Tim Bray Photo: Supplied
Tim Bray had a crazy idea at the age of 27.
It was 1991 and the Auckland Youth Theatre, where Bray taught drama and directed, was shutting down. Maybe he could take over the lease and start his own youth theatre company.
"I remember having a family meeting and all my family, who were marketers and business people and things like that, said 'Don't do this Tim. Really, don't do this.'
But doing theatre for kids and young people was "incredibly in my bones and I just felt I had to do something..." Bray told RNZ's Nine to Noon.
That moment was the start of a 33-year run for the Auckland-based Tim Bray Theatre Company. It has delivered more than 100 original productions to hundreds of thousands of children, toured New Zealand, and performed for King Charles and Queen Camilla when they were prince and duchess.
But the annual Christmas production of the Santa Claus Show will be the company's curtain call. Bray, 60, has a rare form of soft tissue cancer and scraping together the annual budget of $1 million for subsidised quality youth theatre is no longer possible.
"I didn't think, to be honest, back then that I would still be going 33 years later and for the theatre company to be this size and the robustness that it is now."
When Bray spoke with RNZ, he was 10 days past his last chemotherapy treatment, a journey he described as "pretty full on".
Peter O'Connor, a theatre professor at the University of Auckland, said Bray's work was unique - it veers away from kid's theatre as an afterthought.
"They were top of the game so when kids went they saw really age-appropriate, highly polished work and that is really important. They got to see really good stuff that is specifically for them."
He called the closing of the Tim Bray Theatre Company a blow to the "arts ecosystem" that would have a knock-on effect for New Zealand's theatre industry in the years to come. Capital E's touring National Theatre for Children closed last year.
"Part of it is that we begin exciting kids about the possibility of live theatre and helping them understand what it is to be both involved in making theatre and become part of the audience."
A performance of Vivaldi's The Four Seasons at theTim Bray Theatre Company. Photo: David Rowland / One-Image.com
Bray's own love of theatre started at a young age when he was exposed to travelling theatre companies at school. His parents took him to shows at the Mercury Theatre and His Majesty's Theatre. At age 13, they enrolled their son in drama classes.
"I remember vividly the pleasure and the impact and the everything that drama and the performing arts gave me as a child and as a teenager and how that formed myself as a person and formed me as a creative thinker and a creative maker."
He went on to do a science degree but returned to theatre soon after. His first job was performing for children in schools through the Auckland Youth Theatre.
"I suddenly found my happy place and suddenly went 'This is where I want to be. I want to be performing to and surrounded by children.' That is what I have done ever since."
The Great White Man-Eating Shark and Other Stories cast from a 2018 performance with the Tim Bray Theatre Company. Photo: David Rowland
Bray wrote his beloved Santa Claus Show in 1991 and it remains one of his favourites. The company has performed it on and off for most years. An adaptation of the New Zealand movie classic Whale Rider had a significant impact on Bray, which led him to learn te reo Maori.
Bray's mission has been to provide quality theatre to every child. The theatre company was well ahead of others in providing sign language interpreters at performances from 2004.
This inclusive value expanded to audio-described performances for blind children and sensory relaxed performances for children put off by loud noises and other over-stimulating elements.
The theatre company teaches drama to about 200 students each term including deaf teenagers and neurodiverse children.
"To see the confidence of these deaf teenagers grow through drama well, you've got to see it to believe it."
Tickets for a performance at the company are just under $40 each, which does not cover costs. Each year, Bray and his team fund-raised through grants and private donors to bridge that funding gap.
"Every year, we start at zero dollars and we have to raise a million bucks. It has been a challenge for a long time."
Dr Kerryn Palmer, a theatre and performance studies lecturer at Victoria University of Wellington, commended Bray for his long run in an area of theatre where funding opportunities are reduced and the awards are few.
"We lose a lot of the ego. We lose a lot of the bullshit because they're in it for a reason, which is pretty much to make the world a better place and I love that about this sector in this industry."
The reward is the audience reaction - if your show is good. If it's not good, kids let you know, said Palmer, who has been involved in children's theatre for 35 years.
"They'll tell you when it's extraordinary and amazing and you'll absolutely get that feeling and that energy back and there is nothing like that feeling, right?"
Bray has tried to find someone to take over the company, but those efforts have not succeeded. Instead, he is letting staff go just before Christmas.
"Chemotherapy is tough and I don't know if I even have the resources or the energy to supply a week's handover to anyone.
"It has been a hard one."
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