Standing Room Only for Sunday 11 October 2015
12:39 Hidden Aucklanders
Rising Voices' Grace Taylor is a highly-regarded spoken word poet, teacher and youth development worker. Her debut theatre adaptation, My Own Darling, is a commentary of Auckland told through characters who live on the margins of society. These include Teuila a Samoan Palagi poet whose relationship has fallen apart, Grit-Girl who's a young woman who has been let down by most of the adults in her life. Man from the Maunga is resourceful making a stereo for his motorbike from bits gathered at the inorganics in Remuera. The Lady-Next-Door is the Samoan aunty who gives the hard truths, just because she can. The play has its world premiere season at Mangere Arts Centre on the 16th of October.
12:47 Massey University's new look School of Music
Massey University has launched its new School of Music and with it, a new degree in Bachelor of Commercial Music which it believes is unique in New Zealand. There are three majors in the degree: music practice, music technology and music industry and the three-year course is designed to produce creative graduates who are fluent in the production, promotion and distribution of music medias and live events. Te Rewa O Puanga - the School of Music and Creative Media Production is headed by Associate Professor Andre Ktori. Other tutors on the course include Warren Maxwell, founding member of Trinity Roots, Little Bushman and ex Fat Freddy's Drop; Devin Abrams producer and musician from Pacific Heights and international drum and bass act Shapeshifter, and Nicky Harrop who has 18 years' experience in the music industry working for BMG and Sony Music labels. There is also a new scholarship available and application details can be found here.
Warren Maxwell Photo: Massey University
1:10 At the Movies with Simon Morris
1:34 Dancers in still life
The pride, practise and the pain that goes into creating dance is captured in black and white still images by John McDermott in his new book Process. It's a record of the first few years of the New Zealand Dance Company, shot in the studio at rehearsals and backstage at venues. John says alongside the images of graceful and muscular young bodies, we see the pain that goes into being a professional dancer and what goes into producing a full length dance work.
Process is published by Umbrella.
1:47 Reconstructing discontinued New Zealand Post uniforms
Space Between is a sustainable zero waste fashion design project run through Massey University. Sonia Sly meets the designers and team behind the project to look at why they're reconstructing discontinued New Zealand Post uniforms to turn them into runway ready garments for the fashion conscious and eco conscious consumer.
Space Between Project Lead Jennifer Whitty (left) and Operations Manager Patricia Given. Photo: RNZ/ Sonia Sly
2:05 The Laugh Track
Funny Girls is a new sketch comedy show from that promises fast paced sketches that cover issues such as work life, relationships, and what to do when you're being haunted by a photobombing ghost. Set on a set of a fictional television show where a large group of men produce an all-female sketch show, Funny Girls features a wide selection of popular comedians and actresses, including: Kimberley Crossman, Natalie Medlock, Antonia Prebble, Madeleine Sami and Justine Smith. The stars and creators of Funny Girls, Rose Matafeo and Laura Daniel share their favourite comedy tracks. The show premieres on TV3 on Friday 23 October.
2:26 Tauranga's kuia and kaumatua captured on film
Maxine Reweti Photo: Bob Tulloch
Pakeha Tauranga photographer Bob Tulloch started photographing local kuia and kaumatua at their marae to preserve their images for future generations. He's been earning the trust of iwi and being invited in with his camera for several years, building up a large body of work that's also an historical record.
Last year he won a national photo award for his shots of the re-enactment of the Battle of Gate Pa. Bob is sharing a selection of images from his Faces of Tauranga Moana portfolio at the upcoming Tauranga Arts Festival, ahead of a major exhibition next year.
2:38 A novel about the painful health reforms of the 1980s and 90s.
Christchurch radiologist Ian Cowan's novel takes us back to the health reforms of the early 1990s. New Zealand's public healthcare system was falling into turmoil as the government tried to convert public hospitals into competing independent businesses, dedicated to operate at a profit. Not Our Problem tells the story of surgical trainee Stephen Cassidy. He is working long hours at a New Zealand hospital and suffering from burn out, so he takes a job in hospital management as the health reforms are in full swing. The characters in Not Our Problem are fictional but almost all the events are real. It's published by Mary Egan Publishing.
2:49 Adventures in Pianoland
Creative sisters pianist Jan Preston and film director Gaylene Preston join forces for a new stage show about Jan's eventful life as a professional musician. In Adventures In Adventures in Pianoland Jan reveals her longstanding and sometimes bumpy road to piano 'stardom'. She has played in almost every conceivable type of venue from dives in Soho to Concert Halls in Europe. She once played a white piano in a Sydney Mall every Friday to support her family. Gaylene is directing her little sister in the show. They talk about their shared memories of growing up in Greymouth and their experiences as freelance creatives. Adventures in Pianoland :How I learned to stop worrying and love the piano opens at Circa Theatre in Wellington on 15 October.
3:05 The Drama Hour
Part 1 of a new serial The Buzz by Peter Bell - what happens when politics and education collide? And, to coincide with Katherine Mansfield's birthday next Wednesday, Vincent O'Sullivan dips into her letters in a piece called No Sheaves to Bind.