# Grassroots theatre gave NZ some of its best Hollywood stars **By:** Penny Ashton **Published:** 2026-10-18T06:00:00Z **Source:** [The New Zealand Herald](https://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/off-script-grassroots-theatre-gave-nz-some-of-its-best-hollywood-stars/premium/74VLN6QKQZHNPJDIZJT366PGLA) --- Comedian, actor, film-maker, artist Taika Waititi in 2004. In this week’s Off Script column, actor Penny Ashton explains why funding small theatres and fringe festivals isn’t just “nice to have” but essential for a prosperous country. From the moment I hit the stage dressed as a mouse in 1979, I knew I was home. School and university were a blur of musicals, revues and wanky experiential pieces, and I assumed that once unleashed into the “real world” I’d be an in-demand, fulltime actor with my mad skillz. My BA and I moved to Auckland in 1999, got an agent and waited. And waited. I had the mandatory three-day stint as a Shortland Street gynaecologist, and was ‘tampon girl’ in an advert, but that was it. So I became the Classic Comedy Bar’s venue manager and discovered the grassroots performance community; people hustling their own work with tenacity and $2.50. Comedians, poets, singers and actors at venues like The Silo (now Basement), Bats or The Temple. Turns out the best way to kickstart a career is to do it yourself – write your own work and get it on the road. But that costs. Which is why independent theatre, comedy and fringe festival models were invaluable: affordable venues for f***ing around and finding out what works. Penny Ashton performing one of her shows. Photo / Supplied In 2000 I produced a comedy up-and-comer’s first solo show: Rhys Darby and the Time Machine. It went well. He’s done okay since. Then it was Little Che in the NZ Fringe, starring someone called Taika. He’s also done all right. Other people spicing up fringes and comedy fests then include Jemaine Clement, Jackie Van Beek and Justine Smith, to name-drop a few. I began writing and touring for myself and in 25 years have performed over 1000 solo shows, and it all started in small indie spaces. Or with incredible organisations like Arts on Tour, which somehow tours NZ acts to 70 small towns each year on microscopic funding. Which makes Creative NZ’s recent decisions to deny or cut funding to vital formative organisations like Little Andromeda in Christchurch, Basement, Bats and Arts on Tour all the more nonsensical. Without the grassroots, no tall Taikas can grow. No ecosystem jumps from amoeba to Thor Ragnorak without crawling first and the arts need hungry tadpoles before it gets beautiful frogs. But the main issue is the cuts in arts funding from this austerity-obsessed coalition. Minister-of-Everything Paul Goldsmith found $5.1m for bootcamps for 10 participants in 2024, but every year only $16.7m goes to Creative NZ for tens of thousands of artists. And now the Act Party (sadly not drama-based) want no new art on transport infrastructure. Maybe we should get disorderly. The arts are vital and many of their practitioners are beloved icons who’ve generated enormous GDP. You don’t get the world pouring out their grief in rhinestones when a famous CFO dies. But Dolly Parton moved people with her joy. Sam Neill moved people with his charm and acting chops. Jools Topp moved people with Camp Leader’s tongue. And they all started at some small open mic, theatre or street corner. Let’s hope the next generation gets a chance. Penny Ashton’s one-woman show, The Tempestuous: A Shrew’d New Comedy, tours New Zealand in late October. Latest from Entertainment 17 Oct 09:10 PM Reviews Mitchell Hageman Messy yet marvellous: Tech issues can’t dull Olivia Dean’s star power 17 Oct 09:03 PM 'I lost one of those friends': Harry Styles honours Liam Payne in song 17 Oct 06:25 PM --- Sponsored: Five things new builds do that older NZ homes can’t 12 Oct 06:48 PM