The Wairarapa Events Centre are excited to announce the successful applicants for the 2026 Artist Residency. The residency runs for 5 days and allows performing arts producers to have the auditorium to themselves with sound and lighting support from Wairarapa Events Centre on-site technicians to workshop and develop an idea for a new concept. Participants also have the option to perform a showing of work to an invited audience for further feedback and development.
Congratulations go to this years successful applicants – Havoc Productions! Havoc Productions is a new theatre collaboration between writer Hayden Maskell and director Victoria Ross that focuses on exploring the human condition and the recurring, timeless themes that connect us all. Their first piece, Beacon, will explore the motifs of isolation and guilt while using sound and lighting to heighten and support this vision.
This project premise, along with the applicants vast experience in the performing arts and thoughtful details in their proposal, made them a stand out. The panel are excited at the potential of this performing arts project and are eager to see the development of this production play out on the Events Centre stage!
“We’re incredibly lucky to have a facility like the Wairarapa Events Centre in our region”, says Event Centre Team leader Erin Banks. “And while we attract amazing acts from around the motu and even overseas, we wanted to encourage more work from local artists, and to give them the time and space to fully develop their ideas. Where they can make mistakes, edit and create without the pressure of having an imminent season.”
“The hope is that works developed over these residencies will then go on to be programmed and have seasons at the event centre in the future,” Banks says, “so we can have more home-grown content on our stage and encourage our local artists to grow those sparks of ideas into something more”.
Victoria Ross
Hayden Maskell