“Actors should be overheard, not listened to, and the audience is 50 percent of the performance.”

— Shirley Booth

Carl's directing debut was in 2009 at Titirangi Theatre. He was asked to partake as the "newbie" director in the 24 Hour Play Festival. A frantic 24 hours consisting of five writers, five directors and 20 actors, all randomly matched on the day: the writers had just 12 hours to write a short play. At 8am, the finished play was handed over to the directors and actors, who had 12 hours from read-through to performance at 8pm Saturday. Amongst the chaos Carl found another calling that equalled his passion for acting.

Since then Carl has directed a handful of one act plays and received the Dolphin Theatre award for Best One Act Play 2012.

2014 was to be his first attempt at a full production called The Fox on the Fairway by Ken Ludwig. A laugh out loud comedy set in a golf club. The production was a great success and went on to win a number of awards at the Dolphin Theatre Awards including Best Production 2014.

“I’m not interested in how people move;
I’m interested in what makes them move.”

— Pina Bausch

Proof

Writer: David Auburn
Producer: Café Theatre & Ellerslie Theatre
Cast: Jennifer Onyeiwu, Fellis McGuire, Erik van de Wydeven & Munashe Tapfuya
Year: 2020

The plot revolves around Catherine, a young woman facing emotional turmoil after the death of her brilliant yet unstable mathematician father.

As she navigates her own feelings, her estranged sister Claire's return, and the interest of her father's former student Hal in his notebooks, Catherine finds herself grappling with the question of how much of her father's brilliance or madness she has inherited.

This intriguing storyline unfolds over a long weekend, marked by a budding romance and the unveiling of a mysterious notebook.

Close Enough

Writer: Kellie Powell
Producer: Short + Sweet Festival
Cast: Zoe Gilmore & Mia Marama
Year: 2018

Close Enough was part of the Short+Sweet Festival 2018, a very heartwarming funny play, written by Kellie Powell and directed by Carl Drake.

Fiona (Mia Maramara) is a disgruntled indoor cat who finds herself suddenly transplanted to a new home when her owner moves in with her boyfriend and the couple adopts a new kitten, Prometheus. Like all kittens, Prometheus (Zoe Gilmore) is lively and curious, and Fiona finds herself in an awkward position when the two cats happen to witness their humans “mating”.

Dolores

Writer: Edward Allan Baker
Producer: Ellerslie Theatre
Cast: Brooke Petersen & Lyndsey Garner
Season: 24th - 2 September 2017

A woman escapes her dangerously abusive husband and seeks help from a sister who doesn't want to get involved.

Farewell

Writer: David Blakey
Producer: Ellerslie Theatre
Cast: Paul Ballard, Brandon Rhoades, Andrea Diprose & Ben Cooper
Season: 20th - 29th August 2015

Dave, happily married and a successful lawyer, searches for the truth of what happened to his best friend twenty two years earlier.

The Fox on the Fairway

Writer: Ken Ludwig
Producer: Dolphin Theatre
Cast:
Season: 14th June - 5th July 2014

This year was to be Carl's first attempt at directing a full production called The Fox on the Fairway by Ken Ludwig. A laugh out load comedy set in a golf club. The production was a great success and went on to win a number of awards at the Dolphin Theatre Awards including Best Production 2014.

Here's the Thing

Year: 2013
Producer: Dolphin Theatre
Writer: Debra K Chalmers
PA: Annie Whittaker

Amanda didn’t expect to have much more than a blinding headache after her big night out on the town with her newly divorced sister.

But finding a naked young man passed out on her couch and trying to explain that to her daughter was a doddle compared to dealing with the police searching for an armed robber, her boss looking for his missing son and her mother with a slight drinking problem.

What the hell did they do last night? If only they could remember.

Two Women & a Chair

Year: 2013
Producer: Dolphin Theatre
Writer: Michael Olsen
PA: Annie Whittaker

Two actors, Jessie and Martine, arrive at an audition to discover only a bare room with a mysterious black chair. The only instructions on what they should do are contained on the flyer advertising the play, and it soon becomes clear that this is no ordinary audition; or is it an audition at all? Will they obey the cryptic instructions? What of Damian, the director? Is this all a plot to get back at Martine, or is there something more? The answers, as always, lie in the choices Jessie and Martine are about to make.

Nothing

Year: 2012
Producer: Dolphin Theatre
Writer: Mark Langham
PA: Annie Whittaker
Awards: Dolphin Theatre Best One Act 2012

The people in this play know each other extremely well. The three friends, very relaxed in each other’s company, soon find what inhibitions they may have had washed away by a healthy sluicing of booze!

The action, such as it is, takes place in a garage on a languid day in summer. The meaning of life and death is broken down, built back up again, broken down again after lunch and then, due to a lack of time, left in a heap in the corner by the lawnmower.

This play from left field is about the importance of doing nothing and having time out. We all do it. We all need to do it, but who is going to change the world and what is life all about? Why should we care? Why is it so noisy? And will the lawn ever get mowed?