Ms Jo Randerson, of Wellington, ONZM, for services to the performing arts
Jo Randerson co-founded the theatre group 'Trouble', whose show ‘Bleach’ was part of the New Zealand Fringe Festival and toured to the Edinburgh Festival and the Tramway Festival. She received the Bruce Mason Award for her first play, ‘Fold’. She founded the theatre company Barbarian Productions, whose award-winning shows have played internationally and nationally. Through Barbarian Productions, she has supported projects such as ‘Kids Election’, run alongside Te Papa’s Suffrage 125 exhibition and allowing children to have a ‘hands-on’ look at democracy; ‘Sing It To My Face’, a cross-generational choir performance exchanging inter-generational viewpoints; and ‘Political Cutz’, a pop-up hair salon offering free haircuts in exchange for political conversations. Ms Randerson has been involved with a community re-purposing a former bowling club as a creative space in Vogelmorn.