The Vocal Development Series - April 2026
featuring
Emily Kristen Morris,
JJ Niemann & Jon Hunter
Following the success of our first event with Natalie Weiss, we’re excited to announce the next chapter in The Vocal Development Series.
Coming to Wellington, Christchurch and Auckland in April 2026, Little Joke Productions is thrilled to welcome Emily Kristen Morris & JJ Niemann direct from New York!
Emily and JJ will be joined by NZ’s very own Jon Hunter, renowned acting and vocal coach.
This is a two-day vocal and performance training event, featuring workshops taught by these three incredible artists.
The event wraps up with a concert featuring Emily Kristen Morris & JJ Niemann in each city.
GET YOUR TICKETS TO THE WORKSHOP HERE
ABOUT THE EVENT
In this event, there will be group workshops led individually by each tutor, covering various vocal and performance topics, including warming up, belt and mix voice, emotionality in the voice, audition skills, how to integrate movement with vocals, and more - all delivered from the perspective and experience of these amazing industry professionals.
Q&A time will be held at the end of each day.
MASTERCLASS SPOTS
There will be Masterclass spots available with a limited number of participants, which involves 1–1 tutoring in front of and observed by the group. These spots will be randomly selected to make access to this opportunity as fair as possible.
If you would like to be in the draw for a spot, please check the appropriate box when signing up at checkout. Selection will be 6 weeks before the event, and there will be an extra cost on top of the base event ticket. Selected participants will be notified and invoiced by email.
PERFORMANCE OPPORTUNITY
From these selected Masterclass participants, Emily Kristen Morris & JJ Niemann will choose two vocalists to open for them at the Showcase Concert in each city.
The selected vocalists will receive a free ticket to the concert (a refund will be given if a concert ticket has already been purchased).
WELLINGTON
Saturday 11th April 9:30 am - 5:30 pm
Sunday 12th April 9:30 am - 5:30 pm
Toi Whakaari
11 Hutchison Road, Newtown, Wellington 6021
Sunday 12th April 8:00 pm
Wellington Central Baptist Church
46-48 Boulcott Street, Wellington Central, Wellington 6011
CHRISTCHURCH
Tuesday 14th April 9:30 am - 5:30 pm
Wednesday 15th April 9:30 am - 5:30 pm
The Piano
156 Armagh Street, Christchurch Central City, Christchurch 8011
Wednesday 15th April 8:00 pm
The Piano
156 Armagh Street, Christchurch Central City, Christchurch 8011
AUCKLAND
Friday 17th April 9:30 am - 5:30 pm
Saturday 18th April 9:30 am - 5:30 pm
Te Pou Theatre
2 Mount Lebanon Lane, Henderson, Auckland 0612
Saturday 18th April 8:00 pm
Te Pou Theatre
2 Mount Lebanon Lane, Henderson, Auckland 0612
Bonus for The Vocal Development Series feat. Natalie Weiss Participants!
If you’re attending our January workshop with Natalie Weiss, you’ll receive exclusive access to a 15% discount for our April event!
Email us if you haven’t received your exclusive discount code.
Age Policy: All our events are unsupervised, adult-oriented environments. Participants under 14 are permitted, but must be accompanied and fully supervised by a guardian who has also purchased a ticket for themselves.
Cancellation Policy: In the unlikely event that any of our presenters are unable to attend, all efforts will be made to secure a suitable substitute presenter, and the event will proceed as planned. If an appropriate and comparable replacement presenter cannot be found, a full refund will be given to all ticket holders.
EMILY KRISTEN MORRIS is an NYC-based actor, singer, certified vocal instructor and popular online content creator (cumulative 2+ million followers on socials). Her Broadway National Tour credits include: Wicked (Elphaba standby), Something Rotten (Bea). Favourite regional credits include: Waitress (Jenna), Frozen (Elsa), Side Show (Daisy), and South Pacific (Nellie). Emily has also performed as a solo vocalist with symphony orchestras worldwide, and her voice is featured on several new musical concept albums. On social media, Emily is popular for her voice-teaching videos and her inspiring theatre content. When she's not performing, Emily runs her world-renowned voice studio EKM Vocal Studio, where she and her ten associate teachers offer lessons, masterclasses and workshops to passionate singers and performers around the globe. Emily is certified through the Institute for Vocal Advancement (IVA) and received her BFA in Musical Theatre from the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music (CCM).
JJ NIEMANN, originally from Wilmington, North Carolina, is a New York City-based Broadway actor and content creator. Fresh off of playing Charles Lee in the Broadway cast of Hamilton and leading Catch Me If You Can as Frank Abagnale Jr. at Chicago’s Marriott Theatre, JJ’s previous credits also include: the Original Broadway Cast of Back to the Future (Marty McFly and George McFly cover), The Book of Mormon (Broadway), the World Premieres of Bliss (5th Avenue Theatre) and Disney's Hercules (Paper Mill Playhouse), the workshop of SMASH, Sky in Mamma Mia! at Flat Rock Playhouse, and productions at Cape Playhouse, The MUNY, Pittsburgh CLO, The Rev, and the iconic Ratatouille TikTok Musical (iykyk). In the digital world, JJ has accrued over 2 million followers and over 850 million video views across his platforms for his theatre comedy videos, which have earned him spotlights on CBS’s The Greatest At Home Videos, BroadwayWorld, Backstage, Playbill, Daily Mail, Theatrely, Onstage Blog, Buzzfeed, and more. JJ is a proud BFA Music Theatre graduate from Elon University and is represented by CGF Talent and Select Management Group. You can connect with JJ on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube at @jjniemann!
JON HUNTER is one of New Zealand’s premier acting coaches. He works across the performance spectrum – with actors, singers, dancers and presenters – in screen, stage and studio settings. He has contributed significantly to professional actor training, having taught at drama schools and theatre companies around the country – including seven years as a Senior Acting Tutor and Head of Voice at Toi Whakaari: NZ Drama School, six years as an Artist Tutor at the NZ School of Music, Victoria University of Wellington and three years as a Teaching Fellow at The Aotearoa New Zealand Opera School, Waikato University. He was NZ’s first Estill Voice Master Teacher and is a leading voice expert here. Jon’s commitment to teaching reliable, repeatable, energising and empowering approaches to acting led to the founding of the Hunter Acting Studio. Here he now provides bespoke actor development through 1-1 coaching alongside state-of-the-art training opportunities both in-person to actors around the New Zealand and online to actors around the world.