Sunny Amey
Sunny Amey (born 1928) is a theatre director and educator born in Aotearoa. She worked at the National Theatre of England during its formative years alongside Laurence Olivier, as artistic director of Downstage Theatre in the 1970s and the director of New Zealand's national drama school Toi Whakaari in the late 1980s.
Lets head to the beginning…Sunny was head prefect at Wellington East Girls’ College and went on to Teachers’ College then worked as a Speech Therapist. Drama was a natural interest.
Early on in her career she travelled from New Zealand to England twice. Her first trip in the early 1950s included her taking courses in London with Brian Way in children's theatre.
In 1954 Sunny was offered a job as a Junior Lecturer in Speech and Drama at Wellington Teachers’ College and started there in 1955. On the second trip, which was funded on a New Zealand Internal Affairs bursary, she ended up working with Laurence Olivier as production assistant on his newly formed Chichester Festival Theatre. She then followed him when he formed the National Theatre Company and worked there in a variety of jobs including assistant director to Olivier, she was repertory manager prior to her departure and she was at the National Theatre for five and half years.
Sunny was asked to return to New Zealand to become the Director of Downstage.
Following this Sunny took a position of Curriculum Officer for Drama at the Ministry of Education in New Zealand. She was there from 1975 to 1988. It became a function of the Curriculum Officer’s job to support theatre in education initiatives through representation on the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council and thus a close tie between artists and teachers began to develop. At the same time the New Zealand Theatre Federation had become aware of the work of Dorothy Heathcote and had issued an invitation to her to come to New Zealand. Sunny Amey, the Curriculum Officer for Drama was put in charge of the project when it was handed over to the Education Department. Teachers were to be released to take part in the viewing of the work in primary, intermediate and secondary schools throughout the country. Vince Catherwood, a former curriculum officer for English commented, “Dorothy Heathcote’s visit established a climate of interest in and commitment to drama in education in schools in New Zealand which Sunny (Amey) was able to foster through her curriculum development work.”
A curriculum working group was also established in New Zealand. Most of those teachers played a significant role in the formation of the subject association NZADIE in 1985 including; Carole Beu, Sunny Amey, Kathryn Whillans, Don McAra, Sally Markham, Ralph McAllister, Kerry Harvey, and Jill Burdett. A New Zealand group led by Sunny Amey attended the National Conference in Brisbane in October 1987 and this visit laid the foundations for the joint ‘Making Connections’ Conference which was to be held at the Auckland College of Education in January 1989.
Sunny Amey retired from her job in October 1988 and her position ceased to exist. Her retirement was marked by many speeches from well known educators who had welcomed the growth of drama in schools under her leadership, and in particular the establishment of visible drama networks throughout New Zealand.
In 1989 Amey became an interim director of Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Drama School and was there until 1991.
Sunny was one of the first New Zealand-born professional directors (and the first woman), remarkable for bringing more classic plays to Wellington and promoting original New Zealand plays and indigenous drama. She credits her teaching training and experience for her directing skills. She is honoured as a kaumātua by Taki Rua, grateful for her guidance and support as it blossomed into a professional Māori theatre company.
