Theatre degree

Creativity is her superpower.

She has a BA with honours in theatre design from Nottingham Trent University where she majored in lighting, sets, props and costume design.

Costumes are her core business. In partnership with Jeff who’s a special effects and make-up professional, Deb owns and operates Costume Hire Rotorua. This dovetails with their more recent add-on venture they’ve  christened Level 13. We’ll revisit the origins of that intriguing name later.

But first an outline of what exactly takes place there.

Drop down a ramp and you’ll come to a series of themed rooms ranging from the medieval era through to steam punk. 

These quirky spaces host activities as diverse as role playing in murder mysteries, poetry slams, quizzes, corporate team building and musical events. Thst's from opera through to jazz and original music.

In line with her commitment to nurturing talented youngsters Deb’s dedicated Level 13 to providing a performance arena for them. Rotorua Music School and Toi Ohomai students frequently jam there.

Aladdin’s Cave

To visit Level 13 is to venture into an Aladdin’s Cave of eye-popping curios and curiosities which add ‘that certain something’ to the diversity of events staged there. 

Lego is the latest addition to the creative couple’s repertoire.  

Deb’s a newly certified Lego play facilitator.  

She’s quick to push the delete key on any preconceived notion that Lego’s strictly for the kids. She lifts the lid on why it’s found a slot on Level 13’s play sheet.

“It is a great tool to help adults with problem solving and being creative. It’s great for improving business relationships . . .  ideal for team building.”

Who’d have thought?

 Schoolgirl beginnings

Deb’s love for anything entertainment sprung to life at north London’s Southgate College where she hung out with drama students. Through them she began working backstage and designing college productions.

To boost her pocket money she was cleaning a house where a lodger lived who was involved in the English National Opera.

“I got a lot of passes to go to the opera right in the heart of the West End and that led to enrolling in an Arts Foundation course.

“My work there indicated a three-dimension bent and a lot was theatre design based.”
University followed.

The Bill

 Soon after her graduation Deb was signed up for costume work on one of the top-rating police drama series of the day, The Bill.

Over succeeding years she worked on more than 50 programmes as she moved up the wardrobe ladder to become one of the costume designers for guest artists.

Contracts with The Bill were interspersed with other TV and movie work. 

A fair few of those she’s rubbed shoulders with have gone on to achieve star status. Others already had their name up in lights. 

Deb’s not someone prone to name drop but one star who made a lasting impression on her was the late comedian, actor and director Eric Sykes.

“He had a guest role playing an old man on The Bill.  He was lovely. He was the only person I think I ever saw who the seasoned crew wanted to have their picture taken with.”

 Among the up-and-comers were the now famous Gerard Butler, Idris Elba and Helen Baxendale. Deb worked closely with her on An Unsuitable Job for a Woman, the series which rocketed Baxendale to stardom.

Long Hours

 With so much work often spread on locations across Britain the long hours began to pall for Deb and Jeff. 

“We were together all of my TV career. We met on a short sci-fi film. I was doing the costumes and Jeff the set and prosthetics. 

“Because we were working in TV and film often it would be 60-90 hours a week with maybe one day off if we were lucky. I’d be in London, he’d be in Bristol so we often struggled to get time together. We’d be on set or travelling in different directions.”

The solution? Between them they “event managed” more travel -  a trip to New Zealand.

“We loved it, the lifestyle, the countryside, the people. It was life like it was for us when we were younger.

“We loved our jobs but said ‘Let’s do something different. Let’s settle here’.”

Back in London they researched TV work opportunities in New Zealand. 

Little was going but Deb’s wardrobe radar was drawn to costume hire businesses for sale in Auckland and Rotorua.  

“We hadn’t come to Rotorua when we were travelling around so didn’t know much about it. I had nine days free between two jobs on The Bill so I flew back to look at these businesses.”

Rotorua  arrival

“I came to Rotorua in a cyclone. It was soooo wet but I felt like I had come home. There was just something so lovely about the place. I could see the potential in having a business here.”

The deal was done but securing the necessary visas turned into what Deb recalls being “a drawn-out bureaucratic nightmare.”

She still shudders at the memory.

They finally arrived in November 2004, spending their first six months revamping the costume hire’s White Street premises and introducing new stock.

Her arrival coincided with the staging of the first local production of  Shakespeare Outside. It was A Midsummer Night’s Dream set in the Redwoods. Deb introduced herself to the stage manager Bronwyn Ropiha. The upshot was  she was commissioned to design the costumes for the next six al fresco Bard productions. Several were reprised in Whakatane.

 Theatre, film work 

Since then she’s become a fixture in theatre here and further afield.

She’s been in charge of the wardrobes for most of the Richard Rugg-directed Agatha Christie productions at the Shambles Theatre and was wardrobe mistress for the musical theatre’s Mamma Mia! at what’s now the Sir Howard Morrison Centre.

Being a facilitator for the city’s Zombie Walks was right up her creative alley.

In addition she was in charge of costuming and continuity for award-winning movie maker Michael Jonathan’s short film Ow What. It was shot in Ruatoki and featured activist-artist Tame Iti.   

As well as running Level 13 and the costume hire business she’s also a front of house duty manager at the Sir Howard Morrison Centre and works behind the scenes rigging lighting and working follow spots [lights].

However ripping her shoulder in two places while lifting a full beer barrel in Level 13's bar has put paid to that – at least for a while.

Difficult early days

Setting up Level 13 was not a shoe-in for its owners.

Acquiring the necessary consents took an age then as they neared their planned opening date disaster struck. The building flooded.

A water main had blown its top in the middle of the night. Repairing the damage set them back months.

The couple got the call that their dream venture was underwater at 4am.

“The building filled up like a swimming pool. At 6am the water was still up to my knees.

“Everything we’d done was ruined. $50,000 worth of costumes were lost.  The water was thermal, it absolutely destroyed them.

“It was at the same time as the Ngongotaha flood so there was no drying equipment available. We lost so much stuff.” 

The couple stuck to the old “show must go on” mantra.  They accepted the inevitable, picked themselves up and began the hard slog again.

In retrospect Deb’s philosophical. “It allowed us to rethink a few things.”  

 They’d barely opened the doors when the pandemic barricaded the borders. 

Like so many others in the hospitality and entertainment industries their business ground to a halt.

But it’s one that’s bounced back. Less than two years after finally hitting its straps Level 13 was named a finalist in the art and design category of the city’s business awards.

It figures that Deb and Jeff wore fancy dress to the ceremony. They went as steam punkers. 

When they married at the yacht club in 2006 the dress code was plumb out of the 1960s-70s. Need we say they provided their guests’ outfits?  

Reuse, recycle

Now to return to how number 13 came to be incorporated in the business name.

“We were originally going to do a laser tag called Level 13 with the tagline ‘unlucky for some’ but another entertainment place was building one so we decided that wouldn’t work.

“We re-thought and decided to do the theme rooms and bar. We still liked the name Level 13, adding the tagline ‘Entertainment at the next level’. 

“When we were ripping up the old lino there staring us in the face was 13 stencilled on the floor.  It was as if it was meant to be.”

Deb’s personal clothing preference is vintage. It fits with her business creed and personal philosophy of “Reuse and Recycle.” Level 13’s a certified supporter of the Sustainable Rotorua Charter.

“The reuse and recycle theme came with the costume hire business. It is good to  know the clothing we have is not adding to the pile that’s damaging the planet.”