Standing Room Only for Sunday 4 December 2022

We're having a few issues getting all today's stories up on our web-page.   We apologise for the inconvenience, as we sort it out. 

 

12:16  Hannah Marshall takes over Drama at SPP

When Hannah Marshall was picked for the role of Head of Scripted Development at South Pacific Pictures, the only surprise, frankly, was that it took them so long to give her the job.

Her track record in drama - sorry, "Scripted TV Shows" - is phenomenal, on both side of the Tasman.   You've seen her in everything from Raised by Refugees - for which she was also the Story Producer - to Packed to the Rafters, for which she was nominated for a Logie.  

As well as an actor, she's an award-winning writer, director and creator of the acclaimed drama Alibi.   So does her new job mean she's backing away from hands-on production and performance?   Simon Morris talks with Hannah Marshall about her new job.

 

12:33   Joy Cowley's two new books for two very different readerships

Launching one book is a big occasion, but much-loved author Joy Cowley is about to unleash two - Greedy Cat's Christmas, and an adult novella called Blind Date.

She's launching them both in Featherston in the Wairarapa, where she now lives.

The large ginger feline Joy's been writing stories about for some 40 years meets his match in his latest outing:

"The plates were full. Oh, how delicious!
"A Christmas feast on fancy dishes!
"But Aunty said, "He's just a cat.
"He'll eat cat biscuits and that is that."

Blind Date meanwhile, sees 85-year-old Rose living in a rest home.  She's lost most of her sight and desperately misses reading books.  Then unexpectedly, she makes a connection with one of the male residents and comes to realise that it's never too late to live life to the full.

Lynn Freeman talks with Joy Cowley, and first asked her why she wrote Blind Date as a novella.

Joy Cowley's Blind Date and Greedy Cat's Christmas are both published by CopyPress.  Joy will launch them on Saturday 10 December at Waimarie Eatery & Bar in Featherston.

 

12:45  Anthony McCarten - biopic king on stage and screen

Kiwi screenwriter/playwright Anthony McCarten has a new film about Whitney Houston coming out for Christmas - I Wanna Dance With Somebody.   But that's not the biggest news.  He also has not one but two shows opening on Broadway, New York City.

This is a first.  In fact it's a first for a New Zealander to have one show on Broadway, let alone two!

One's a play called The Collaboration about the brief but highly productive time culture icons Basquiat and Andy Warhol produced art together.

The other is a full-on musical A Beautiful Noise about superstar Neil Diamond.

Anthony already has copious BAFTA and Oscar nominations to his name for films including Bohemian Rhapsody, The Theory of Everything, The Two Popes and Darkest Hour.   But this is different.   For a start it's live every night.

I asked Anthony McCarten how his nerves are holding out with two Broadway shows on the go.

Anthony McCarten.  His two Broadway shows open later this month, while his Whitney Houston movie I Wanna Dance with Somebody opens in cinemas just before Christmas.

 

1:10 At The Movies

This week Simon Morris reviews The Menus, starring Ralphi Fiennes, Poker Face, directed by and starruing Russell Crowe and Bones and All, starring Timothée Chalamet.

 

1:31  Yury Gezentsvey - 40 years in the front seat of the NZSO

After almost 40 years as Principal First Violinist with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Yury Gezentsvey is about to play his last concert with them.

He left the Soviet Union as a refugee in 1979, and moved to Wellington with his family six years later, after playing  in orchestras in the United States and Venezuela.

Yury has also taken part in several Festival of the Arts in Wellington, as leader of the "Gezentsvey Quartet", as soloist with the Massey Piano Quartet and as a member of the New Zealand Piano Quartet.

Lynn Freeman talked to Yury Gezentsvey about how he came to start learning the violin as a child.

Yury Gezentsvey's last concert with the NZSO is the Messiah on 10 December at the Michael Fowler Centre in Te Whanganui -a-Tara Wellington. 
 

 

1:45  Sarah Adam captures a famous trail in oils

For most people walking Te Araroa - the 3000-kilometre trail from Cape Reinga in the North to Bluff in the South - just putting one foot in front of the other is enough to think about.

But Sarah Adam set herself the extra challenge of doing a small oil painting  'en plein air' every day of the trek.

All up, she made 140 paintings and they've just gone on show in an exhibition she calls Late to the Hut.

Sarah tells Lynn Freeman she's currently working for the Department of Conservation on the Hen and Chicks Islands in Northland and she's painting what she sees there too.

Sarah Adam's new exhibition Late to the Hut has just opened at DEPOT Artspace in Tāmaki Makaurau.

 

2:06 The Laugh Track - Orin Ruaine-Prattley

The last few months has seen a boom in touring comedy shows - often showcases of comedians, ranging from "household names" and "trending up" to "hot contenders".

