Joanna Wane talks to one half of the hottest ticket in town.

TVNZ Te Karere journalist Kruze Tangira, a former captain of New Zealand men’s netball team, fancies himself as a snappy dresser.

After taking
a year out in 2022 to do a total immersion course in te reo, he bought himself a pair of Crocs as a graduation present. But not just any old Crocs. These were from Gucci and cost $690.

“I know,” he says, looking sheepish. “I love all the big luxury designers. I wanted Crocs, but I wanted nice ones.” Too bad the signature style he’s about to become famous for involves neon Lycra and a towelling sweatband.

Tangira (Te Atiawa, Tūwharetoa, Te Whānau-ā-Apanui) was getting ready to fly to Christchurch to play in the Fast5 Netball World Series last November when he got a call to say he’d landed a lead role in Albert Belz’s new play Hyperspace, which opens in Auckland next week.

Winner of the 2023 Adam NZ Play Award, it’s a hot blast from the past, a story about the power of friendship and chasing your dreams — set in the aerobics-obsessed 90s and building to a climactic dance-off at the national championships.

To call Hyperspace his big break is an understatement. Acting has been Tangira’s dream since his uncle had a small part in Whale Rider and he saw their shared surname come up in the credits. But since finishing a performing arts degree at Unitec in 2018, this is his first proper gig.

Apart from a few commercials, his acting career had been such a non-starter that the agent he’d originally been signed with had dropped him. Last May, he told a friend he’d give up on acting altogether if no one had booked him by the end of the year.

“I’d auditioned for things and been put on hold then let go, so I’ve been close, but just not close enough,” says Tangira, who worked in call centres when he first left school then spent seven years as a flight attendant. Acting is a real mental game and getting rejected over five years is a lot. You do feel quite down and defeated. I tell you, my heart was so full when I got the call because it was like all that heartache and work I’d put into acting had paid off.”

A collaboration between Auckland Theatre Company and Te Pou, Hyperspace is a sequel of sorts to Belz’s hit 2019 play Astroman, which was set a decade earlier. Tangira plays “haka queen” Tawhai Patai, who teams up to compete in the mixed doubles with a small-town girl who has big dreams and is hiding an explosive secret. Co-star Te Ao o Hinepehinga (Head High and Shortland Street) is a more familiar face, appearing in Snapchat’s dystopian series Breakwater last year.

The auditions for the play included a three-hour session with dance choreographer Jack Gray, who put Tangira and Hinepehinga through a gruelling two-day boot camp before Christmas to prep their routine.

A founding member of Atamira dance company and known for his contemporary work, Gray was once a showstopper himself on the Auckland aerobics scene in the 90s, winning several titles and competing at the world championships in Brazil. A tough taskmaster, he says the two young actors didn’t know what had hit them.

“I’d say I’m a good dancer — or that I’ve got rhythm, anyway,” says Tangira, who hasn’t had any professional dance training and has certainly never set foot in an old-school aerobics class. “And I thought I was fit — not for this show!

“It looks quite glitzy and glam, but you have to be physically and mentally strong. Jack was telling us people would train seriously for months before a big competition, so I’m not expecting to be an expert but I’m hoping that I at least feel confident in what I’m doing by the time we take the stage.”

Given Tangira’s boyish looks, I’m not convinced at first that he would have been alive in the 90s, or even old enough to remember them. It turns out he was born at the dawn of the decade, in 1991.

One of seven children, he grew up in the Taranaki town of Waitara and remembers long summer holidays hanging out at the local swimming pool with his cousins. “That’s what I loved about the 90s, the carefree attitude you could have,” he says. “So laidback and there was no technology. It was such a different time.”

At the age of 6 he tagged along to a sister’s netball practice (his mum coached the team), picked up the ball and joined in. A natural at the game, he played until intermediate school when mixed teams are excluded from the league.

In a rugby-obsessed, provincial community, it must have taken guts to step out on the netball court every Saturday as not just the only boy in his team but the only boy playing netball in the whole town.

