Libby Tonkin | Spatial Design Intern
 

Born and raised in Lower Hutt, Libby has always found herself involved in the arty crafty things in life. With her passion for art and painting, she discovered her drive for designing fun urban spaces leading her to Spatial Design at Massey University. With her fourth year underway and due to be completed by the end of 2023, she is excited to intern with The Performance Arcade this summer and explore new design possibilities within herself. You can often find Libby painting pop culture characters on old vinyl records, looking for funky things to collect and exploring ways to make her spaces more enjoyable and exciting.

Reuben Topzand | Music Curator
 

Growing up in Kerikeri, in the Bay of Islands, Reuben moved to Wellington in 2017 to study Commercial Music at Massey University. Here he gained experience as a keyboard and synth player, as well as getting a taste for event management work. Reuben has an extensive catalogue of performing as a musician at festivals and gigs around the country, he has played keyboard for many acts including Neil Macleod, Zö, Solomon Crook, Ghost Who Walks, Elliot Dawson, and Michael Llewellyn and The Darlings. Reuben also has experience composing and directing music for dance and theatre performances. This will be Reuben’s fourth year as The Performance Arcade’s Music Curator. You may see Reuben out and about at Wellington’s multiple music venues, whether it’s soaking up the atmosphere, scouting for great local bands, or performing on stage himself.

Sam Trubridge | Artistic Director
 

 Sam Trubridge is an artist, director, designer, and scholar working between and within the broader fields of performance and public events. His thesis Pelagic States (Massey University 2019 Dean’s List for Exceptional Theses) draws on his childhood living on a boat in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, relating this experience to a creative and scholarly practice that moves fluidly across disciplines and methodologies. He is Artistic Director and Founder of The Performance Arcade. He has performance designed and directed The Restaurant of Many Orders (UK, Italy, NZ), SLEEP/WAKE (NZ,USA) in collaboration with sleep scientist Philippa Gander, and most recently Ecology in Fifths (NZ). His work has been published, presented, and exhibited in Performance Research, Theatre Forum, PSi, The Prague Quadrennial, and World Stage Design. He has lectured in Europe, Oceania, Asia, and the Americas, and is currently Senior Design Tutor at Toi Whakaari O Aotearoa: NZ Drama School. 

Fay Van Der Meulen | Co-Marketing Manager

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Fay Van Der Meulen (she/her) is a freelance performing arts manager based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Film and Theatre from Victoria University where she excelled in Producing and Production Management. After University, she Co-Produced and was the Tour Manager for Aidan Theatre Company’s 2021 schools tour of Too Much Punch for Judy. Fay now works full-time as the Box Office Manager at Circa Theatre but has also worked in various roles for the TAHI Festival of Solo Performance, in the Stage Management team for WOW World of Wearablearts, and produced a number of shows for the New Zealand Fringe Festival and Auckland Fringe Festival. Fay now joins the Marketing team for The Performance Arcade.