Nina Nawalowalo

Nina Nawalowalo is a New Zealand theatre director and co-founder of the contemporary Pacific theatre company The Conch. She is known for directing the stage plays Vula and The White Guitar. The first film she directed A Boy Called Piano - The Story of Fa'amoana John Luafutu (2021) won 2022 Montreal Independent Film Festival Best Feature Documentary. Early life and education Nina Catharine Nawalowalo was born in Paremata, Wellington, New Zealand, in 1963. Her mother was British and her father was Fijian, from the village of Tavuki, on Kadavu Island, and Nawalowalo spent two and a half years living in Fiji before returning to Wellington. She attended Wellington Teachers' College, and was the captain of the New Zealand under-20 basketball team. Nawalowalo was teaching primary school upon graduating teachers' college, but left to join Robert Bennett's company Mime International and toured including to Moscow and Poland. This was the beginning of an education in performing arts. Notable teachers Nina studied under are: Antonia Fava, Philippe Gaulier and Pierre Byland. Career Nawalowalo has worked as a theatre director since the 1980s. Creative partnerships were formed while she was living in London with magician Richard McDougall and illusion designer and magic consultant Paul Kieve. She has presented at over forty international festivals, including the London International Mime Festival, British Festival of Visual Theatre, and the Moscow Arts Festival.