Wellington actress Bea Lee-Smith likes keeping things simple.
And her latest one-woman show, Colour Me Cecily, is the epitome of that. "It’s literally just me, a chair, a table and a bit of fabric."
That simplicity is the joy of the show which is in its fifth season and touring the South Island. It is something she has wanted to do since she wrote it, especially as it is directed by former Dunedin actress and director Hilary Norris.
The show has been an important milestone for Lee-Smith, who had a three- or four-year hiatus from acting so she could concentrate on training and developing a new career as a pilates instructor.
"When I wrote it, it was just to get me back out there, essentially. I thought maybe a handful of people will come and I’ll say ‘Cool, I’ve started acting again’. Then the first season sold out and it’s just kind of mushroomed from there."
The career change came after many years working as a secondary school teacher and then freelance teacher of performing arts.
"It got too hard. Performing is incredibly rewarding but when things aren’t going particularly well it is also emotionally exhausting. I was feeling burnt out."
She looked for a new path that would enable her to get some balance back in her life. Becoming a pilates instructor means she is still connected to the performance world she loves.
"It leaves me enough emotional space to do my creative work. It’s taken a long time to achieve that in my life."
As a drama teacher she had written small works for her pupils and children’s shows, so thought having given herself time to concentrate on her new career it was time to dip her toes back into acting again to see where it would lead.
"Performance will always come first. It will always take over as it’s my passion. It’s not something you can surgically remove from your soul, so it’s been simmering away underneath."
Lee-Smith describes herself as a "life-long bun-head", having studied ballet and dance since she was 5.
But as she got older she moved away from dance to train as an actor and singer at Nasda in Christchurch.
It was there she did her first solo show, Jody’s Body, which she found enjoyable and rewarding. She tucked it away in the back of her mind as something she would like to do again when she was a more experienced actor than when she was in her early 20s.
"I’ve always had a love for theatre and storytelling, mainly for that sense of connection you get from working with other artists. That community, there is no replacement for."
When it came to devising a new work in 2017, she took inspiration from her own childhood.
She grew up in Wellington’s Hutt Valley in the 1980s with immigrant parents — her dad is from California, her mum from England.
"They were very much fish out of water at that time. If you think of your typical Kiwi bloke dad then picture the polar opposite of that — that’s my dad."
She began thinking about other aspects of that time and remembered self-improvement guide Denyse Saunders coming to do personalised colour consultations for the women at Nasda so they could present themselves in the best light at auditions.
That involved a system of finding the colours that flattered a person by draping them with different coloured fabric and assigning the person a "season" to represent the colours that worked and a clothing personality or style.
"My flatmate was quite obsessed with the colours thing and would go about diagnosing people, which I thought quite funny. I locked it away in my memory bank for later."
From there, Lee-Smith looked to create characters that were fun to embody and Cecily and her friends evolved as a one-woman show.
"I wanted to tell a story that is relatable and fun, that would draw a wide audience."
The story goes that Cecily escaped to New Zealand from London, following her divorce. She befriends an eccentric group of women, intent on living life to the fullest, and finds fulfilment in ways she never expected. Cecily's journey takes some twists and turns as she navigates her way through the minefield that is 1980s Upper Hutt.
"She had this irrational thought to just get out of there as things are not good in her world. So she moves to Upper Hutt and as she attempts to join the library — where my dad worked for 21 years — she befriends one of the librarians and they meet at Trentham, a somewhat dodgy pub, where they meet every Friday and have a bitch about the men in their lives and what they are up to."
During these meetings, they discover unfulfilled dreams they want to bring to fruition and they encourage Cecily to do the same.
"Eventually, through that she discovers Colour Me Beautiful and she moves into this realm."
Lee-Smith embodies all of these characters using a number of different acting techniques which she has honed over the years and some nostalgic 1980s pop such as Golden Brown and White Wedding.
"Adjustments in voice and movement, changes in body angle to define who the different characters are; obviously, it’s in the writing as well.
"It’s been fun developing the personalities over the years. Some have gotten bigger and bigger as the seasons have progressed.
"It’s the basic three acting tools — body, voice and imagination."
Lee-Smith approached Norris to direct the show after being encouraged to do so by
her husband, who had worked with the director in Dunedin with the Really Authentic Gilbert and Sullivan Trust.
It was fortuitous that Norris, who is now based in Wellington, was able to take on the project.
"She was the perfect person for the project with her background and age, having lived through and experienced the 1980s and in particular is someone from the UK, an immigrant to suburban New Zealand, so she had a lot of wonderful insight to help shape the performance and script."
Cecily was first staged in 2018 at Bats in Wellington and has had three sellout seasons in Wellington, including the Hutt, as well as a stint in Sydney’s Fringe.
Last year, Lee-Smith performed Cecily in the Tahi Festival of Solo Performance, the show’s first outing since Covid.
"It was great. All I had to do was show up to the theatre with my chair and table and do my show. Anyone who has produced their own show before will understand what a treat that is."
She thought that while she was on a roll with the show, she would bring it to the South, running a successful Boosted campaign to help fund the tour.
"It seemed like a logical time to do it."
Since Cecily, Lee-Smith has appeared in other productions and last year she staged her second work about the world of adult ballet classes which features many characters people will relate to. Her insights come from working at the New Zealand School of Dance as a pilates instructor and being part of the adult dance community for many years.
"That had a very rocky inception thanks to the pandemic. It took four years to get it on stage and then when we finally got it on stage after many false starts, having to cancel it after cast members got Covid.
"Watch this space — in due course we really want to bring it back."
The new work has similar themes to Cecily but that was inadvertent.
"Finding the things that make you happy, finding your tribe.
"You’re never too old. Get yourself out there and do what you love."
TO SEE
Colour Me Cecily, Te Whare o Rukutia, 20 Princes St, Dunedin, April 14-15, 6.30pm
