University Of Otago Student Selected As FAME Trust Emerging Practitioner Award Recipient

The Acorn Foundation and the trustees of the FAME Trust are pleased to announce the selection for the 2025 Emerging Practitioner Award recipient at the University of Otago. Seven promising students have been selected this year from top-rated performing arts schools in New Zealand to receive a $10,000 award.

Theatre technician, actor, and director, Ella Court is this year’s recipient from the University of Otago. Ella is a driven and talented creative, who has taken part in 32 productions over the last 18 months, including 5 at the Dunedin Arts Festival and 2 at Dunedin Fringe. An adept technician, with skills across all ranges of theatre technology, Ella branched out into direction and writing her own theatre this year to add to her prolific catalogue of successful shows.

Martyn Roberts, Theatre Manager and Professional Practice Fellow at the University of Otago said, “Ella is a worthy winner of this award. She will be making good use of her award to update her study equipment, and she is keen to be able to go out and share her knowledge with community performance groups next year without the pressure of having to work while studying. This is typical of Ella who is always generous with her time and knowledge to help others.”

Ella will complete her fourth year of a Bachelor of Art and Science, majoring in theatre and chemistry in 2026.

Ella wrote, “Receiving this award allows me to keep engaging deeply with every aspect of theatre, learning, and growing as both a technician and designer. I’m eager to build open, supportive communication within productions and help bring to life the stories that matter to New Zealanders.”

This award will help Ella to complete her multidisciplinary studies without having to work while studying, allowing her to focus on her studies and creative successes. She hopes to build a platform in the theatre world to help campaign for better communication between creatives and technicians, to foster safe practice in the world of theatre.

 Notes:

Founded in 2007, the FAME (Fund for Acting and Musical Endeavours) Trust has long provided support for young and mid-career artists, plus funded national organisations like the NZSO, Toi Whakaari NZ Drama School, and the NZ School of Dance and local groups such as Opus Orchestra, Youth Philharmonic and BOP Symphonia.

Acorn manages several scholarship and awards programmes for the FAME Trust, including seven Emerging Practitioner Awards this year through the team at Creative Bay of Plenty. Outstanding performing arts institutions, including University of Auckland, University of Waikato, Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, University of Otago, Toi Whakaari, NZ School of Dance and Ara Institute of Canterbury will each have a $10,000 award to offer to students who have completed at least their first year of study. These talented students will have a focus in the performing arts in one of the following areas of study:

• Music: instrumentalists, operatic singers, composers, producers, conductors, taonga puoro players
• Contemporary Dance: dancers, choreographers, producers, kapa haka leaders
• Theatre: actors, directors, playwrights, storytellers, theatrical technicians

About Acorn Foundation:

The Acorn Foundation, the Western Bay of Plenty’s local community foundation, enables generous people to make a bigger impact in their communities, by investing donated funds and distributing the returns to causes that matter – forever.

Since 2003, the Acorn Foundation has distributed more than $25M to the Western Bay of Plenty community and beyond, supporting more than 300 local charities and award programmes.

In 2025, the Acorn Foundation gave over $5.1M to 308 local and national charitable organisations, scholarships, and award winners. Scholarships and awards surpassed $840,000 in total, including the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction, given annually at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.

Find out more at: www.acornfoundation.org.nz

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