Tina Bergantinos - Kim

James Adams - Chris

James Adams brings a wide variety of experience to the stage, having worked in musical theatre, opera, music hall and rock.

James grew up in Dunedin, where he performed in shows such as West Side Story, 42^nd Street, Les Miserables, Jesus Christ Superstar and Fiddler on the Roof. He moved to Wellington in 2004, and performed as Herod in Jesus Christ Superstar, before starting a degree in classical performance at the New Zealand School of Music, studying under Flora Edwards.

Since completing his degree, James’ professional career has included a feature role in Canberra’s Opera by Candlelight, the tenor role in Handel’s Messiah, numerous performances with the Chapman Tripp Opera Chorus and professional music hall company the Star and Garter Players, and many concerts and recitals in Wellington and throughout the North Island. In 2009 James also studied with New York broadway voice teacher Neil Semer, and with international coaches and accompanists at the New Zealand Singing School in Napier.

James is looking forward to performing in Hamilton for the first time, and to returning to his musical theatre roots with Miss Saigon.

Nick Wilkinson - The Engineer

Nick's passion for the performing arts was ignited when he began ballroom dancing at the ripe old age of 8 and a half. After retiring from dance at 16, Nick went on to produce, direct, write, compare and perform in over 50 plays, musicals, films, concerts, and celebrity debates in his time.
 
Notable roles include Mickey in Blood Brothers, Riff Raff in The Rocky Horror Show, Danny in Grease, Fagin in Oliver, Jerry in The Full Monty, Joseph in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Munkistrap in Cats and Archibald Cravin in The Secret Garden. Other shows to his credit include Les Miserables, Chess and Jesus Christ Superstar.
 
Although picking up awards in the 24 Hour Shootout Film Competition including Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Comedy and Best Film, Nick’s passion has primarily been on the stage and he relishes the opportunity to play the Engineer in the HMT production of Miss Saigon.
 
In his other life Nick is a strong advocate and leading voice on the issues of siblings of people with disabilities, Nick trains facilitators of the ‘SibSupportN.Z.’ program and has run workshops and spoken at conferences and seminars in New Zealand, Australia and the United States.

Paul Dickens - John

Born and bred in Whangarei Paul Dickens has been dreaming about being on stage since his first introduction to ‘The Sound of Music’ when he was growing up. At age 18 after numerous performances with Choral groups he then gained a scholarship to study opera in Kerikeri where he performed in numerous concerts and the Tenor lead in Handel’s Messiah.
Musical theatre didn’t become his main passion until he was in a lecture at Waikato University and he saw an advertisement in the local paper for auditions coming up for the 2007 Riverlea Show ‘RENT’ where he won the role of Roger Davis. Since then has kept himself busy singing various music genres in the last 3 Xmas Shows and has had major roles in Hair, Chicago & the Darling Buds of May. He is also currently performing with the vocal group ‘Fan-tas-tique’ and narrowing down his choices on musical theatre schools overseas.
He is looking forward to playing the part of John as he describes this role as his most challenging to date because the character completely changes his perspective on life struggling between what is patriotically right and what is morally right.

Matt Powell - Thuy

Matt has been involved with music since a very young age, playing the keyboard, clarinet and taking an interest in percussion also. He developed his interest in theatre in school where he started with the role of Pontius Pilate in Superstar. Shortly after he began to realise his strong passion for musical theatre and was cast as Javert in the NZ premiere school edition of Les Miserables. Guys N Dolls (Pukekohe), Les Miserables, The Mikado, Xmas Shows (Riverlea Theatre) and most recently Jesus Christ Superstar (Te Aroha) have been added to his repertoire. Matt has been involved with the television and film world also, and thoroughly enjoys all type of acting and performing. He is very excited to have been awarded the role of Thuy in Miss Saigon, and believes it will be a challenge performing such a composite character, yet is looking forward to the dynamics the character offers. He is very excited to work with the cast and crew to perform an outstanding show.

Raewyn Hutchings - Ellen

Miss Saigon, and the role of Ellen has enticed Raewyn back from a ten year absence from the stage, having focused on motherhood, Raewyn is excited to be returning to theatre.

Before taking a break, Raewyn spent many years in shows in Hamilton, taking roles such as: Ida in Die Fledermaus, alongside Malvina Major, Nancy in Oliver, Lady Jacqueline in Me & My Girl, Claire in Love off the Shelf, and too many cabaret and variety shows to count.

Having also spent many years training in singing and competing in competitions, Raewyn then travelled to the UK to do her OE, which included work on a cabaret circuit.  It was in London in 1991, that she saw Miss Saigon performed by the original London cast, including Lea Salonga, Claire Moore and Jonathan Pryce, which inspired her to play the role of Ellen, a role she feels privileged to have. 

Briar Duggan - Gigi

Briar has been dancing for as long as she can remember. Performing has always been a popular family pass-time so it was a natural progression for her to progress into formal dance training. Her choreography experience started as early as primary school, creating, teaching and performing in school concerts and talent shows. This continued right through schooling with Briar winning numerous choreography competitions and New Zealand Dance scholarships. Briar qualified as a dance tutor at the age of 13 but didn’t formally teach until she was 16. Her preferred dance forms are Jazz NZ and American, Hip hop, Lyrical, Contemporary, and Dramatic dance. From teaching she continued her own performance training at the New Zealand College of Performing Arts and at the New Zealand Drama School. It was at drama school where she discovered her love for story-telling and her natural ability to paint 3D pictures using performance elements. Drama School is where she was re-introduced to her body in an organic way through study of the work of Daria Halprin and movement studies under mentor Mr Tom Mc Rory. Of this Briar says, “Tom challenged me to question, search for and acquire greater awareness of oneself in performance and in life. This lesson has been invaluable and I continue to make new discoveries with these skills every day.” Briar believes that her experience as a performer provides her with natural instincts and her drama training has provided her with objectivity. She observes these as her strengths as a choreographer and she also acknowledges that her love of working with performers and production staff of varying backgrounds and abilities provides her with an exciting challenge with each new project. This challenge she relishes and feels privileged to experience.

Sophia Wenceslao - Tam (Shared Role)

Jomig Wenceslao - Tam (Shared Role)

Lucas Gonzales - Tam (Shared Role)