As Caitriona Fallon prepares for her second appearance in Tarnished Frocks and Divas, she reflects on her two and a half years living in Tauranga and the impact the biennial show has had on her new life here.
Caitriona was born in County Cork, Southern Ireland, and studied at the Cork School of Music. At the age of 19, she auditioned for a singing role in Riverdance. She spent the next few years travelling with the show. It was there she met her Kiwi husband, Marc Anderson. Hundreds of shows later the couple called it quits and went to Australia. They have lived in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, returned to Ireland for a stint in Dublin, and also lived in Christchurch where they married in 2004. Three children and a globe traverse later they returned to Cork in 2009 to be near Caitriona’s family.
As Caitriona is a singer and Marc a drummer, they formed a band with friends. Cookie (Caitriona’s nickname) and the Vaudevilles made a name for themselves, got good airtime on radio stations and produced an album.
With a recession in Ireland, and Marc’s desire to get back to his roots, they decided it was the perfect time to make a move back to the Bay, and Marc secured the role as Director of the Bay of Plenty Garden and Art Festival. In early 2017 they moved to Mount Maunganui. “It is daunting moving to a new home, especially with children, as you not only have your own feelings to deal with but those of your family,” says Caitriona.
While Marc had a job to go to and the children schools to settle into, Caitriona was faced with reinventing her singing career in a new city in a new country; another daunting prospect. The suggestion from a friend that she audition for Tarnished Frocks and Divas in 2017 could not have come at a better time.
Her lead part thrust her into the local limelight. The petite powerhouse with the massive voice became the talk of all who saw the show.
She was also enveloped into a fellowship of like-minded women in the Tarnished Frocks and Divas community. “A group of us from the 2017 show still meet regularly.” Asked how she, as a former international performer, felt about this local show, Caitriona could not be more complimentary. “It was mind-blowing,” she recalls. “Incredible that a show of this scale could be produced in the Bay of Plenty by local people, mainly amateurs and volunteers and all women over the age of 40.”
LAUNCHING HER CAREER LOCALLY
The exposure Caitriona received from the show became the springboard for her to seek further gigs in the Bay of Plenty, encouraged by enquiries as to when and where she was performing next. “I was forced to be pro-active and find a band.” When she booked her first show at Totara Street, she only had a drummer, her husband Marc. “Playing and singing together has always been our ‘date night’,” she laughs. Asking around in the local music industry secured her a guitarist, pianist and bass player. Totara Street was a sell-out, as was their performance at the 2018 Jazz Festival.
Caitriona is now performing regularly, a mix of public and corporate events such as the Westpac Business Awards and Ladies Charity Lunch.
A PLACE TO CALL HOME
In referring to the Bay as home Caitriona says she discovered that in German there are two words for home: one for the place you were born and one for where you live now. “This expresses exactly how I feel.”
The second youngest of a family of five, Caitriona has moved the furthest away from her homeland. “It may be because I was born on a Thursday,” she muses, referencing the nursery rhyme line, Thursday’s child has far to go. Her younger brother now lives in Seattle and other siblings are still in Ireland.
Her children, however, definitely call Mount Maunganui home. “They’ve become tourism ambassadors, making up brochures of attractions to encourage our Irish family to visit! Daniel lives in shorts and bare feet and they love the flexible, relaxed school environment with lots of outdoor activity.”
The children span the local schools – 10-year-old Daniel at Mount Primary, Catie, 12, attends Intermediate and 14-year-old Leah, Mount College. Marc is working on his second Garden and Art Festival and Caitriona is a co-ordinator at the Kollective, where not-for-profit organisations share workspaces.
“We love the multi-cultural community and the way Tauranga is neither a big city nor a small town. There’s something for everyone here, be it music or sport.” Caitriona’s suggestion to anyone new to the Bay of Plenty is to put yourself forward. “People are very welcoming if you take the first step.”
A DIFFERENT DIVA THIS YEAR
That first step to audition for Tarnished Frocks and Divas has paid dividends. No wonder, that after her exhausting, exhilarating and mesmerising performance in 2017 the producers wanted her to commit for the 2019 show. Relieved that the focus is on singing after lots of lines to learn last show, Caitriona is relishing rehearsing with fellow lead singers, Jackie Clarke, Annie Crummer and Bryony Skillington for a show that will no doubt wow audiences the way it always has.