KEY POINTS:
It will be understandable if Shane Bosher, the Silo Theatre's artistic director, looks a little under the weather in weeks to come.
He is directing two plays back-to-back over the next six weeks. The first, Three Days of Rain by American Richard Greenberg, opens on Saturday; Bosher has Sunday off and then on Monday starts rehearsals for Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing, which opens at the end of August.
Katie Wolfe relinquished the Three Days of Rain director's chair when she received funding for a feature film. Bosher, already slated to direct The Real Thing, acknowledges he could have hired someone else but chose to take it on himself.
Last year he directed Greenberg's outstanding Take Me Out, a sell-out success which filled the Silo to capacity. Set in the testosterone-fuelled world of elite baseball players, Take Me Out took a swipe at the hypocrisy of celebrity culture and, along the way, featured full frontal male nudity and an on-stage murder. It required working showers to be installed, turning the Silo into a steam room.
Bosher says after Take Me Out, he wanted another "Greenberg moment".
"I wasn't ready to let him go - after all, there's a reason why Richard Greenberg is the most produced playwright in the United States right now, and there was no way I was going to miss out on the Tom Stoppard so I decided to do them both.
"It is a grand folly taking on two plays so close together but it also feels like a magnificent challenge."
Brilliant and multi award-winning Greenberg may be but last year's Broadway production of Three Days of Rain, starring Julia Roberts, Paul Rudd and Bradley Cooper, was coolly received by critics.
Bosher says it had nothing to do with the play, described as a beautiful and lyrical family drama.
"Once it was known Julia Roberts was taking a leading role, the decision was made to perform it in an 1800-seat venue in order to meet the demand for tickets.
"From a delicate piece best suited to an intimate space, it got expanded into something that it never was and never should have been."
He is confident the Silo is the ideal space for another Greenberg story.
"Take Me Out was combative and confronting; Three Days of Rain is softer but equally as emotionally honest and richly layered. That's not to say there aren't verbal pyrotechnics - there are - but no one gets killed and there is no baseball. It will rain on stage, though."
Tandi Wright and Eryn Wilson play a sister and brother while Glen Drake is their childhood friend. After years apart, the trio gather to divide the estate of their late fathers who were partners in a renowned architectural firm.
Seeking solace, the three children find an old diary which promises to reveal clues about the nature of their fathers' relationship and the women in their lives.
The story then shifts to that earlier era, with the same three actors portraying the previous generation.
Three Days of Rain marks Wright's Silo Theatre debut while Drake is on stage after a year's break to complete a graduate diploma in computer publishing and design at Auckland's University of Technology.
Although a regular on the small screen and stage since his early 20s, Drake says impending nuptials made him think more seriously about the need for constant employment.
"Elric Hooper, the artistic director of the Court Theatre in Christchurch, told me when I started an apprenticeship there that every actor should have a bike shop to sustain them during the periods where they are not employed acting.
"It is a reality that very few actors, especially in New Zealand, are employed 100 per cent of time. Now that I'm getting married and we want to have some kids, I wanted to set myself up so I am not beholden to acting jobs."
