Company
Femme Natale are a collective of art-makers who work beautifully together to hit the mark between truth, fun and relatability.
All parents themselves, the regular performers and guest artists work as actors throughout New Zealand in film, theatre and stage.
Creative Team
Conceived and directed by Fingal Pollock
Writers
Fingal Pollock
April Phillips
Tracey Savage
other guest writers
Performers
Fingal Pollock
April Phillips
Jeremy Nelson
Tracey Savage
Technician
Malcolm Gillett
Guest Actor Opportunity
Each touring performance, we take the opportunity to engage a local actor at each centre offering a great experience for local talent.
The Cast
Fingal Pollock
April Phillips
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Fingal Pollock has enjoyed a professional career in theatre that has so far spanned 20 years and four continents. An international director, she has had sell out seasons in Berlin and all-over New Zealand. Her work has been described as ‘mouth-watering’, ‘gleeful’ and ‘the most fun I’ve had in ages’ by public and critics alike. With a penchant for the balance between raucous and insightful, she has staged many side-splitting comedies that also deal with deep and visceral truth.
She received her training as an actor in Karnataka, India under the tutelage of Adil Hussain (Life of Pi). In Berlin for four years, Pollock worked with Platypus Theatre, The English Theatre Berlin, Theatre in Schools Project and was a regular performer at the Kookaburra Comedy Club as well as working on several short films.
Since moving back to New Zealand, Pollock has worked with Circa Theatre, Weta Workshop, Hens’ Teeth, Little Dog Barking, Clown Doctors NZ, The Improvisors, Toi Whakaari, Clued Up, KidzStuff. She has written the hit children's shows Defrosted and The Duck Who Loved Me and staged full scale productions such as Fame, Born and Girl in the Loft. She also produced the multi-award winning Albert Speer.
Fingal is raising two children of her own.
April’s professional theatre career began as a company actor with Four Seasons Theatre in Whanganui in the 80s. She has a Masters Degree in Scriptwriting. As an actress, April's TV work includes being part of the core cast of TV's satirical comedy McPhail and Gadsby for 2 seasons. Other TV and film acting credits include Cover Story I & II, The Frighteners, First Impressions, Duggan, The Strip, The Lost Children, The Lovely Bones, Passion in Paradise, Mortal Engines, Girl vs Boy, Eternity, and many short films. She was nominated Best Actress at the Madrid International Film Festival and at the Short Film Awards in New York (SOFIES) 2017 where she won Best Director.
As a film writer/director her most recent success in 2021 includes being awarded the "Outstanding Achievement Award" in the annual Best Shorts Film Competition Humanitarian Awards. She is nominated for the Minerva Award at FilmQuest for female genre film-makers. She won a coveted Special Jury REMI Award at the 53rd Worldfest.
April honed her comedy writing skills as a member of the acclaimed and award-winning Hens Teeth female comedy troupe for 10 years and was part of the 2017 comeback season at Circa Theatre. She is one of New Zealand's most licensed playwrights. April has been the recipient of the Playwright's Association of New Zealand Award for Outstanding Achievement twice (2010 & 2013). She's been a finalist in the SWANZ (NZ Writer's Guild) awards three times. She has received numerous international awards, accolades, nominations and official selections for her work as writer and/or director on short films.
On top of all this April cares for her special needs daughter who is at Intermediate School.
For more on April go to www.aprilphillips.com
Jeremy Nelson
Jeremy has been a professional Actor for over 25 years, He has appeared in a number of films, television programmes, stage shows, short films, and has done voice work and corporate videos.
Jeremy does a lot of improvisational work, including: character roaming, murder mysteries, event character hosting, simulation, clowning and was a Clown Doctor for Clown Doctors NZ for over 5 years. He was also heavily involved with Wellington Playback Theatre and was their artistic Director for over 10 years in the early 2000's.
Jeremy is also a corporate trainer, presentation skills trainer, event manager and emcee among other things.
He was at Drama School in the mid 90's and has a Diploma in Acting and a LTCL (performance diploma) from The Trinity College of London.
He has 2 young adult children that he was a home dad for in their earlier years growing up.
For more on Jeremy's acting go to http://theproactors.co.nz/actors/jeremy-nelson/
Tracey Savage
As an actress, Tracey has appeared on stage with the comedy shows Hens' Teeth, The Improvisors, and currently with Femme Natale. She played a lead role in the short film Mothers of Averton, played a newscaster in the film R.E.M., and had a leading role in the webseries Tragicomic.
Tracey has worked across many documentary and drama productions in Australia and New Zealand for more than fifteen years and is now a Creative Producer based in NZ.
Now a resident of Ōtaki, she has spent many years in Wellington as a broadcaster and performer. She is an experienced Television Producer, Production Manager, and documentary filmmaker. She produced a documentary about Hens' Teeth with Kate Jason-Smith.
Tracey is also Director of Savage Autonomy Transcriptions, providing post production services for drama and documentary across both sides of the Tasman.
Tracey has a daughter that keeps her very busy on top of all her work.