School for Girls in Stratford (now called Taranaki Diocesan), where she was deputy head girl in 2010.
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.“That did build the foundations of where I am now.”
Half of the Sky will also be playing in Rotorua on September 7 and 8, and in Auckland from September 12 to 16.
The details:
What: Half of the Sky
When: Wednesday, August 30 at 7pm; a schools performance on Thursday
Where: TSB Showplace
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.Tickets: via Ticketek
