Nancy Brunning

{{Short description|New Zealand actress, director, and writer (1971–2019)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2019}} {{Infobox person | name = Nancy Brunning | image = | caption = | birth_date = {{birth date text|1971}} | death_date = {{Death date and given age|2019|11|16|48|df= yes}} | death_place = Wellington, New Zealand | birth_place = Taupō, New Zealand | occupation = Actor, director, writer | years_active = 1992–2019 | education = Toi Whakaari }} '''Nancy Brunning''' (1971 – 16 November 2019) was a New Zealand actress, director, and writer who won awards in film and television and made a major contribution to the growth of Māori in the arts.<ref name="Chambers2006">{{cite book|author=Colin Chambers|title=Continuum Companion to Twentieth Century Theatre|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cFlFhuVMFGQC&pg=PA546|date=14 May 2006|publisher=A&C Black|isbn=978-1-84714-001-2|pages=546–}}</ref> She won the best actress award at the New Zealand Film Awards for her lead role in the film ''What Becomes of the Broken Hearted?'' (1999).<ref name="Playwright">{{cite web |last1=Desmarais |first1=Felix |last2=McConnell |first2=Glenn |date=November 17, 2019 |title=Nancy Brunning wins Bruce Mason playwriting award one day after death |url=https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/117481297/actor-and-writer-nancy-brunning-dies |accessdate=November 19, 2019 |website=Stuff}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=12250971|title=Ex-Shortland Street star Nancy Brunning crowdfunding 'life prolonging' drug|date=July 19, 2019|accessdate=November 19, 2019|website=The New Zealand Herald}}</ref> In 2000, she won the Best Actress in Drama award at the New Zealand Television Awards for her lead role in the television series ''Nga Tohu''.

She was the acting coach for the Oscar-nominated short film ''Two Cars, One Night'' directed by Taika Waititi. According to friend and frequent collaborator Temuera Morrison, she "paved the way" for Māori actors in New Zealand.<ref name="Temuera">{{cite web|url=https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/celebrities/117499823/an-explosive-actress-temuera-morrison-remembers-nancy-brunning|title='An explosive actress': Temuera Morrison remembers Nancy Brunning|author=Emily Brookes|date=November 18, 2019|accessdate=November 19, 2019|website=Stuff}}</ref>

==Biography== Brunning grew up in Taupō, and was of Māori descent, from the tribes of Ngāti Raukawa and Ngāi Tūhoe.<ref name="Meyer-Dinkgräfe2003">{{cite book |author=Daniel Meyer-Dinkgräfe |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=njiEv5o0OhQC&pg=PA40 |title=Who's Who in Contemporary World Theatre |date=20 May 2003 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-0-203-10590-0 |pages=40–}}</ref><ref name="Playwright" />

Brunning attended Toi Whakaari New Zealand Drama School from 1990,<ref name="StuffNZ">{{cite news|url = https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/117481297/actor-and-writer-nancy-brunning-dies|title = 'We lost a tōtara today' – outpouring of love and grief for actor Nancy Brunning|date = 17 November 2019|accessdate = 16 November 2019|last = Desmarais|first = Felix|work = Stuff.co.nz}}</ref> graduating in 1991 with a Diploma in Acting.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Graduate|url=https://www.toiwhakaari.ac.nz/graduate|access-date=2021-08-09|website=www.toiwhakaari.ac.nz}}</ref> She lived in Wellington for most of her life.<ref name="StuffNZ" />

After graduating, she played many leading roles in theatre, film and television. In 1992, she won the award for Most Promising Female Actor at the Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards for the all Māori women production ''Nga Wahine''. She also became one of the most well known faces on New Zealand television in the role of Jaki Manu in the soap Shortland Street and other programmes. In 1994, she appeared in the classic ''Nga Tangata Toa'' play written by Hone Kouka and directed by Colin McColl. Brunning also appeared on stage in major productions for the New Zealand International Festival of the Arts, the biggest arts event in the country, in productions such as ''Hide ‘n’ Seek'' (1992) (NZ and Australian tour) and ''Waiora'' (1996) (NZ, Brighton Festival and Hawai'i tours) and ''Blue Smoke''. She played the role of ''Belle'' in the UK-NZ co-production of ''Beauty and the Beast'' (1998).<ref name="lm">[http://www.lamama.org/archives/2008/NewIndigenousVoice.html] La Mama Theatre, New York. Retrieved 5 November 2009</ref>

A speaker of the indigenous Māori language, Brunning also worked as a theatre director,<ref>{{cite book|title=Huia Short Stories 3|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4C0b4cIuEYMC&pg=PA245|year=1999|publisher=Huia Publishers|isbn=978-1-877241-48-2|pages=245–}}</ref> cultural advisor and script consultant.<ref name="test">[http://www.aucklandactors.co.nz/ViewFullCV.pl?objectID=224] Auckland Actors Agency</ref> She received a best actress nomination at the 2009 Qantas Film & TV Awards for her role in the movie ''Strength of Water''.

