Applied Theatre Consultants

Peter O'Connor

Peter O’Connor is the founding Co-Director of Applied Theatre Consultants Ltd.

Peter trained in drama in education in the UK in the 1980s gaining a Royal Society of Arts Diploma in Drama Education.  His work has been highly influenced by British pedagogues he came in contact with then, including Dorothy Heathcote, Gavin Bolton  and Cecily O’Neill.    He completed his PhD with John O’Toole at Griffith University, Australia in 2003.

Peter’s work in applied theatre and drama in education has been varied.  Formerly he was the National Education Manager with the Race Relations Office; a project manager with the Mental Health Foundation overseeing the Foundation’s role in a national campaign to counter stigma associated with mental illness.  He was for five years the National Drama facilitator with the New Zealand Ministry of Education overseeing the implementation of a compulsory Drama curriculum.

He is currently an Associate Professor at the University of Auckland where he is the Director of the Critical Research Unit in Applied Theatre.  He is also an adjunct Associate Professor with the University of Sydney.  He has been a visiting Scholar at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, and the National Institute of Education, Singapore.  He is a popular speaker having given keynote plenary addresses in Canada, Singapore, Hong Kong, Jamaica, the UK, and across Australia and New Zealand.  Peter has also written extensively on applied theatre and drama education with over fifty publications.

Briar O'Connor

Briar O’Connor is a Founding Co Director of Applied Theatre Consultants Ltd.  Briar has an MA (Hons) in Sociology from the University of Auckland where she specialised in material culture.  She has recently completed a Graduate Diploma in Teaching also from the University of Auckland.

Briar has taught at University level and at Primary School level.  She is currently teaching in a South Auckland Primary School.  Briar was previously a researcher with the Alcohol and Public Health research Unit ( Maori) at the University of Auckland, and the Director of Fast Forward, a mentoring and support project for Maori and Pasifika students, also at the University of Auckland.

Briar was the National Arts Coordinator; Drama with the New Zealand Ministry of Education overseeing a project linking professional theatre artists with schools.

Briar has published widely in both academic and popular press.

Stephen Dallow

Stephen Dallow is the National Programmes Manager for Applied Theatre Consultants.  Stephen’s role is to develop, implement and manage our programmes throughout New Zealand.

Stephen has been a drama teacher for the past 20 years and has been heavily involved in three of ATCO’S key projects, “The Lost Bag”, “Open The Loop” and “Everyday Theatre”.

In his spare time Stephen manages a community based drama school, Kids 4 Drama and has also worked with Waitakere City Council in the area of Community Development.

Stephen’s passion is using theatre and applied theatre techniques inside educational settings and has delivered programmes in everything from early childhood through to adult learning institutions.

Stephen is a teacher, actor, playwright, composer and full time parent to two children.

Caitlin O'Connor

Caitlin O’Connor considers herself the craziest and coolest staff member in our ATCO team.  She also considers herself a number one Gamesmaster. (Refer to Everyday Theatre page for more information on being a Gamesmaster).

Firstly, because her dad is the Doc, the greatest games master of all time.  Also, Caitlin won a gold medal for ice figure skating.  Caitlin is currently training to be a primary school teacher and absolutely loving working with Everyday Theatre.  In the past Caitlin has worked as a full time nanny, a student teacher and as a Canteen mentor for sick children. She loves to have adventures and fun wherever she goes!

Evelyn Mann

Evelyn Mann, Dip Teach (Dunedin), B.Ed (Otago), Post Grad Dip - Drama in Education (Griffith)
Evelyn has been a teacher - actor for Applied Theatre Consultants since 2004.

A teacher, Evelyn has worked in all areas of education from Early Childhood to Tertiary. This includes classroom teaching, lecurer in Drama at the Dunedin College of Education, Adviser in The Arts - Drama for eight years (Otago and Southland), Artist in School - Waihola and Stewart Island, writer of the Learning In Action resource - Arts Online and projects in Museums. Evelyn runs Dramaworkz, a business that works with process drama to bring about learning in a variety of groups and settings. Currently she is Artistic Director for Theta - Theatre In Health Education Trust.

Other Team Members

We will be adding details on the rest of our team shortly.  These include our actor / facilitators Natano Keni and Hannah Neville and casual facilitators Wendy Dynan-Gleeson and Julie Watson.