“What always sticks with me is being bullied and made fun of not only by my peers [on other teams] but by their parents marking snarky comments on the sideline,” he says. “I was made to feel very little in who I was. It did have an effect on me as a young Māori boy trying to be what he wanted to be.

“I think that affected my confidence as a young adult as well because I never felt good enough. But I also knew from quite a young age that I was gay, or identified in a different way, and had to be resilient. That gave me a thick skin, allowing me to stand on my own two feet despite what people were saying and carry on following my dreams.”

Head boy in his last year at Waitara High School, he was outed publicly after a friend’s brother read some texts from Tangira on her phone and started spreading the news, forcing him into a difficult conversation with his deeply religious parents.

“I remember when I was around 12 or 13, I would pray to not be gay. Every time I walked into church, I felt guilty,” he says. “Sexuality and religion don’t really go together; they’re not in the same conversation. My mum and I have a close relationship and I didn’t want it to affect that. But her first response was, ‘I still love you’ and that’s all I needed to hear.“

In Year 11, a cousin had got him back on the court at a mixed Māori netball tournament and for the past 15 years, he’s played at a serious level. As captain of the New Zealand men’s team, he became the first male netball player in the world to be sponsored by Puma.

In recent years, the Net Blacks have built a higher profile, first taking on the Silver Ferns at the inaugural Cadbury Series in 2019 (Tangira played at centre, marking Laura Langman) and then competing on the men’s side of the draw at last year’s Fast5 Netball World Series.

Both the Northern Mystics and the Northern Stars franchises now have men’s teams. However, men’s netball isn’t sanctioned by the sport’s world governing body and is excluded from events such as the Olympic Games. Tangira hopes that will change, in the same way rugby has embraced the women’s game, with our own Black Ferns leading the way.

At 31, he’s ready to retire from international competition, but it was through netball that he picked up a regular commentating gig for Sky Sport a few years ago. Having some on-camera experience then helped land him his journalism job at Te Karere after graduating from Te Wānanga Takiura’s Rumaki Reo programme at the end of 2022.

The name translates as drowning yourself in the language. For Tangira, who grew up disconnected from his Māori culture, it was sink or swim. “It was so petrifying. But there were so many other things I gained from that, as well as learning the language, to be more confident and proud of who I am and feel more grounded as a Māori man.”

Last year, he covered the Netball World Cup in South Africa for Te Karere, doing daily live crosses in te reo, and then flew to France for the Rugby World Cup. In Cape Town, he and his camera operator travelled with security protection, although they didn’t encounter any trouble. “I was blown away,” he says. “It’s such a beautiful country. South Africans are extremely loyal to their sporting teams so it was very loud and very exciting. The atmosphere was amazing.”

Back home, he profiled five of the candidates standing in the Tāmaki Makaurau Māori electorate in the lead-up to the general election, interviewed writer Witi Ihimaera about Witi’s Wahine (a theatre piece based on his work) and covered the Toitū Te Tiriti hikoi.

Tangira has taken two months off from Te Karere to focus on the play, practising his splits and one-arm push-ups — essential components of a 90s aerobic routine — and learning 56 pages of lines. His character’s storyline and the struggles he’s faced as a young takatāpui resonates with Tangira, who sees Tawhai’s journey as a cathartic way to heal his own past traumas.

Playing such a flamboyant personality has also allowed to explore the “camp femboy” inside him. “I’m quite a reserved person and would definitely class myself as an introvert,” he says. “But that’s the beauty of acting. This is the first time I’m actually going to embrace my queerness and be unapologetic about it.

“I think what’s given me the confidence to step into this role is that I don’t really care what people have to say. I’m acting, I’m having fun, I’m doing what I love and I’m on stage and I’m healing at the same time. So, yeah, to me, this ticks all the boxes and I’m just super excited about it. “

* Directed by Tainui Tukiwaho, Hyperspace is on at Auckland’s ASB Waterfront Theatre, February 7 to 24.

Joanna Wane is an award-winning senior feature writer in the New Zealand Herald’s Lifestyle Premium team, with a special focus on social issues and the arts.