Standing Room Only for Sunday 30 August 2020

 

12:16  Southland's Art and Museum space plans to open

Two years after Invercargill's two main cultural institutions were forced to close due to seismic concerns, a transitional Art and Museum space is about to open its doors.

While the fate of the Invercargill Public Art Gallery and Southland Museum and Art Gallery buildings remain uncertain, staff from both have been collaborating on a joint space where art and historic objects can be put back on display.

They're also keen to get the public involved in the He Waka Tuia Transitional Art + Museum space.

Lynn Freeman speaks to David Dudfield from the Southland Museum and Art Gallery, and to Gemma Baldock from Invercargill Public Art Gallery ahead of the planned 12th of September big reveal of the transitional space - Covid-19 alert levels permitting. 
 

12:28  Horomona Horo - opportunities for traditional instruments

Encouraging musicians who play traditional Māori instruments (taonga puoro) to be braver, more experimental - that's the goal of Horomona Horo.   Horomona has just been appointed as both a researcher and teacher in taonga puoro at Waikato's Wintec.

Horomona tells Lynn Freeman that while traditional Māori music is grounded in spirituality and respect, it doesn't mean it can't be fused with contemporary music and technology to create something new.

 

12:44  Screen Sector Strategy

This has been a strong year for New Zealand's screen sector - despite the global pandemic.

2020 opened with an Oscar for Taika Waititi's Jojo Rabbit, and a major international TV series - the well-reviewed Luminaries.  There have also been an unprecedented number of local TV drama series on screen, as well as two major overseas projects in production - James Cameron's Avatar sequels and Amazon's TV series Lord of the Rings.

To top it off, last week the two top films at the box office were both Kiwi comedies - This Town and Lowdown Dirty Criminals.

A good time, in other words, to launch the Screen Sector Strategy 2030.  As the name suggests, it's a 10-year road-map to advance the sector:  films - local and overseas...  TV productions, including overseas co-productions... and now animation and gaming.

The strategy came at the end of a lot of discussion with representatives across the sector.

So who asked for it, how much did it cost, and what's it hoping to achieve?

Lynn Freeman talks with two of the Facilitation Group who laid the ground work:   Alice Shearman, Executive Director of the Writers Guild, and David Wilks, General Manager of Weta Workshop...
 

1:30 At The Movies

Simon Morris reviews Tenet, the French film Two of us, and Never rarely sometimes always.

 

1:50  A new production company brings a performance to your kitchen table!

As live performance spaces grapple with the unpredictability of life under Covid-19, a UK company is bringing a performance to your kitchen table.

You need a mobile device, headphones, and preferably another person inside your bubble to share the story, delivered through an app complete with 360 degree sound that's designed to manipulate the senses. 

The first of the shows from the Darkfield Radio company is called Double, an audio-only immersive experience for pairs, happening inside their kitchens. 

Lynn Freeman asks Darkfield's David Rosenberg what the difference is between "immersive audio experiences" and old-school radio drama?

Darkfield Radio's Double launches on Sept 1 - details here.

 

2:06 The Laugh Track - Jackie Clarke

In a country the size of New Zealand, you have to be remarkably light on your feet to have a career in show business.  But today's Laugh Track guest seems to have taken versatility to excess.

She sings - like a dream - she's funny - she was one of the Semisis for goodness sake - she's been in more live shows, TV shows, films and cabaret than anyone this side of Liza Minelli.

If there were any justice, right now she'd be headlining in Vegas, topping the bill at the Proms and singing the next James Bond theme!  Prima Diva Jackie Clarke joins Simon Morris on the Laugh Track.

Her picks include Bette Midler, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, the Stephen Sonheim show Company and hen The Cat's Been Spayed.

Jackie will be appearing in concert with Simon O'Neill and Tim Beveridge at the Christchurch Town Hall on the 25th of September.

 

 

 

2:25 Rejected scripts get a second chance on stage

 

Rejection is never easy to take - but sadly, it's the rule not the exception in so many aspects of the arts.  There are simply too many applicants for too few jobs.  And this is particularly true for thwarted playwrights who just can't find a home for their lovingly-written scripts.

So now Wellington theatre company Tempest is taking rejected scripts and breathing life into them, if not full productions, then at least play-readings.

To get the ball rolling, the first one is by Tempest's own Emma Maguire - Fairleigh Goode and the Secret of the Voiceless Man 

After this, Tempest plans to invite other playwrights to send in their rejected scripts.

Lynn Freeman talks to Emma and to Anastasia Matteini-Roberts who's about to work with playwrights, honing their work ahead of the public readings.

The first show in Rejected - Fairleigh Goode and the Secret of the Voiceless Man - is on tomorrow night at the Circus Bar in Wellington.

 

2:41 Marti Friedlander's Portraits of Artists

Portraiture is one of the trickiest artforms - to get beyond the surface of a face into the soul.

Photographer Marti Friedlander was an expert, and many of her black and white images - especially of other artists and writers - are often seen in publications even now.

Dr Leonard Bell, art historian and writer, has taken on the job of bringing more than 250 of Marti's photographs - the well known and the never before seen - together in one book.  It's called Portraits of Artists. 

There's an exhibition at the New Zealand Portrait Gallery in Wellington to accompany the book.

Leonard tells Lynn Freeman he's written about Marti Friedlander before and knew her work well.

Marti Friedlander Portraits of the Artists is published by Auckland University Press. 

 

 

3:06 Drama at 3 - Part Two of Four Cities by Anthony McCarten

Sparks fly when the "school mistress" meets the smuggler. June takes a European tour and befriends the Polish tour guide Wojtek. They are from very different worlds and circumstances, but find they have much in common in this funny and touching romantic comedy from the pen of Anthony McCarten (Bohemian Rhapsody).