Brunning directed theatre and stage dramas from 1995. Her first production was Briar Grace-Smith's first full-length one woman show called ''Nga Pou Wahine''. She also collaborated with Grace-Smith on a Taki Rua Theatre production in 1996 called ''Flat out Brown''; directed Māori language play ''Te Ohaki a Nihe'' written by Selwyn Muru and devised and directed with Grace-Smith again on a touring show called ''Waitapu'', also in 1996. She directed ''Women Far Walking'' written by Māori writer Witi Ihimaera. The play toured nationally and internationally to the UK. She was also assistant director with Nathaniel Lees on ''Awhi Tapu'' by Albert Belz for the Auckland Festival. She was assistant director for the play ''The Songmaker's Chair'' written by Albert Wendt and directed by Nathaniel Lees.<ref name="lm" />

Brunning directed the short film ''Journey to Ihipa'' (2008) which screened at the New Zealand International Film Festivals and internationally, including the Vladivostok Film Festival (2009) and in New York.<ref name="vff">[http://www.viff.vl.ru/en/program/?about_film,687] 2009 Vladivostok International Film Festival.Retrieved 7 November 2009</ref> The film starred veteran New Zealand actress Elizabeth McRae and Nathaniel Lees, and was shot in the Ngai Tuhoe Māori community of Ruatahuna in the central North Island of New Zealand.

Brunning and theatre maker and educator Tanea Heke formed a production company Hāpai Productions in 2013 with a vision to "produce mana enhancing Māori Theatre productions whilst upholding Māori Values."<ref>{{Cite web|title=Te Hau Tūtū – Independent Māori Theatre Producers' Room|url=https://toiponeke.nz/events/2018/7/24/te-hau-tutu|access-date=2021-06-05|website=Toi Pōneke|language=en-NZ}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Hapai Productions|url=https://www.circa.co.nz/tag/hapai-productions/|access-date=2021-06-05|website=Circa Theatre|language=en-NZ}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Nancy Brunning|url=https://courttheatre.org.nz/ourpeople/nancy-brunning|access-date=2021-06-05|website=The Court Theatre|language=en}}</ref>

Brunning's last creative work ''Witi's Wāhine'' premiered at the Te Tairāwhiti Arts Festival in Gisborne in 2019. She wrote and directed this play as a tribute to the women characters in the novels of Witi Ihimaera. It has since been performed in Auckland and in the Kia Mau Festival in Wellington in 2021.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2021-04-22|title=Kia Mau Festival 2021 {{!}} Witi's Wāhine|url=https://kiamaufestival.org/events/witis-wahine/|access-date=2021-06-05|website=Kia Mau Festival|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=WITI'S WĀHINE - A truly special night|url=https://www.theatreview.org.nz/reviews/review.php?id=12420|access-date=2021-06-05|website=TheatreView}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Witi's Wāhine|url=https://www.tetairawhitiartsfestival.nz/2020-programme/witis-wahine/|access-date=2021-06-05|website=Te Tairawhiti Arts Festival|language=en-NZ}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Live|first=Auckland|title=Witi's Wāhine|url=https://www.aucklandlive.co.nz/show/awf21-witis-wahine|access-date=2021-06-05|website=Auckland Live|language=en}}</ref> Emma Hislop, in her review of the 2023 staging at the ASB Waterfront Theatre, said that the play is an "incredible gift" from Brunning: "The 18 scenes in ''Witi's Wāhine'' weave an intricate pattern through Ihimaera’s works, and the result is astonishing".<ref>{{cite news |last1=Hislop |first1=Emma |title='The whole stage talks': A review of Witi's Wāhine |url=https://thespinoff.co.nz/books/11-05-2023/the-whole-stage-talks-a-review-of-witis-wahine |access-date=26 May 2024 |work=The Spinoff |date=11 May 2023 |language=en}}</ref>

