Category Archives: Campus

Media Students Excel

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Norman Zafra’s documentary ‘A Friend in Sight’ has been selected for competition and screening in the Documentary Edge Film Festival (Auckland and Wellington, May-June).

Norman made the documentary for Radha O’Meara’s paper Media Practice and Global Culture in 2013.

 

Virginia O’Connor is one of four women who have made a mockumentary webisode series ‘Capital Culture’, which was profiled in the Dom Post:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/local-papers/the-wellingtonian/9874108/Webisodes-capture-Capitals-creative-life

Virginia was a writer and key creator of the series, and she plays the role of Frankie, who features especially in episode 1:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXP3aehMeCk&feature=share&list=UUdu45nVrAocOd8AqP5VkMMQ&index=5

Virginia has completed several papers in Expressive Arts, including Radha O’Meara’s Media Script Writing and Documentary papers, and Emma Willis’s theatre papers.

Writers Week partners with the School of English and Media Studies

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School of English and Media Studies Partners with the New Zealand Festival of the Arts

The School of English and Media Studies 2014 Writers Read series kicked off in style last week with a partnership with the New Zealand Festival of the Arts Writers Week. Massey partnered with Writers Week to host New Zealand events in Wellington and Palmerston North for world-renowned Indian-born Canadian novelist, Jaspreet Singh. School lecturer, Stuart Hoar, also launched his new play, PASEFIKA, at Circa Theatre as part of the wider festival, and two new novels by School tutors were launched at Writers Week, Tina Makereti’s Where the Rēkohu Bone Sings and Mary McCallum’s Dappled Annie and the Tigrish

Massey’s School of English and Media Studies 2014 Writers Read series kicked off in style last week with a partnership with the New Zealand Festival of the Arts Writers Week. Massey partnered with Writers Week to host New Zealand events for world-renowned Indian-born Canadian novelist, Jaspreet Singh. In Wellington Jaspreet joined Senior Lecturer, Dr Ingrid Horrocks, in conversation about his latest novel, Helium. The novel sifts through the anti-Sikh pogroms that took place in India in 1984 and “teases out the complicated intersection of family, love, politics, and hate” (Publishers Weekly). The event was held at the Embassy Theatre and attracted a large, attentive audience. The School also brought Jaspreet to Palmerston North, where he spoke at the Palmerston North City Library on Friday night, also as part of our Writers Read series.

The School’s own media script writing lecturer, Stuart Hoar, was also a featured guest at Writers Week, and followed this by opening the Wellington end of our Arts on Wednesdays events in Wellington, now in their third year. Stuart talked about his new play, PASEFIKA, playing at Circa Theatre as part of the wider New Zealand Festival of the Arts.

Two of our current teaching staff also launched and celebrated new books during Writers Week: Dr Tina Makereti’s launched her first novel, Where the Rēkohu Bone Sings and Mary McCallum her first novel for children, Dappled Annie and the Tigrish. Tina and Mary have both been working for the School of English and Media studies for many years, and have contributed to our fiction and life writing papers. Our in-coming Artist-in-Residence, Alice Miller, also a former Massey tutor, launched her first collection of poetry, The Limits.

In other Massey involvement with the 2014 Writers Week in Wellington city, Dr Horrocks hosted an edgy event on Jane Austen with Walter A. Haas Professor in the Humanities at Stanford, Terry Castle, once described by Susan Sontag as “the most expressive, most enlightening literary critic at large today”; while Professor Peter Lineham, of the School of Humanities, convened a conversation with Diarmaid MacCulloch, one of Britain’s most distinguished living historians and Professor of History of the Church at the University of Oxford.

Congratulations to all involved!

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“Hemi’s Way” by TJ Hoekstra is recognised by the 2013 Pikihuia Awards

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The School of English and Media Studies is proud to announce that former creative writing student TJ Hoekstra (nee Corrigan) has had her story ‘Hemi’s Way’ recognised by the 2013 Pikihuia Awards and published in Huia Short Stories 10. Please visit the Huia Publiishers page for more information: https://www.huia.co.nz/shop&item_id=5226

Palmerston North Media Lab Refurbishment

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For the beginning of the 2014 academic year the media lab at Massey’s Palmerston North Campus has seen an extensive refurbishment, which has seen both production and post-production equipment overhauled.

