Catherine Patricia Downes was born on 1951 and is a New Zealand theatre director, actor, dramaturg and playwright.
20 Facts About Cathy Downes
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Cathy Downes wrote a one-woman play The Case of Katherine Mansfield, which she has performed more than 1000 times in six countries over twenty years.
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Cathy Downes has been the artistic director of the Court Theatre in Christchurch and the director of Downstage Theatre in Wellington.
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Cathy Downes completed a BA in English, Politics and Drama at Victoria University, and worked as a programme purchaser and film editor for TVNZ.
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Cathy Downes then earned a Certificate in Acting from the QEII Arts Council Drama School in 1973.
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Cathy Downes spent three years acting professionally in New Zealand before travelling to Europe in 1976, where she established theatre companies in Amsterdam and London.
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Cathy Downes developed and toured Sweet Nothings, an "immensely successful satirical cabaret show" and follow-up shows Sweet Corn, Venus in Blue Jeans and The Heartache Show.
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Cathy Downes had been in Brian McNeill's The Two Tigers at Four Seasons Theatre in Whanganui in 1977.
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Cathy Downes has since given over 1000 performances in six countries over a period of twenty years.
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Cathy Downes worked as part of the Nimrod Actors Company in Sydney for several years before returning to New Zealand.
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Cathy Downes was in both the original stage version of Robert Lord's Joyful and Triumphant, and a television adaptation made in 1993.
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Cathy Downes won a Sammy Award for her role in Winter of Our Dreams, an Australian drama.
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In 2000, Cathy Downes was appointed as Artistic Director of the Court Theatre in Christchurch after the retirement of Elric Hooper.
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Cathy Downes was Artistic Director of Downstage Theatre in Wellington from 2006 until she resigned in 2008, to be replaced by Hilary Beaton.
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Cathy Downes directed a 2006 production of Mum's Choir by Alison Quigan at Downstage.
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In 2007 Cathy Downes directed the musical Urinetown at Downstage, and in 2008 Donna Banicevich Gera's Land Without Sundays at Maidment Theatre in Auckland.
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The Suffrage Centennial Trust funded Cathy Downes to adapt Rachel McAlpine's novel about Kate Sheppard, Farewell Speech, into a play.
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Cathy Downes wrote and performed a second work about Katherine Mansfield in 2013, Talking of Katherine Mansfield, which was performed at Circa Theatre in early 2013 and then toured nationwide.
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Cathy Downes won the 1996 Best Director Award for Tzigane, and won the same award in 1998 for Closer at Circa Theatre.
20.
Cathy Downes was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the 1998 Queen's Birthday Honours for services to the arts.