In 2024, Kate Low returned to New Zealand during a summer break to tour the one-woman show How to Build a Gate by Electra Carzis and upon returning to New York had always been eager to bring the play to American audiences.
It has now been selected to take part in the Soho Playhouse Lighthouse Series.
The series is a competition-style festival aimed at showcasing emerging talent and new works in New York City.
Out of hundreds of applicants, only 15 shows are selected for the first round.
Each show is paired with two others over a weekend, audiences vote for their favourite and the winner of each group advances to the second round in July, when the winner is awarded a six-week residency in Soho Playhouse’s main programme for 2026.
Low said it was it was incredibly exciting to have had the play accepted.
"We applied knowing it was a bit of a long shot as hundreds of people apply to this series.
"It was very much one of those ‘well, we will just send it and see what happens’ applications.
"We didn’t have any expectation of anything really coming out of it.
"We got the news and we were completely thrilled, then immediately got to work as we had a two week turnaround to put it up again."
She said having the chance to make her off-broadway debut at the iconic Soho Playhouse was a dream come true.
"The theatre has an incredible history and to be making it with the work of a very good friend makes it even more special.
"In the ’60s playwright Edward Albee [Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf and The Goat] took over the space and used it as an incubator and performance house which fostered playwrights like Sam Shephard, Leroi Jones and Lanford Wilson.
"I actually worked on The Goat as one of my final projects for school, so it feels weirdly serendipitous to be performing in this space just after finishing school."
A few changes had to be made to the production to take part in the series, she said.
"The show went through a bit of a development season when we were accepted into the first festival. It premiered at in New York — the Spark Emerging Artist Festival in March.
"We sat down and did a read through of the script that was performed in New Zealand and broke down what worked within that script."
She said Electra Artemis and Zora Squish Pruitt, the play’s incredible writer and their dramaturg, reworked the script.
"What turned the show on its head a bit was the acceptance into the Lighthouse Series meant the script had to be shortened to a 25-minute piece.
"We could chose to do an excerpt from the 70-minute show, or frankenstein the script so it told a very similar story to the full show but in 25 minutes.
"Electra and Squish went to work on it again and did an incredible job of cutting the show into a tight 25-minute show, while maintaining the essence and comedy of the story being told."
She said it had been affirming to see the foundation she had been building at Atlantic for so many years came into fruition this way.
"It is also just further affirmation that surrounding yourself with other incredibly talented, driven artists who have a love and passion for this work is a great way to go about growing and progressing in the industry.
"I am so incredibly grateful to be surrounded by an amazing team to make this happen and we are so fortunate to have festivals like the Soho Playhouse Lighthouse series and the Emerging Artists Festival give up and coming artists in the city the opportunity to put up their work."
She said the industry was tough and filled with high highs and low lows to navigate.
"A lot of it is work that goes unseen: constantly applying for things, going to open calls, auditions, self tapes, lots of no’s, networking, and just keeping yourself fit and ready for when you do book the job.
"Whenever there is a win like this it is reassuring but also just incredibly exciting to get the opportunity to do the thing that we as actors are putting in all the hours behind the scenes for — to tell a story."
