SHARING THE FRUITS OF A STELLAR CAREER
John Callen has been named winner of the 2021 Equity New Zealand Lifetime Achievement Award. While nominations from his peers praised his impressive body of work, it was his dedication to nurturing the next generation of performers that many said made him a worthy recipient of the prestigious award.
In his long career, John Callen has performed in or directed more than 100 stage productions and more than two dozen television series, and narrated around 150 documentaries. His film career includes playing Óin in the Hobbit trilogy, among many other titles.
“John is unfailingly generous in supporting those pursuing this profession,” says Equity NZ President Jennifer Ward-Lealand. “Over the past four decades, he has been a teacher and mentor to many emerging actors in Aotearoa.”
“I’ve always loved children − I have half a dozen of my own, all of them adults now − and working with children is such a joy,” says John, who has previously taught at the Toi Whakaari: NZ Drama School, Unitec Performing and Screen Arts, and The University of Auckland.
Currently, he mentors students in his capacity as a board member of The Actors’ Program and is a regular acting tutor at the Auckland Performing Arts Academy (APAA).
“At the end of last year, I directed an APAA production of The Sound of Music. I think the youngest person in it was nine and the oldest would have been 23; most of them were between 12 and 18,” John says. “That was a wonderful experience − so many of them were glorious performers and so disciplined.”
John also fondly recalls directing a student production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Unitec in 2008 and cites it as one of the shows of which he is most proud. “The hump was that there were only four males in the class, and therefore the cast, so we had to think really hard how we were going to do it. I didn’t simply say, We’re going to do it like this. I asked them and we did it together, and I think the end product was something quite extraordinary. Fern Sutherland, who played Bottom, is now known internationally for her leading role in The Brokenwood Mysteries. I personally loved it and went to see it pretty much every night. They brought so much vitality to it. I still have the card given me by the cast.”
John believes the most valuable advice he offers his students is to build a sustainable local career by being as versatile as possible. “What I have done in my career is to not limit myself. I don’t say, I’m an actor, therefore I won’t be doing any commercials. I don’t say, I’m a theatre performer, so I won’t be doing any screen work. I’ve narrated so many documentaries − it’s wonderful work − and a lot of commercials and books, which are also great. I love the whole gamut of experience. If it involves the performance of stories, then I love it.”
John also urges his students to join Equity. “Unions are a human right and they are there solely to protect the interests of workers who might not otherwise have any protection. They are vital for performers and I’m very proud to be a long-standing member of Equity, especially with all the union did to protect us during the Hobbit dispute. I can’t speak highly enough of Jennifer as our leader and what she did for us during that time”.
In between his teaching gigs, and directing and voice work, John has amassed hundreds of credits on stage and screen, but it was his role as Macbeth, directed by Michael Hurst, that has remained one of his most loved of the past 30 years.
“I played Macduff in a production of Macbeth in Wellington. I was very happy with that role but I really got myself hooked into the relationship between Macbeth and his wife because it is so different from the relationship between Macduff and his wife and family. And then, in 1992, I got the job of playing Macbeth at the Herald Theatre in Auckland. It was directed by Michael Hurst and I think in New Zealand he is pre-eminent in his knowledge of the standing, of the practicalities, the joys, the dangers, the excitement of Shakespeare’s work. My goodness, that was hard work − he wouldn’t let me get away with much − but it was wonderful, and we were so good that it ran and ran and ran.”
Michael says when he came to direct this production, the only person to cast in the role was John Callen. “He was Macbeth − strong, intelligent, powerful, brooding and yet able to bring that childlike vulnerability that the character must have in order to be truly tragic. I remember him stalking about the stage, striking fear into the audience with his menacing presence. His ability with the verse was outstanding and the dark lyricism of his sonorous voice was able to convey the horror and pathos of the man who knowingly wages mortal war on his own soul. It was an amazing performance. The audience were spellbound, and when it came to ‘signifying nothing’, the silence was enormous, like a great sleeping black bear lurking in the darkness of the theatre. He ate the role. Bloody marvellous.”
The Equity New Zealand Lifetime Achievement Award is proudly presented by Ryman Healthcare. John will be honoured at a ceremony in Auckland in early 2022.