== Personal life and death == Brunning's partner was fellow playwright Hone Kouka. They had one daughter together, the singer-songwriter Mā.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-02-06 |title=Mā singing into 2022 |url=https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/waitangiday/audio/2018829512/ma-singing-into-2022 |access-date=2024-08-14 |website=RNZ |language=en-nz}}</ref>

Brunning died on 16 November 2019 at age 48, nine years after being diagnosed with cancer. She posthumously won the Bruce Mason Playwriting Award the following day.<ref name="StuffNZ" /> Friend and frequent collaborator Temuera Morrison paid tribute to her.<ref name="Temuera" /> In a post on Facebook, New Zealand television and radio host Stacey Morrison wrote that Brunning was "Our māmā, our sister, our aunty, our friend, she has followed the call of her tīpuna. Nancy's passion was to bring unheard stories to the light. To remind our people that our voices are a powerful tool and aroha is the most important thing of all. And while she was loved by the world, she was loved even more by us. She was the person that bound our whānau together."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/news/entertainment/former-shortland-st-star-nancy-brunning-passes-away/|title=Former Shortland St star Nancy Brunning passes away|date=November 17, 2019|accessdate=November 27, 2019|website=Newstalk ZB}}</ref> Following her death, there were calls for Pharmac, the national drug funding agency, to be reformed.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2019/11/nancy-brunning-s-death-calls-for-pharmac-reform.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191117222004/https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2019/11/nancy-brunning-s-death-calls-for-pharmac-reform.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=17 November 2019|title=Nancy Brunning's death: Calls for Pharmac reform|date=November 18, 2019|accessdate=November 28, 2019|website=Newshub|author=James Fyfe}}</ref>

== Filmography ==

{| class="wikitable sortable" |+Film and television |- ! Year ! Title ! Role ! class="unsortable" | Notes |- |1992–1994 |''Shortland Street'' |Jaki Manu |Regular role |- |1998 |''When Love Comes Along'' |Fig | |- |1999 |''What Becomes of the Broken Hearted?'' |Tania Rogers | |- |2001 |''Crooked Earth'' |Marama | |- |2002 |''[https://www.nzonscreen.com/title/turangawaewae-2003 Turangawaewae]'' |Rose |Short |- |2002 |''Der Liebe entgegen'' |Meri Nahu |TV film |- |2004 |''Fracture'' |Doctor | |- |2004 |''Kerosene Creek'' |Mu and Sonny Boy's Mother |Short |- |2009 |''{{sortname|The|Strength of Water|nolink=1}}'' |Joy | |- |2009 |''{{sortname|The|Cult|The Cult (TV series)}}'' |Mrs. Thomas |Episode: "The Calling" |- |2012 |''Korero Mai'' |Rita |Episodes: "9.16", "9.18" |- |2013 |''White Lies'' |Horiana | |- |2014 |''{{sortname|The|Pa Boys|nolink=1}}'' |Puti's Mum | |- |2016 |''Mahana'' |Ramona Mahana | |- |2018 |''In Dark Places'' |Auntie Terry |TV film |- |2018 |''{{sortname|The|Brokenwood Mysteries}}'' |Magdalena |Episode: "Scared to Death" |- |2019 |''Daffodils'' |ICU Doctor | |- |2019 |''Daniel'' |Sister |Short |- |2020 |''Reunion'' |Kathy |Post-production (Posthumous release) |}

==References== <references/>

==External links== *[https://www.nzonscreen.com/person/nancy-brunning Profile and screenography] at NZ On Screen *{{IMDb name|0116426}} *[https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/standing-room-only/audio/20168206/hikoi-nancy-brunning Interview with Nancy Brunning on her first play ''Hikoi''], Standing Room Only, Radio New Zealand National, 2015

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Brunning, Nancy}} Category:1971 births Category:2019 deaths Category:20th-century New Zealand actresses Category:21st-century New Zealand actresses Category:New Zealand film actresses Category:New Zealand film directors Category:New Zealand soap opera actresses Category:New Zealand women film directors Category:Place of death missing Category:Place of birth missing Category:New Zealand theatre directors Category:New Zealand women theatre directors Category:Ngāti Raukawa people Category:Ngāi Tūhoe people Category:New Zealand Māori film producers Category:New Zealand Māori actresses Category:New Zealand women dramatists and playwrights Category:20th-century New Zealand women writers Category:21st-century New Zealand women writers Category:20th-century New Zealand dramatists and playwrights Category:21st-century New Zealand dramatists and playwrights Category:Toi Whakaari alumni