 Beginning with children's theatre classes at the Globe Theatre, Dunedin in the 1970s, Jamieson progressed to writing and directing plays at high school then studying theatre and playwriting (with Roger Hall) at the University of Otago.During the 1980s, she was a member of the Women's Performance Art Collective in Dunedin.In 1992 she was commissioned to write a play commemorating the centenary of women's suffrage in New Zealand, and her play "Women Like Us" was produced in Dunedin and Wellington (1993–94).