Ben Ashby (SGCNZ NSSP 2013, SGCNZ YSC 2014)

Ben Ashby directed and/or acted in four scenes over 2013-2015 in the SGCNZ Canterbury Regional UOSWSF with Christchurch Boys’ High School. He was selected for the 2014 SGCNZ YSC and performed Julius Caesar; Ben was one of the actors playing Brutus. Since then Ben has directed the Christchurch Boys’ and Girls’ High Combined production of Gameplan by Dan Bain (a Cantabrian playwright). Ben trained with the Court Theatre Youth Company for 2014 and 2015 as well as being accepted as an apprentice with The Court Jesters (NZ’s longest running Improvised Comedy Troupe).

Ben accepted a job to be a part of the New Zealand Playhouse touring Company for 2016. This double bill show toured New Zealand and Australian high schools and primary schools throughout 2016. The High School Show Shakespeare as You Write it, devised by Brendon Bennetts, was a mixture of Shakespeare and Improvised comedy designed to help teach students about how a Shakespearean play is structured and how the language he wrote in works.