Standing Room Only for Sunday 9 October 2022

12:16  News News News - children-driven media onstage and online

The public's trust in the media is at an all time low. Perhaps it's time to simply hand over the newspapers, cameras and microphones to our children, to get their take on the news.

This is the premise for a show called News News News that two British theatre-makers are creating with children from Mount Maunganui Primary for the Tauranga Festival.

It'll be filmed in front of a live audience and broadcast online.

Andy Field and Beckie Darlington have created similar shows overseas - so Lynn Freeman was curious to find out if Kiwi kids were bringing a new perspective to the studio.   She spoke to three of the budding journalists - Indigo, Arlie and Laurie - and to Andy Field.

News News News by Andy Field and Beckie Darlington - with Rosabel Tan & students from Mount Maunganui Primary - plays at the Addison Theatre in Tauranga on Saturday October 15.
 

12:30  The cultural reiginiting of Timaru

Timaru's artists and performers are banding together with local businesses and the Council in an all-out effort to boost the population and regenerate the South Canterbury city centre.

A trial run is about to begin of First Fridays, where galleries, public areas and even vacant spaces will host exhibitions, performances and live music into the night.

At the same time, businesses in the trial area will extend their opening hours and host art events.

Lynn Freeman talks with two of the organisers - visual artist Michael Armstrong and Kimble Henderson who runs Aidan Theatre, as well as local singer-songwriter Lachi McBride who'll perform at the first First Fridays - on Friday November 4, and Friday, December 2.

 

12:45  Tackling the housing crisis with a good indoor/outdoor flow

The housing crisis has been headline news for some years now.  But Wellington artist and activist Heleyni Pratley wants to delve deeper and ask people to share their own stories about how it's affecting them. 

The Kiwi/Greek conceptual artist and former union organiser is setting up a 'Housing Crisis Community Reflection & Assessment Centre'.

People coming in for a look-see will be invited to talk about their experiences and thoughts on video.  Heleyni will then edit these interviews together and project them onto a sculpture she's making out of paper.

It's called A work about the housing crisis with an indoor outdoor flow is the installation's name, and it will be on for a month from mid-October in central Te Whanganui a Tara/Wellington.

Members of the public can also book an interview in advance via email.

It's being supported by the Urban Dream Brokerage organisation.

 

1:10 At The Movies

This week Simon Morris reviews Netflix's Blonde, Amazon Prime's Catherine called Birdy and in the cinemas New Zealand film Millie lies low.

 

1:33  Converting an historic foundry to a brand-new heritage centre 

It doesn't look much - it doesn't even have a roof - but a group of Port Chalmers residents in Dunedin are battling to save an historic foundry, and convert it into a multipurpose community, arts and heritage centre.

The long abandoned Sims Building is the last remaining trace of the port's shipbuilding history.

The City Council has now agreed to pay to decontaminate the site and shore up the cliff behind the building.  They've signed a memorandum of understanding with the Port Chalmers Foundry Trust.

As work continues on a feasibility study, some leading local musicians and poets will take part in a fundraising Foundry Festival, featuring local hero band The Bats.

Kris Smith from the Foundry Festival Trust shares a short history of the Sims building with Lynn Freeman.

The Foundry Festival is on this Saturday - October 15 - in Port Chalmers.

 

1:46  The jigsaws of Zac Langdon-Pole

Massive jigsaws that traverse time and space, are the latest mind blowing creations from artist Zac Langdon-Pole.

Almost 130-thousand pieces make up the jigsaws that combine the latest images from NASA's Hubble and James Webb Space telescopes, and 19th Century Romantic landscape paintings.

Porous World is the name of the exhibition from an artist whose fascination with space also includes working with meteorite dust in his sculptures.

Lynn Freeman asks Zac why he was so fascinated by the connection between the 19th Century "grand tours" and colonization, and today's exploration deeper and deeper into space. 

Zac Langdon-Pole's exhibition Porous World opens on Friday October 14 at the Michael Lett Gallery in Tamaki Mākaurau/Auckland.

 

2:06 The Laugh Track - Harriet Moir

Remember Agony Aunts?   They used to feature in glossy magazines answering all your pressing questions about romance, lifestyle choices, what to do with your stroppy kids and how to get your meringues to rise properly.

Well they're back - after a fashion - and they're onstage in the Dunedin/Ōtepoti Arts Festival.  The show's called Agony Pants - described as an "onstage podcast" - and the aunts in question are Harriet Moir and Kelly Hocking.  Kelly's currently in the States, but Harriet joins us on the Laugh Track.

Her picks include Madeline Kahn,  Michele Wolf,  Carl Barron, Mitch Hedberg and Taylor Tomlinson. 

Agony Pants is playing at Petridish, on Sunday October 23 as part of the Dunedin Arts Festival.  Potential audience members can send their anonymous questions to AgonyPantsDunedin@gmail.com

  

 

2:25  Darin Dance enters territory he knows well with his debut spy novel 

Tapping into his own New Zealand army career in Military Intelligence, and with the help of handy sources in the service, Darin Dance has written a spy novel set in Wellington.

Whiskey Lima Golf sees army vet Tom (Tāmati) Yelich in a wheelchair, and struggling with depression after being injured in Afghanistan.

But shortly afterwards, he and his old army mate Devon find themselves entering the shady world of international espionage being played out on the streets of Te Whanganui a Tara.

Lynn Freeman talks with Darin about spy novels, authenticity and his plans for Tom and Devon.

Whiskey Lima Golf by Darin Dance is published by the Bach Doctor Press.

 

2:40  Alice Te Punga Somerville and the politics of italics

 

Māori writer and scholar Alice Te Punga Somerville has launched her first poetry collection from her new home - in Canada.

She has several academic books to her name but Always Italicise - How to write while colonised is a personal account of racism experienced in and out of academic institutions, and her fears for her baby daughter being brought up in Aotearoa.

'Always italicise foreign words', was advice from a friend, and you'll find that in Alice's poems, English is in italics, Māori is not.

Alice talks to Lynn Freeman about the collection, inspired by an experience she had at a writer's festival.

Always Italicise - how to write while colonised by Alice Te Punga Somerville is an Auckland University Press publication.

 

2:49   Climate Imaginaries offer new perspectives on the planet

Many contemporary writers and artists are trying very hard to encourage people to think about climate change - in books, in documentaries, in art.

So many and so hard that often climate change overload, despair and apathy become hard attitudes to budge. 

Scientist-creative Matt de Boer and multi-media artist Kim Newall are giving it their best shot.   They've put together an experimental, immersive combination of a soundscape - including nature recordings - and projections of images - ranging from climate data to lichen.

They've called it Climate Imaginaries - and the work will premiere at the upcoming Whangārei Fringe.

Lynn Freeman talks with Matt and Kim, first asking how dangerous so-called "climate change fatigue" is at the moment?

Matt de Boer and Kim Newall's work Climate Imaginaries takes place at the Whangārei Art Museum on Thursday October 13 as part of the Whangārei Fringe.

 

3:06 Drama at 3 - Cross Over by Stephen Walker

Children often have imaginary friends who share their days, their games and their inner-most secrets.  And while most are forgotten when the child grows older, a few people find that such a friend can be a reliable mentor as well as a companion. 

Today's play takes us into a world where fiction begins to invade reality. 

In Jacqui Dunn's production of Cross Over by Stephen  Walker. Liz is played by Liddy Holloway... Dick -  Paul Gittins... The Rider - Marton Csokas...  Paddy - Lisa Chappel  and Hans - Joel Tobeck. 

Cross Over was recorded in Auckland by Ian Gordon and produced for National Radio by Jacqui Dunn.