November 29, 2011

YOUNG PACIFIC PERFORMERS FROM AUCKLAND INVITED TO WORLD THEATRE FESTIVAL  

A young Pacific Island theatre group from Auckland has been invited to perform at the prestigious World Theatre Festival which will be held at Brisbane’s Powerhouse in February 2012. The group comprises 16 of the students who graduated from PIPA (Pacific Institute of Performing Arts), which is a tertiary performance training institution located at Unitec, in 2010.

These young graduates will perform their acclaimed version of where we once belonged, a play based on the Commonwealth Prize winning novel of the same name by Samoa’s Sia Figiel. The novel has been adapted for the stage by playwright Dave Armstrong, whose recent plays, Niu Sila, Le Sud, and Rita and Douglas, have had sell-out seasons in Auckland.

Directed by PIPA tutors Letti Chadwick and Anapela Polataivao, and designed by Sean Coyle, this production of where we once belonged is an unflinchingly honest, sometimes brutal, yet wildly funny coming-of-age story set in 1970s Samoa. As young Alofa navigates life in her village of Malaefou, she comes to terms with her own changing sense of identity and the price she must pay for it.

“I am really excited about PIPA performing where we once belonged at an international festival in Brisbane,” says playwright and co-producer Dave Armstrong. “Letti, Anapela and their cast have taken my script by the scruff of the neck and breathed incredible life into it. The large cast (16 including musicians) enables an entire Samoan village, with all its comedy, tragedy, dancing and beautiful Polynesian choral singing, to be brilliantly recreated.”

As well as performing and taking part in feedback sessions with audiences, the PIPA graduates will have the chance to rub shoulders with performers from places as diverse as Australia, USA, England, Italy and Belarus. “It’s really exciting,” explains Armstrong, “there’s a young company from Belarus at the festival whose plays have been banned from being performed in that country, as well as a physical theatre company from Italy who have been described as ‘ferocious’, and who satirise Silvio Berlosconi in their show.”

Many of the PIPA graduates live in South Auckland and Armstrong is saddened that despite the success of many Pacific performing groups from South Auckland, there is still so much prejudice towards young Polynesians in the area.  “Epsom MP John Banks talked recently on TV about young Polynesian men in South Auckland on the dole sitting in front of TV watching pornography and planning to steal things. Sure there are problems in South Auckland, but many young Pacific people are like the students of PIPA who have spent a couple of years sitting in front of their script, watching their excellent tutors, and the only thing they are planning to steal in Australia is the limelight.”

The PIPA graduates were selected for Brisbane’s World Theatre Festival after presenting a 20-minute excerpt at the PAANZ performing arts market, held at Aotea Centre in Auckland in March this year. On the strength of the excerpt they were immediately invited to the World Theatre Festival by its director, as well as picking up some dates at some New Zealand festivals which they will fulfill next year.

PIPA tutor and co-director of where we once belonged, Letti Chadwick, believes this opportunity is important for both PIPA and for young emerging Pacific artists, as it means they get to showcase their unique style of theatre, develop their skills and share their stories with the wider community.

Theatreview critic and playwright Victor Rodger described PIPA’s production as “a colourful piece, bursting with life; wonderfully familiar to those who know this world and a charming revelation to those who don’t. By turns moving, hysterical and thought provoking, where we once belonged deserves to have another life.”

To raise money to pay for accommodation and living expenses of the 16 performers while they attend the World Theater Festival in Brisbane. PIPA is holding a fundraising performance of where we once belonged on
Thursday night, December 1,
at Mangere Arts Centre
Tickets are $50 and include Pacific food and entertainment.
They can be obtained from paulfagamalo@gmail.com or by calling (09)8250150 xtn 7600.