Sunny Amey

Sunny Amey (born 1928) is a theatre director and educator born in New Zealand. She worked at the National Theatre of England during its formative years alongside Laurence Olivier, as artistic director of Downstage Theatre in the 1970s and the director of New Zealand's national drama school Toi Whakaari in the late 1980s.

Background Amey was born in 1928 and grew up in Wellington. She attended Seatoun School and Wellington East Girls' College and then trained as a teacher at Wellington Teachers College.

Career Amey was a member of Wellington's Unity Theatre in the late 1940s and the 1950s. Other members included Bruce Mason, Nola Millar, Richard Campion and Edith Campion, George Webby, Grant Tilly, and Ann Flannery.

Early on in her career Amey travelled from New Zealand to England twice. Her first trip in the early 1950s included her taking courses in London with Brian Way in children's theatre.

Amey was the director of Downstage Theatre in Wellington from 1970 - 1974, During this time in 1984 the New Zealand Association of Drama in Education, now known as Drama New Zealand was formed.

In 1989 Amey became an interim director of Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Drama School and was there until 1991.

Notable work

Takitoru (1995). Directors / choreographers: Sunny Amey, Jan Bolwell and Keri Kaa. A combination of haka and the highland fling. Won Production of the Year in the Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards. As You Like It (1973). Director. This was the premier production in the new Hannah Playhouse for Downstage Theatre. Set and costume design by Raymond Boyce.