The
Mercury Bay Issue 675 - 10 February 2016
Phone 07 866 2090
PORTING P U S S L A LOC LOCALS
“Best ever” music and theatre line-up for 2016
Since the inception of Creative Mercury Bay (CMB) in 2012, the organisation has delivered an eclectic mix of performing arts - including plays, classical and jazz music, community talent shows, dance concerts and film workshops - to the people of Mercury Bay. Their 2016 programme promises to be their best ever. Stephan Bosman spoke to CMB chairperson Jan Wright and trustee Len Salt about their plans for the year ahead. The CMB programme will this year kick off with three weekends of workshops focused on the art and discipline of Taiko Drumming. The workshops will be conducted by Auckland's Haere Mai Taiko Drummers and is the result of collaboration between CMB and Mercury Bay Area School Japanese teacher Judy Evans. CMB has worked together with Judy to secure funding to purchase four taiko drums, which will form the basis of Whitianga’s own Taiko drumming group. The workshops will be held on the 19 - 20 March, 9 - 10 April and 23 -24 April. The next big event on the CMB calendar will be the Mercury Bay Music Festival, happening over Queen’s Birthday weekend, 3 - 5 June. Jan says more than 25 acts are already booked to perform, covering a range of genres from big band, jazz and blues to folk and world music. Don McGlashan, Apra Silver Scroll finalist Mel Parsons, the wildly popular Miho Wada and her jazz orchestra and internationally acclaimed musical director Mark Dennison with his 13 piece band are amongst the artists who will be performing over the weekend. July will see the first of CMB’s Arts on Tour presentations, “Everest Untold.” Described by Theatre Review as, “The untold story all New Zealander's should know,” the performance is part climbing experience, part history lesson and part personal revelation. For lovers of high quality classical music, CMB founder patrons Toby and Diana Morcom will host Russian pianist Professor Oleg Marshev at their home in Cooks Beach on 24 July. The Morcom family home has a grand piano, which is necessary for a performance of this calibre. “Tickets are strictly limited to 50, which is not an ideal situation given the popularity of
Circulation 6,500
Slowest driver as popular as the fastest at Leadfoot Festival see page 19.
Creative Mercury Bay chairperson Jan Wright. these events,” says Jan. “However, without a grand piano in the Whitianga Town Hall, our choices are very limited. Funding for a grand piano permanently located in the town hall is very high on our wish list for the future. It would open the door for a wider range of performance options than we have right now. It would also give our own music students a concert level instrument to practice on once they get to the higher grades in their music exams.”
Arts on Tour comedy “Under the Same Moon,” written by award winning Kiwi Chinese Dr Renee Liang - paediatrician by day, poet and playwright by night, will feature on 9 September in the Whitianga Town Hall. Two time winner of “Best Actress” in the New Zealand 48 Hour Furious Filmmaking Competition Hweiling Ow plays ten characters and tells the story of Hong Kong matriarch Porpor Grace who arrives in NZ for her granddaughter's wedding. Porpor hasn’t exactly been invited,
but while she’s in New Zealand, why not get a cultural fix by joining a Kiwi Experience backpacker bus tour? Unfortunately her understanding of cultural norms is a little... off. Under the Same Moon is described as a heartfelt comedy about daughters and their wayward mothers, featuring a cultural crashcourse in family love, plenty of laughs and a few tears. “An added bonus will be the opportunity to involve Hweiling and Renee in some interactive (Continued on page 2)
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