August 16, 2017

ASIAN THEATREMAKERS’ WORKSHOPS 

Playmarket is offering two workshops for Asian New Zealand theatremakers this September.  

WRITING IT OUT
A practical workshop in scriptwriting and telling your story with Lynda Chanwai-Earle. The workshop will explore writing from what you know, inspiring and empowering writers to look inside themselves for stories for the stage. It will be particularly suitable for new writers. Participants will be asked to bring one or two pages of ideas, a synopsis, or a scene you are wanting confidence to move forward with. The workshop will focus on dialogue, progression of scenes and revealing the voice of characters.

When: 10am – 4pm Sunday 10 September 2017 at Aotea Centre, Auckland Live.

How much?: The cost is $80. Travel subsidies may be available for those living outside of Auckland.

How to I register?: email info@playmarket.org.nz

BRAND NEW LIGHT
An exploration of unconventional approaches to making live performance art and theatre. The Workshop will introduce some of the unique creative methods applied and developed by Nisha Madhan and Ahi Karunaharan encouraging artists to turn convention on its head and create and devise work in a brand new light. It will be tailored to meet the needs of participants to experiment with their own ideas utilising Nisha’s Improbable Texts to Ahi’s reference of visual images and sampling techniques. It will offer a unique insight into ways of devising and documenting performance from a variety of art mediums. 

When: 10am – 4pm Sunday 10 September 2017 at Aotea Centre, Auckland Live.

How much?: The cost is $80. Travel subsidies may be available for those living outside of Auckland.

How to I register?: email info@playmarket.org.nz

About Lynda:
Lynda Chanwai-Earle is a fourth-generation Chinese–New Zealander and a ground-breaking playwright, poet, filmmaker, and actor. She has a BFA and a Diploma in Drama (The University of Auckland), and a Masters in Creative Writing (Victoria University of Wellington). She toured with Te Rakau Hua O Te Wao Tapu to prisons, marae and schools from 1995 to 1999. Her acclaimed one-woman Ka-Shue (Letters Home) (1996) was the first authentic Chinese–New Zealand play. Man in a Suitcase premiered at the Court Theatre in Christchurch and toured to Beijing (2012). Her play Heat (2008) set in Antarctica was the first alternatively powered play to tour festivals around New Zealand in 2010–2011. She has taught creative writing for Whitireia and was the inaugural Writer in Residence at Sun Yat-sen University, China, in 2015. She is now a full-time Producer at RNZ National creating the weekly Voices programme and other documentaries.

About Nisha:
Nisha is theatre-maker, performance artist, director and producer. A graduate of Unitec, she is of Indian descent and lives in Auckland. She is interested in creating work that encourages a collective experience and examines the contract between performers and audiences. Her company The Town Centre is renowned for shows that use game-based, structured improvisations, deconstruct the theatre experience and is influenced by the works of Forced Entertainment (UK) and Kate McIntosh (NZ/BE).

About Ahi:
Born in UK, bred in Aotearoa, Srilankan in descent, Ahi Karunaharan has worked in the arts sector for shows, venues, production companies and festivals since graduating from Victoria University of Wellington and Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Drama School. He is an actor, writer, director, musician and the founder and Artistic Director of the critically acclaimed company Agaram Productions.