Po' Boys and Oysters Programme

PO' Boys and Oysters

BY ESTELLE CHOUT DIRECTED BY DIONE JOSEPH BASEMENT THEATRE 27 SEPTEMBER- 8 OCTOBER 2022, 8:00PM

"I rarely see someone like myself – a proud Black queer mother represented on the stage. I wrote Po’ Boys and Oysters to give these characters a voice and provide a platform to a group that have rarely been seen or represented in our theatre".

ESTELLE CHOUT, PLAYWRIGHT

"Bringing Po’ Boys n Oysters to the stage has now been the work of years, and I’m humbled by the growth, flexibility and incredible mana that my cast and crew have shown during these times of change. This show is a testament to the transformational power of telling our stories and on our own terms - no matter the many challenges that arise along the way.

My deep aroha and gratitude to all who have made this incredible production manifest.”

DIONE JOSEPH, DIRECTOR

PO' Boys and Oysters

By Estelle Chout Director: Dione Joseph Producer: Daisy Remington Dramaturg: Aroha Awarua Assistant Director: Keagan Fransch CoPro Producer: Julie Zhu Stage Manager: Gemma Jayde-Naidoo Set Design: Natalia Pereira Lighting: Creative Ambiance Costume Design: Félise du Chateau Costume Creation: Asya Mohamed Abeid Ceramicist: Lindsey de Roos Choreographer: Otis Herring Props by: Ubuntu Graphic and Web Design: Anagram Web Creations Sound Design: Michelle Mascoll Videographer: Bertie Remaut Photographer: Cassandra Loh Make up: Aiden-Leigh Jansen Hairstyling: The Curly Bar Publicity: Aroha Awarua Marketing: Daisy Remington Cast: Flo: Estelle Chout Jo: Layla Pitt Marie: Sandra Zvenyika Shane: Andrew Johnson Felix: Jack Briden Papa voice-over: Francois Byamana

Estelle Chout || Flo Estelle is a native of the Caribbean island of Martinique. four years ago. She discovered her love of acting on the and is rapidly becoming known as a strong theatrical currently taking acting lessons at the renowned Kacie during her spare time.

Estelle moved to New Zealand stage of Howick Little Theatre and screen performer. She is Stetson Studio and is writing

Layla Pitt || Jo Layla is a women of Bajan and British decent, born in the UK, raised in Hawkes Bay New Zealand. She moved to Auckland and studied a Bachelor of performing and screen arts.

Since graduating in 2019 she has been involved in various projects of different genres. these include ‘Animal’ at Basement Theatre, ‘The Newest Zealander’ on The Late Show CBS in 2019, The Wonderland Glow Show North island Tour in 2021. She is also extremely passionate about singing and songwriting, it’s has been something she’s always done for as long as she can remember. Layla feels so excited to be a part of Po’ Boys and Oysters and have the opportunity to help become the representation she and many other young black/mixed girls didn’t have growing up.

ESTELLE CHOUT, FLO

LAYLA PITT, JO

Sandra Zvenyika || Marie Sandra is a woman of Zimbabwean descent currently living and working in New Zealand for the past 12 years. Since her New Zealand stage debut in 2016, Sandra has been involved in several plays across different genres. These include In-Transit , New Zealand’s first Afro-Pasifika collaboration 2017, Finding Temeraire at the Basement Auckland 2017 as well as the development Season of America Rex with JK productions . She is looking forward to being involved in the upcoming Black creatives Aotearoa playwrights Lab where she will be reading works by up and coming writers. She participated in the inaugural writer Lab with the support of Creative communities Auckland and Auckland Theatre Company.

Her passion lies with written and spoken word expression focused on the experience of being a woman of colour navigating the world. Sandra spent a year training for screen acting with renowned Auckland based acting coach Kacie Stetson and is committed to continuing with further training to hone her acting prowess.

Andrew Johnson || Shane AJ has been acting for over 25 years, and most recently appeared in Arcadia at the Dolphin theatre.

Recent credits include The Long Weekend, California Suite, Our Man in Havana and The House by the Lake. He is a re-founding and life member of the University of Canterbury Drama Society, one of the longest-running University Drama Societies in New Zealand, and very occasionally can be seen around Auckland performing Stand-Up comedy.

Jack Briden || Felix Jack Briden is a recent graduate of Unitec’s Bachelor of Performing and Screen Arts and has been a filmmaker since a young age. Jack is a writer, director, actor and videographer with varied credits reflecting that. His graduation short film, Bar of Masks written and directed by himself. Director of Photography for Black Parade a dance music video directed by Otis Donovan-Herring. Co-directed Mount Albert Grammar School’s 2018 musical The Green Room. Jack also pursues videography for weddings, concerts and sports.

Francois Byamana || Voice artist, “Papa” Francois Byamana is an actor, singer and composer born in Rwanda, East Central Africa. A survivor of the 1994 Massacres in Rwanda, Francois came to New Zealand as a refugee. As a young man, Francois had and still has passion for languages and communication and has worked as an interpreter/translator.

In his acting career, he was the lead in "A thousand Hills", a play that he co wrote with Mike Hudson, directed by Margaret Marry Hollins, presented at Tapac. He also played Amadi, a lead role in a short film by Zia. He is a proud father of two African Kiwis boys who like him, love football .

SANDRA ZVENYIKA

ANDREW JOHNSON

JACK BRIDEN

Aotearoa

Black Creatives Aotearoa (BCA) was founded in 2018 and over the past fourand-a-half years we have seen exponential growth. Our community of almost 600 members reflect incredible skill and talent, huge cultural knowledge and formidable presence.

Our mission is to contribute to a transformational future where our members and their communities are given the resources, time and support to make their dreams, aspirations and their deeply audacious goals a reality right here in Aotearoa New Zealand. ​We are committed to manifesting this future by creating and working together with partners, sponsors and allies to develop the necessary new infrastructure for success.

This includes increasing the capacity and capability for our members in ways that are healthy, meaningful and relevant to us; making resources available and accessible to those in our community; and finally prioritizing people, relationships and sustainability.

We have held national gatherings, visual art exhibitions, playwright and screenwriter labs, poetry and short story writing workshops, The Black Out Series (online web series) the BLM Archive and now we are excited to present to you our very first live stage production, Po’ Boys n Oysters by Estelle Chout!

WWW.BLACKCREATIVESAOTEAROA.COM

Aotearoa

The production of Po' Boys and Oysters has been a collective act of aroha. An incredible team of supporters have persevered for over two years in bringing this story to the public.

We would like to thank our principal funders Creative NZ, Auckland Council, Ethnic Communities Development Fund, our rehearsal space and champions The Auckland Performing Arts Centre (TAPAC) and Auckland Theatre Company, our incredible Black and PoC businesses Creative Ambiance, Guagno Designs, Zanzibari, UBUNTU but most importantly to our incredible team who have supported across almost two years of creative play making.

Special acknowledgment to Sonya Renee Taylor, Félise du Chateau, Porvi Forma and JuliaRuth Smith and to our present cast and crew you ROCK! Thank you to our allies, our supporters, our friends for making this season one to remember! To all of you, a very heartfelt thank you from the bottom of our hearts! In the spirit of connection, creation and collaboration Ngā mihi nui,

The BCA whanau