Palmerston North's Orin Ruaine-Prattley is firmly in the last category, though he's definitely a name to watch, according to people in the know.  He's preparing for a big February show Saturday Laughs at Kerikeri with Nick Rado, Justine Smith and Tom Sainsbury. 

He's been described as the comedian who "gets the loudest laughs from the subtlest punchlines"...

Orin Ruaine-Prattley's our guest on the Laugh Track.  His picks include Flight of the Conchords, Dylan Moran, Simon Amstell and Rich Hall.
 

2:26   Simon Devitt's collection of favourite houses  

Simon Devitt describes the houses he likes to photograph as "self-assured, poetic and sustainable".   And he's brought together 30 of his favourites in a book called Cape to Bluff.

Some are intriguing because of the building technique, or the tricky terrain.  Others picked themselves because of how they're future-proofed against sea level rise, or were inspired by an old goldminer's hut. 

The photographs are accompanied by interviews with the homes' architects, talking about the initial plans, and the head-scratching problems they needed to solve while they built..

Simon Devitt's been a professional photographer for more than 25 years, and he tells Lynn Freeman the landscape is just as much a part of the story as the buildings.

 

2:37  Elizabeth Smither's poems about home, family and mortality

 

 

In the 47 years since Elizabeth Smither published her first poetry collection, Here Come the Clouds, she's won numerous awards and was our Poet Laureate in the early 2000s.

Her latest collection My American Chair invites us to roam the world with her, through a series of memorable moments and encounters.

But, as she tells Lynn Freeman, there are also many poems about home, aging, mortality, friendship and family.

Auckland University Press has published Elizabeth Smither's new poetry collection, My American Chair.
 

 

 

2:49 Allison Dobbie of LIANZA

Right now the country's public libraries want to have an even bigger role in their communities - in particular, actively helping schools to support the education of our tamariki.

LIANZA - the Library and Information Association of New Zealand Aotearoa - is planning a submission to the Future of Local Government Review.  Librarians see this as the best chance they have to ring in some much-needed changes.

Lynn Freeman spoke to retired librarian, Allison Dobbie who's leading LIANZA's submission, first asking her about local bodies' current financial support for libraries around the motu.
 

3:06 Drama at 3 - two more plays from the Maranga Mai series

Mira by Sandra Tisam is a play inspired, perhaps, by the claustrophobia of lockdown, with a group of friends reliving past tragedies and getting on each other's nerves.   It features Tina Cook, Tāne Rolfe, Erina Daniels, Ani Piki Tuari, Roy Iro and Tyrone Elia.

In Grown by Stevie Greeks, Ruby returns to her childhood home following the death of her estranged mother.   It stars Emma Katene, Ngamako Rota, Poe Tiare Ruhe Taroro, Erina Daniels, and Tanea Heke. 

The Maranga Mai series was recorded and engineered by Karnan Saba and the production was by Hone Kouka for Tawata Productions.  

And finally a fish out of water story about Stacey who's signed up for a yoga retreat - Liz Breslin's The Path to Nowhere read by Loren Taylor.  It was recorded by Marc Chesterman and produced by Duncan Smith for RNZ National.
 

 

 

 

 

Music played in this show

Artist: Neil Diamond
Song: I am... I said
Composer:  (Diamond)
Album: His 12 greatest hits
Label: MCA
Played at: 12.12

Artist: The Band
Song: Rockin' chair
Composer:  Robertson
Album: The Band
Label:  Capitol
Played at: 12.29

Artist: Cyndi Lauper
Song: Rocking chair
Composer: Buxton-Lauper-Ratcliffe
Album: Bring ya to the brink
Label: Epic
Played at: 12.58

Artist: Bill Haley 
Song: Rocking chair on the moon
Composer:  Haley
Album: Live it up
Label: Intense
Played at:  1.07

Artist: Gezentsvey Quartet
Song: The Carnival
Composer:  Hill
Album: N/A
Label:  N/A
Played at: 1.31

Artist:  George Strait
Song:  The Chair
Composer: Cochran-Dillon
Album: 50 Number Ones
Label: MCA
Played at: 1.44

Artist: Prince
Song: Electric chair
Composer: Prince
Album: Batman
Label: Warner
Played at: 1.58

Artist: Bob Gallion
Song:  You take the table (and I'll take the chairs)
Composer:  Loudermilk 
Album: The songs of
Label: Jasmine
Played at: 12.30

Artist: Status Quo
Song: In my chair
Composer:  Rossi-Young
Album: Whatever you want
Label: Polygram
Played at: 2.58

Artist: Maria Muldaur
Song: Old rockin' chair's got me
Composer: Carmichael
Album:  30 years of, I'm a woman
Label: Shout
Played at: 3.58