Joy brought colour to her life and others

One day at Hamilton Operatic Costume Hire, manager Joy Wright decided it would be a useful – and fun – exercise for staff to all take a ‘colour test’. It was a simple exercise. Participants were required to identify and grade shades of colour, an essential skill in design and aesthetics.

The results were illuminating if far from surprising. Joy herself surpassed everyone else. The world for her was literally a more colourful place. This was an innate skill, something that could neither be learnt nor taught. It went beyond mere identification of the spectrum. Joy knew how to use colour in her work. She brought colour to her life and the lives of all who knew her. She had an eye for what looked good on people but also an eye for people themselves. She could spot talent a mile away, read the character of the person blessed with it, then challenge, cajole and almost magically bring it out of them, gently imparting a sense of self-belief.

Joy Wright was born in Katikati, November 26, 1965, the first born child of Albert Sydney Wright, a farmer and army veteran and Eileen Wright (nee Groucott) a seamstress. She had a younger brother, Sydney.

From an early age Joy showed signs of having inherited her mother’s skills. Eileen – known as ‘Rose’ – gave her direct instruction in handicraft, including sewing. Further encouragement came at the hands of Joy’s Great Aunt Vi, whose residence was much visited in her youth. At Aunt Vi’s place one’s art was not only tolerated, it was pasted directly upon the wall.

Joy attended Green Park Primary School, Tauranga Intermediate and Tauranga Girls’ College. She took a retail position at Henderson’s Shoe Store in Tauranga, later Hannah’s, working her way up, eventually becoming the shop’s manager. She was briefly married at this time.

Joy’s first experience of theatre costuming was at Tauranga Musical Theatre. It was, she said later, ‘‘vaguely terrifying’’.

Through the theatre Joy met Phil Harris. They were married in 1990, building a house on the rear of Bert’s and Rose’s section.

Joy’s son Bradley was born in 1992. It was a traumatic, emergency procedure and there were postnatal complications. Shortly afterwards the family shifted to Ngongotaha. Joy enrolled at the University of Waikato and began studying for a Bachelor of Education, taking courses in art and photography beyond the core curriculum. She was to graduate with First Class Honours, an achievement she was rightly proud of, having once been told by a secondary school teacher that she was ‘‘not suited to higher education’’.

In 1996, Joy and Phil separated and she and Brad relocated to Hamilton. Joy enrolled in a Masters of Education, though slowly came to the realisation that teaching as a formal profession was not for her. However, for a time she did conduct drama classes for primary age students.

Joy’s creativity and ability to instruct others found expression outside the classroom. As a solo mother she worked tirelessly to ensure Brad wanted for nothing, and was renowned for her innovative, always colourful birthday parties and all round sense of fun.

Principally through her involvement in costuming at the Hamilton Operatic Society, Joy became what one friend described as ‘‘massively important in Hamilton theatre’’. Leading the wardrobe department over a number of years, her own skills of design and in understanding the costuming needs of particular productions, often complementing preexisting collections, were matched by managerial strengths, molding teams and nurturing individual talent. Joy got the best out of volunteers, always ensuring the experience was enjoyable and satisfying, as a creative endeavour but also as a social one.

Friend and colleague Tina Lynn, whom Joy recruited and transformed into a confident milliner for the Society’s 2010 production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, recalls that ‘‘sewing sessions were . . . often accompanied by a glass of wine or a shared meal’’ and that ‘‘no HOS show would start without the wardrobe department having a shot of port as their warm-up’’. Another who knew Joy well stresses how much she promoted camaraderie and congenial relations between the wardrobe departments of Hamilton, motivated by her strong sense of inclusiveness and a wider belief in the community nature of theatre.

Joy’s part-time job as the manager of Hamilton Operatic Costume Hire drew on her past retail experience as much as her artistic flair and understanding of the theatrical. A former employee described her as ‘‘a fair-minded, great boss’’, running the type of workplace that you looked forward to frequenting.

Joy was concurrently employed at Hamilton Girls’ High as arts co-ordinator, supporting the staff of the music, drama and arts departments. Aside from heavy involvement with school theatrical productions, especially costuming, she had particular responsibilities in organising the atrium concerts, where residents from local rest homes, school staff, old girls and members of the public were treated to the musical talents of past and present students as well as other performers from the Hamilton musical community.

Joy was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2010 and suffered a life-threatening pulmonary embolism the following year. She bore her illness and its often gruelling treatments with good humour, never complaining, recovering sufficiently in 2013 to embark on a threemonth tour of South East Asia with her partner, Sam Cleaver.

Late in 2017, Joy’s cancer returned. A pragmatist, who wasted no time dwelling on the inevitable, she continued to get the most out of life, retaining a sense of adventure and love of nature. She took part in a pioneering programme exploring the impact of specialist counsellors on cancer sufferers.

Joy could find beauty in everything. Her enthusiasms ranged from the music of Ella Fitzgerald to the literature of Thomas Hardy to the fashion of Jean-Paul Gautier. She liked to swim, to garden, to cook and to ‘‘be naughty’’. With a teacher’s patience and a leader’s empathy she inspired many.

Joy Wright died November 13, 2021. She is survived by son Bradley and her partner of 18 years, Sam Cleaver.