Jacqueline Coats & Nicola Pauling - I Carried This play

Jacqueline Coats has a Master of Theatre Arts in Directing from Victoria University of Wellington and Toi Whakaari: NZ Drama School. She has worked as a director, restage director or assistant director a number of organisations and has accolades from the NZ Fringe, Wellington Theatre Awards, and Dunedin Theatre Awards. 

Nicola Pauling is the founder and Creative Director of Voice Arts, an award-winning charitable trust supporting human development through applied improvisation and devised theatre. She is also an actor, improvisor and playwright.          

I Carried This tells the stories of New Zealand's frequently underrepresented history of forced adoption - specifically in the post-war era of the 1950s-60s. It features real-life accounts from women whose babies were stripped prematurely from their lives and the lasting impact this issue has had on the birth mothers.