PresentCompany.Live
Present Company Live is Hannah Clarke and Jon Coddington and the wonderful people they presently have around them, gifting them their talent, teaching us things and driving us onwards to deliver funny, silly, serious, satisfying shows. We like puppets and gags and puppets making gags and sometimes puppets being gagged. We're also big movie fans. We've been mates since university but take funny things much more seriously now. For this epic journey we're joined by award winning NZ comedian James Nokise and super star Anya Tate-Manning. Our executive producer Maria Deere got too good at producing and was stolen to run the New Zealand International Comedy Festival. Here's some more about each of us:
JON CODDINGTON - PUPPETMAKER/PUPPETEER/ACTOR
Puppet Fiction is the brainchild of puppetmaker Jon Coddington. Musing on how to create a marionette based homage to his favourite film OF ALL TIME, Jon hand crafted the entire cast of the show, untangled their strings regularly and came up with ingenious props and sets.
Jon is a design grad of Massey University and Toi Whakaari NZ Drama School, he gets called up to make beautiful puppets for other companies regularly - he's responsible the John Banks in Public Service Announcements and has produced some great work for The PlayGround Collective's Tinderbox. He's also the award winning barista at Queen Sally's Diamond Deli. And possibly a pirate.
Jon is a design grad of Massey University and Toi Whakaari NZ Drama School, he gets called up to make beautiful puppets for other companies regularly - he's responsible the John Banks in Public Service Announcements and has produced some great work for The PlayGround Collective's Tinderbox. He's also the award winning barista at Queen Sally's Diamond Deli. And possibly a pirate.
HANNAH CLARKE - DIRECTOR/PRODUCER
"Alright Jon, it's a crazy idea but I think I figured out how we can make it work so we'll have a hoon on it aye?".
Hannah Clarke has been making theatre for over a decade and has a degree in it from Victoria University. As the Director of the New Zealand Fringe Festival by day and an independent practitioner by night, she's worked with many fine companies and on many fine productions and across many of the fine arts genres such as dance, music and theatre. She's been on and off stage with, including but not exclusively, Babyshads, World of Wearable Art, Winning Productions, Theatre Militia, and Rosy Tin Teacaddy. Hannah has a passion for movement in performance and tangled strings.
Hannah Clarke has been making theatre for over a decade and has a degree in it from Victoria University. As the Director of the New Zealand Fringe Festival by day and an independent practitioner by night, she's worked with many fine companies and on many fine productions and across many of the fine arts genres such as dance, music and theatre. She's been on and off stage with, including but not exclusively, Babyshads, World of Wearable Art, Winning Productions, Theatre Militia, and Rosy Tin Teacaddy. Hannah has a passion for movement in performance and tangled strings.
ANYA TATE-MANNING PUPPETEER AND PRODUCER
Voicing the lush and the badass, Anya Tate-Manning is an acting graduate of Toi Whakaari and Otago University. Recently in Wellington she has been seen onstage as the Native American in August Osage County, as Jacinda Ardern Public Service Announcements, and as the evil teddy bear in Toys. She hasn't worked with marionette puppets before and had no idea they would be so challenging. Her arms are sore. Anya collaborated with Jon on her award winning show Pirates vs Ninjas and loves working with him again.
JAMES NOKISE - PUPPETEER
Voicing the badass and the super badass, New Zealand's favourite (and only) Samoan/Welsh stand-up comic, James Nokise is the first Pacific Islander to work fulltime on the United Kingdom stand-up comedy circuit.
With over four years on the UK pro circuit under his belt, and twice nominated for New Zealand's top comedy award, Nokise is also a veteran of five Edinburgh Fringe festivals including hosting and headlining duties during the inaugural "Best of Kiwi Showcase" in 2004. Since then he has risen to be one of the top young comedians in New Zealand, performing hugely successful one hour solo shows in six New Zealand International Comedy festivals. He is co-founder of production company Not Even Broductions, the No Fefe Theatre Collective, and comedy bookers International Stand-up.
As a writer, he contributes to magazines such as Pasifika and NZ Gamer, and has written two plays. His first, The Minister's Son, was nominated for a Chapminn Tripp; his second, Public Service Announcements was nominated for a New Zealand International Comedy Festival Award.
Oh, and did we mention he won Best Male Comic 2013 at the National Comedy Guild Awards?
With over four years on the UK pro circuit under his belt, and twice nominated for New Zealand's top comedy award, Nokise is also a veteran of five Edinburgh Fringe festivals including hosting and headlining duties during the inaugural "Best of Kiwi Showcase" in 2004. Since then he has risen to be one of the top young comedians in New Zealand, performing hugely successful one hour solo shows in six New Zealand International Comedy festivals. He is co-founder of production company Not Even Broductions, the No Fefe Theatre Collective, and comedy bookers International Stand-up.
As a writer, he contributes to magazines such as Pasifika and NZ Gamer, and has written two plays. His first, The Minister's Son, was nominated for a Chapminn Tripp; his second, Public Service Announcements was nominated for a New Zealand International Comedy Festival Award.
Oh, and did we mention he won Best Male Comic 2013 at the National Comedy Guild Awards?