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"Being boring is the most offensive thing anyone can do"
Dave Armstrong
Dave Armstrong
Pasifika Playwrights Forum 08: Vela Manusaute, Louise Tu'u, Teresa Brown (Chair), Arnette Arapai, Miria George and Victor Rodger
Vela Manusaute, Ola Animashawun and Jay Junior Williams
In conjunction with Auckland City we are thrilled to offer new and existing Maori and Pacific Island writers the opportunity to develop plays with development assistance towards workshops and presentations in 2009. Your submission must include a short synopsis of your story, an outline of the characters, and at least a sample scene. (a full scene, or sections from different scenes).
Submissions are open to anyone of Pacific Island descent. Applications and enquiries must be in writing to Mark Amery, email director@playmarket.org.nz or P.O. Box 9767, Te Aro, Wellington.
Read two charged discussions about issues for Pacific Island playwrights and the theatre, and the questions their plays raise about what others expect them to write about. We also feature an address by Samoan New Zealand playwright Victor Rodger.
Chair: Ola Aniwashawun, Royal Court Theatre, UK, Lisa Davis, Community Arts Coorinator – Maori, ACC, Mark Amery, Playmarket, Vela Manusaute, producer and playwright, Kila Kokonut Krew, Roy Ward, Literary Manager, ATC, Sam Scott, Artistic Director, Massive Company
Playwrights Miria George, Victor Rodger, Louise Tu’u, Arnette Arapai, Vela Manusaute
Chair: Teresa Brown, NZ Actors Equity
This year's Pasifika Playwright featured presentations of exciting new New Zealand Pacific theatre works in development, and a public forum for emerging and established Pacific Island playwrights. Jay Junior Williams and Victoria Schimdt were the recipients of full week development workshops. Jason Greenwood and Louise Tu’u were the recipients of Pasifika Playwrights Script Labs
This year Pasifika Playwrights saw ‘newwayintheatre’ bring UK’s leading Asian female play and screen writer Tanika Gupta and leading London playwright developer Ola Animashawun, Head of the Royal Court's hugely successful Young Writers Programme to dramaturg and work with our NZ Pacific writers, directors and actors.
Matariki and Pasifika Playwrights provides support for emerging Maori and Pacific Island playwrights through development of new work and an annual chance to come together and learn from each other, says Playmarket Director Mark Amery.
"We relish our rich contemporary cultural identity as a nation, yet the frameworks within the theatre mainstream for the development of the indigenous voices of Aotearoa and the Pacific remain poor," argues Playmarket Director Mark Amery. "Emerging Maori and Pacific Island playwrights are a vital force in the development of a distinctive voice in our contemporary theatre culture, yet their potential remains relatively untapped."
In recognition of this, Playmarket, New Zealand's leading script development organisation and Auckland City Council came together over three years ago to provide an annual development programme for playwrights of the Pacific. The forum is part of the Celebrate Pasifika programme.