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Lissa Twomey spends two years pursuing the performances that will thrill audiences for just three weeks at the nation’s International Festival of the Arts. Words: Victoria Moss; Photos: Nicola Edmonds.
SIX HUNDRED PEOPLE have gathered in Wellington for the programme launch of the New Zealand International Festival of the Arts. The chatter hushes and the crowd inches forward. Lissa Twomey, the Festival’s Artistic Director, faces them and declares that the Festival has been upstaged. “At One Red Dog restaurant tonight there’s a four-year-old’s birthday party that is, apparently, the hottest act in town,” she says, referring to her daughter Annabel and a party where the main attraction is a cake smothered in pink icing and decorated with sugar butterflies.
Lissa’s life has two distinct parts. As creative head of an international arts festival she jets to theatres and stages across the globe to entice performers to come to New Zealand to dazzle audiences hungry for new international arts. And as mum to Annabel and Jonathan, 10, her life is all about birthday cakes, homework and bedtime stories. An Australian, Lissa thrives on the balance of the two spheres, both equally captivating to her.
Her role with the Festival entails a huge amount of overseas travelling to scout for performers. She’s away for up to a month at a time, two or three times a year. She maximizes every minute on the road by cramming her itinerary with shows and performances and then squeezes in more discovered along the way. “It’s a fantastic job but it’s not a holiday. There is a lot of travelling. It’s a balance we negotiate as a family.”
Lissa and her husband, New Zealand-born Peter Twomey, a project director at engineering services company Beca, maintain that balance through a combination of new technology and good old-fashioned family support. When Lissa is travelling, she phones home every day on Skype and her mother visits from Australia to help maintain household routines. The children also have a nanny. “Of course they miss me sometimes but I’ll often Skype during dinner when we’d normally talk. I tell them what I’m doing and about the shows I’ve seen so they understand why I need to be away from home.”
Weekends together are much less structured. “We go on short trips around the country and ride our bikes on the waterfront, but mostly we just chill out together at home in the garden.” Lissa admits their lifestyle here would be difficult to match overseas and she never takes it for granted. In time, she and Peter will embark on new challenges elsewhere, but for now she’s focused on cementing New Zealand’s Festival as one of diversity, innovation and excellence. Every performance she chooses must be outstanding. “Mediocrity is not enough. It has to have some extra magic.”
Her interest in the arts was established early. “As a child I learned dance, drama, music; I was a regular Shirley Temple. I guess some people have a calling to something. It’s just part of who I am.” Arts administration is about more than sparkly lights and sequins. There’s a huge amount of planning and scheduling involved to coordinate hundreds of artists and performers. There’s much that could go awry – schedules don’t match, people become ill, freight is delayed. “There are so many risks. Until the lights go up at the end of the night, I’m nervous. But I wouldn’t want another job. We have a great team and if something goes wrong they spring into action. They are passionate about the Festival, understand the art and know how to support it.”
The atmosphere created during the Festival is a drawcard, especially for the participating artists. “We meet incredible people who go away with a real sense of enjoyment and friendliness, having had a great experience here. It’s a big festival for a little town and it carries a real sense of celebration.”
Perhaps New Zealand’s smaller arts calendar increases audiences’ enthusiasm for the Festival and encourages them to be adventurous in what they see. For Lissa, the fun comes from taking audiences on a journey and surprising them with unexpected experiences. “Over three weeks I will take them into uncharted territory. I’ll give them something they never knew they wanted.”
