Jacque Drew

AYA Director

Jacque Drew is an award-winning actor and educator, recognised in the US and New Zealand for her work.  She was a founding member of the Tygres Heart Shakespeare Company (Portland OR) and served as an actor, artistic director, and educational coordinator for the company, garnering accolades (Oregon Education Association’s Outstanding Educator Award) for her lectures and touring show based on Shakespeare’s greatest works. Jacque has appeared on stages all over Portland, and also Alaska, Idaho, California, Utah, Washington, Massachusetts, Hawaii and Australia.

Since arriving in New Zealand 21 years ago Jacque has appeared at the SiLo Theatre (The Women, Suddenly Last Summer, Some Girls); at the Auckland Theatre Company (Twelfth Night, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof); and has produced her own work in Wellington (Danny & the Deep Blue Sea) for which she received a Chapman/Tripp acting award.  She most recently graced the stages of the Pop Up Globe as Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing and the Duke of Venice in Othello, performing with Pop Up Globe’s Queen’s Company in Auckland and Melbourne. TV viewers may recognize her as Detective Wheeler in ‘One of Us Is Lying’, and as Martha Riley in ‘Shortland Street’ as well as for guest roles in The Royal Treatment, Choose Love, Together Forever Tea, What Really Happened: Votes for Women, Ash vs. Evil Dead, The Legend of the Seeker, and The Brokenwood Mysteries.

Jacque is a trained voice and dialect coach and has served as a US accent coach for SiLo Theatre, Auckland Theatre Company; the feature films Bridge to Terabithia, The Ferryman, Johhny Kapahala, The Warrior’s Way, Emperor, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon 2, Pete’s Dragon.

She also teaches US accent at Auckland’s professional actor training programmes — The Actor’s Program, South Seas School of Screen Arts and Unitec.

Jacque has been with AYA since 2005 and has run the school since 2009.

Jacque received her training at the University of Portland (Portland, OR), The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (London, England) and Shakespeare and Company (Lenox, MA).  She is a proud member of New Zealand Actors’ Equity.

Jeff Szusterman

AYA director

Jeff Szusterman is an award-winning actor, director and teacher who has worked in theatres all around New Zealand as well as the USA. A graduate of Toi Whakaari o Aotearoa, Jeff has worked with young people since 1999 teaching drama and facilitating playwriting and making. He has taught at AYA since 2005 and has run the school since 2009. 

Jeff has directed over 200 broadcast hours of television across the years, starting with ‘Shortland Street’ in 2007/2008. He has taught acting for screen at Unitec School of Performing and Screen Arts, The Actors’ Program, as well as directing productions at Unitec, PIPA, and Toi Whakaari. He directed the webseries ‘Jiwi’s Machines’ which gained three nominations at the 2016 LA Webfest including one for Best Direction. As a theatre director, Jeff has directed over forty plays (starting at Auckland’s Silo theatre in 2007) and for the last twelve years he has also developed and directed the Duffy Books-in-Homes Theatre show that travels to 580 schools around New Zealand.

As an actor Jeff has over 50 professional theatre credits (with shows at Silo, The Basement, Circa, Downstage, BATS, and Fortune Theatre, among others) and has received awards, nominations, and critical acclaim for his work on stage. On screen, Jeff has acted in numerous feature films (most recently, ‘Uproar’, ‘Juniper’ and ‘6 Days’); and series like the upcoming ‘Spartacus House of Ashur’, ‘Chief of War’ and both seasons of ‘Kid Sister’. 

Jeff is a proud member of Equity New Zealand and is a current Board member.

Jeff firmly believes in the power of drama training to enable students to grow in focus, critical thinking, language skills, physical discipline and self-belief, as well as developing essential skills to become great collaborators and supporters of the work of their peers. Oh, and become better actors… :-)

Meet Some Of Our Grads

AYA helped form my ability to be authentically me. AYA connected my intellectual brain to my kinaesthetic impulses and funnelled that sense of play that I have found to be my biggest strength in the acting world. I am always ready to make bold offers and love to find the joy in my work.

AYA Sundays were the days where I was able to laugh, dance and play.

AYA took the importance of ‘being cool’ out of me. Over my time here, it became more important to connect with my other class mates, listen to the myriad of directions Jacque and Jeff could send me, and allow myself to take risks in order to participate in games where we had to convince a King to put us in his court, or devising a scene with Laban energies. I also remember the people I went to class with and the enjoyment I get out of seeing them in the industry. It puts you in the community of actors in Auckland from a young age which has always made me feel like there is a place for me at the table. 

I graduated from the Actor’s Program in 2018. After that I toured a children’s show with Co Theatre Physical, around New Zealand and Australia and am now filming for a new NZ TV show that will air next year. 

My agent is Johnson and Laird and I am a member of EquityNZ.

AYA gave me:

The ability to get up on a Sunday and get out of my comfort zone. 
Keenness to play and discover as opposed to the ability absorb and regurgitate info.
Knowledge of the amount of effort required from me to achieve an outcome I'm happy with, do the mahi get the treats.
Insight into vulnerability and truth being the heart of performance, I didn't really put that together at the time, but it's clear now.
The value of showing and playing instead of explaining and teaching. 
I feel like so much of the learning that I did at AYA was through trying stuff and getting a reaction from tutors and classmates and feeling how it felt to be there in those moments of "I don't know what I'm doing but something's happening". I was never lectured on theory or even taught a concept in depth, upon reflection, I learned on my feet, with my classmates and all of the conceptual lessons slowly sunk in as I kept cruising about my 9-15yr old life (and beyond). 
Beginning to understand the difference between how to be in an acting class with my mates and actually do the work instead of taking the piss, I would always leave happier if I did the work. 
I remember the watershed exercise as my first look into the honesty that I must have with myself as an actor. 
I remember a huge amount of kindness from my class mates and tutors. I remember a real keenness to work and learn, it was rare to have someone in a class who didn't want to be there.
I am currently studying at Toi Whakaari, in the graduating class of 2020 (Acting)

My agent is Johnson and Laird. I am not an Equity member, yet.