Cassandre Tse

Cassandra Tse is a director, playwright, producer, educator and performer. She is the co-founder and Artistic Director of Red Scare Theatre Company, which largely presents political musical theatre.

Born in Pōneke, Tse studied at Queen Margaret College and made her stage debut during Year 13 with Wellington Musical Theatre’s production of Miss Saigon. In 2013, while studying theatre at university, Tse founded Red Scare with musician Bruno Shirley, before travelling overseas between 2015–2016, during which time she interned at Signature Theatre Company in New York. Upon her return, she worked as a development and production assistant at the New Zealand Film Commission for a year before deciding to return to theatre.

Through Red Scare, Tse typically writes, directs and produces work that incorporates music and has a political undertone. The name comes from the term used in anti-communist, right-wing propaganda. In an interview with Capital magazine, Tse self-identified as a “Green voting socialist” who runs Red Scare with the communist value of paying all workers the same base rate, regardless of their role in a show.

The company’s debut work, the satirical and dystopian Right Dishonourable (2013), follows a snap election after a sex scandal forces the Prime Minister to step down. It opened to mixed reviews, with critics praising its ambition and its “fluent, clever lyrics and inventive tunes”.

Tse’s love for musical theatre spans her writing, directorial and performance work. She is a strong mezzo-soprano vocalist and in 2020 debuted her solo cabaret That’s All She Wrote, featuring songs exclusively by women and nonbinary musical theatre writers. In 2018 Tse wrote and presented rock melodrama musical The Bone Thief, about a monster who preys on children in an old mining town.

As a playwright, Tse describes her writing process as slow and careful. Writing about her artistic inspirations for The Pantograph Punch, she draws comparisons between herself and her favourite band, The Decemberists, calling them “too earnest”, “too esoteric” and observing how they cram songs with wordplay, references, and imagery — and pointing out the same could be said for her work.

Tse has directed a number of works in Aotearoa, including David Henry Hwang’s Yellow Face (2017) for Red Scare, Michelle Law’s Single Asian Female (2021) for Auckland Theatre Company and Ben Wilson’s Homemade Takeaways (2022) at BATS.

Tse holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Theatre and English Literature from Victoria University of Wellington.

Red Scare Theatre Company

The Pantograph Punch: Cassandra Tse

Theatre Scenes interview: Cassandra Tse

As a writer and director:

2017 — M’Lady: A Meninist Musical, BATS Theatre, Pōneke
2014 — Battle Hymn, 74 Ghuznee St, Pōneke
2013 — Right Dishonourable, Gryphon Theatre, Pōneke

As a writer and performer:

2021 — That’s All She Wrote, Te Auaha, Pōneke
2020 — Circa Two, Pōneke

As a director:

2022 — Homemade Takeaways, BATS Theatre, Pōneke
2021 — Single Asian Female, ASB Waterfront Theatre, Pōneke
2019 — The Aliens, Te Whaea Basement Theatre, Pōneke
2019 — Four Nights in the Green Barrow Pub, JJ Murphy’s, Pōneke
2018 — Gutenberg! The Musical!, Newtown Community Centre, Pōneke
2017 — A New Brain, Gryphon Theatre, Pōneke
2017 — Yellow Face, Whitireia Performance Centre, Pōneke
2016 — Ordinary Days Gryphon Theatre, Pōneke
2015 — The Showgirl, Gryphon Theatre, Pōneke

As a writer:

2018 — The Bone Thief
2017 — Under
2015 — Long Ago, Long Ago
2014 — Bloodlines

Audio drama

2020 — Apocalypse Songs

Podcasts

2019 — Mixed Bag