Each year we have the head of acting from UNITEC and Toi Whakaari come down and run two day workshops.

This recent visit involved the very talented Pedro Ilgenfritz and his mask workshops. The students always have a great time with new and exciting work and tutors. Pedro is senior lecturer at UNITEC in Auckland. UNITEC took seven students into their acting course last year from the company.

Pedro Ilgenfritz's profile:

I am a dedicated theatre artist driven by the commitment to search for the possibilities that play at the intersection of theatre tradition and innovation; my ultimate goal as a cultural activist is to find poetic solutions for human experience and to nurture an uncompromising attitude towards arts practice and life.

I am a theatre director, deviser, dramaturge, researcher and teacher in the areas of theatre history and theory, clowning, mask improvisation and acting training with experience spanning more than 20 years. I am inspired by the work of Jacques Copeau, Konstantin Stanislavski, Antonin Artaud, Bertolt Brecht, Vsevolod Meyerhold, Jerzy Grotowski, Dario Fo and Lacques Lecoq.

I am a senior lecturer of Unitec - Performing and Screen Arts Department, founder and director of LAB Theatre, and since 2009 the company created: One By One (2013) STAMP – The Edge - Arts Development Program at The Herald Theatre as part of 2013 Auckland Fringe Festival, The Whau Fables, a theatre intervention at The Rosebank Artwalk as part of Auckland Arts festival 2013, Comic Interludes (2012) a collaboration with The Edge/Auckland City Council – a street theatre performance in the back of a truck as part of Wrapping Christmas Festival; and Alfonsina (2009) performed at Wellington and Dunedin Fringe Festivals in 2010 and VERTICE BRASIL 2010 – International Theatre Festival in Florianopolis/Brasil.