From Shorty to stage star: IT'S MY TIME TO SHINE!

The actor-turned-casting director returns to her acting roots with an emotional one-woman show

- Kasia Jillings

In 1982, actor Andrea Kelland made waves – and the pages of the Weekly when she returned to the stage six weeks after her son Timothy was born, simply bringing him with her. Now four decades on, she’s back in the limelight at 70 with her one-woman show A Tart on Tour.

The autobiographical theatre production sees Andrea reflect on her life experiences, including overcoming an addiction and family conflict.

“It’s cathartic for me baring my soul on stage and I love the effect it has on audiences,” she shares. “People often come up to me afterwards to say they’ve experienced something similar and say I’m so brave to share it. I’m right there, raw, telling my own story and it brings out the confessional in people. I think if theatre is doing that, it’s working.”    

Andrea’s artistic ambitions started young, when at 11, she announced she planned to be the first female mime artist.

“I already knew I liked being in front of an audience,” recalls Andrea, who joined the Taumarunui Repertory Society as a teen. “It was brilliant. I loved that opportunity to play someone very different from myself and immerse myself into somebody else’s mindset. It’s the thing I still love.”

At age 21, she joined the Story Theatre Company and spent several years travelling and performing around the country.