CULTURE
W H AT G O E S ON TOUR CubaDupa’s artistic director Drew James wears more than one hat (in fact, he’s rarely pictured without one). He’s also the Senior Producer of Tour-Makers, an arm of the Performing Arts Network of New Zealand. In three years, Tour-Makers has taken 10 New Zealand performing-arts shows to 24 communities countrywide. ‘It’s incredibly satisfying to tour shows like The White Guitar by Wellington-based theatre company The Conch, Kate Shepherd rock opera That Bloody Woman, and Daffodils, which is being made into a feature film in Wellington. These are strong New Zealand stories.’
SECRET SON
CHICKEN TONIGHT
NEW FACE
Who knew that author-journalist Robin Hyde (1906-1939) hid her illegitimate baby from her colleagues, friends, even her family? After a fling with a married journalist, she placed her son in a nursing home, then a foster home as she planned a bush hideaway for them. Wairarapa filmmaker Juanita Deely has directed 15-minute film A Home in This World about Hyde’s son Derek Challis, now 87. It shows with three other shorts at the Doc Edge International Film Festival (9–20 May, The Roxy).
Wellington scriptwriter D F Mamea won the 2017 Adam NZ Play Award for Still Life With Chickens, a one-woman show about a Samoan matriarch (played by Goretti Chadwick) who befriends a hen that’s invaded her veggie garden. Now Circa hosts the Auckland Theatre Company play, inspired by Mamea’s mother (8 May to 2 June). ‘We got Mum some chickens and, as we admired the tableau of an elderly Samoan woman and her brood, my wife said “Write a play about this".’
After six months as New Zealand Portrait Gallery director, Jaenine Parkinson (above) has curated Situated Selves: Photographs from our Collection (until 15 July), which shows how an informal, documentary photography style eclipsed the studio portrait. Meanwhile the Adam Portraiture Award exhibition shows until 27 May, and while Auckland’s Logan Moffat won the big prize, you can vote in the People’s Choice Award.
A voyage into the labyrinth of modern chamber music’ masterfully led by The New Yorker music critic and bestselling author of The Rest is Noise. Chamber Music New Zealand presents
Alex Ross with Bianca Andrew & STROMA
Fri 25 May 7.30pm
SHED 6 / WELLINGTON Free Prelude talk at 6.45pm This concert includes a touch tour & audio description for patrons with low vision. *Presented in association with
Supported by
chambermusic.co.nz/alexross
Scan code via Spotify:
Core Funder JOIN THE CONVERSATION