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In terms of production equipment, the lab, which is used during media practice and expressive arts papers including media practice I and II, creative communication, creative processes, new media and digital cultures and documentary filmmaking, has been kitted out with Canon 70D DSLRs which will be used to teach both still photography and HD video and Canon C100 cinema cameras, which belong to Canons prestigious Cinema series, other models of which were used on feature films nominated for this year’s best cinematography Oscar. Alongside the new, high definition solid-state cameras there are new shotgun microphones, solid state sound recorders and fluid-head tripods.

For post-production, the lab has been equipped with workstation class computers with a dual full HD monitor setup, which will run a range of industry-standard production software including Adobe Lightroom, Photoshop, Premiere and After Effects alongside Avid Media Composer and Davinci Resolve for high end video post-production.

Manawatu Summer Shakespeare 2014

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Shakespeare-2014“As You Like It”, the 12th annual Manawatu Summer Shakespeare show, will run from March 6 to 15, takes a slightly different approach to its original version. Set in the forest at the Esplanade, Grant Mouldey’s version portrays nature as an equal force against culture. This, he says, creates a robust, dynamic force that challenges the characters’ development in new ways and makes them more resilient.

“The show focuses on how the forest can really open people up and transform with love, and the Esplanade is a great location for demonstrating this.”

Mouldey comes from an extensive theatre background and has toured the world with his performances. His artist-in-residency, which began in November last year, marks the re-birth of his career in New Zealand after 30 years living offshore.  which will run from March 6 to 15, takes a slightly different approach to its original version. Set in the forest at the Esplanade, Mouldey’s version portrays nature as an equal force against culture. This, he says, creates a robust, dynamic force that challenges the characters’ development in new ways and makes them more resilient.

“The show focuses on how the forest can really open people up and transform with love, and the Esplanade is a great location for demonstrating this.”

Mouldey comes from an extensive theatre background and has toured the world with his performances. His artist-in-residency, which began in November last year, marks the re-birth of his career in New Zealand after 30 years living offshore.

Full article at http://www.massey.ac.nz/massey/about-massey/news/article.cfm?mnarticle_uuid=99189411-9E1F-43FF-0872-E910CAC0C020

Mask Workshop with Prof. Stephanie Campbell 26th of Feb. @ Albany Campus

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The Expressive Arts Programme is delighted to present a MASK WORKSHOP with Prof. Stephanie Campbell on Wednesday 26 February, from 2-5 pm in the Rec Centre Studio at the Albany Campus.

Stephanie Campbell (MFA Acting/Directing, University of  Arizona) is  an international Mask Methods specialist. More information about her work can be found at www.maskexploration.com.

An actress, stage director and improvisational comedy artist, Stephanie is also a theatre professor at Montana State University. Montana State University is a sister university to Massey University. Please refer to Prof. Campbell’s profile page fore more information.  Professor Campbell has researched uses and application of mask work worldwide and will offer a workshop introducing participants to the process of Character Creation.Places are limited. First come first served. Please register your interest by emailing Dr. Rand Hazou on: r.t.hazou@massey.ac.nz

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A film portrait of Prof. Stephanie Campbell ‘Behind the Mask’ by Emily Narrow is available on Vimeo online.

 

Emily Duncan’s script Eloise in the Middle takes Plays for the Young, Playmarket in New Zealand competition.

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Past 139.763 Community Theatre student’s script takes Playmarket, New Zealand competition.

Emily Duncan was awarded for the 2013 Plays for the Young 3-8 year old category for her script Eloise in the Middle. Playmarket will offer  script development resources, as appropriate, and her script will be entered into the Script Register, making them available for circulation to potential producers. This is a significant achievement given the limited number of playwriting competitions both here and overseas.  Since Emily was a Massey student in 139.763, Community Theatre; she has since gone forward with playwriting.

In 2010 Duncan was selected to be one of the ten playwrights to attend the Playmarket Playwrights’ Retreat over eight days in July at Otaki. The script she developed there, Southern Comfort, won the 2010 Dunedin Write Out Loud competition.

Dunedn-based, Duncan is a writer, copyeditor and teacher, and also acts and directs for theatre. Read more about Emily at Playmarket http://www.playmarket.org.nz/playwrights/emily-duncan

Professing Creativity: Teaching Creative Writing in Aotearoa Conference

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Professing Creativity: Teaching Creative Writing in Aotearoa

 Dates: Wednesday 12 February– Friday 14 February 2014

Venue: Massey University, Wellington Campus

Call for papers

What is the state of teaching Creative Writing in New Zealand? What standards do we share? Where is the discipline headed and what are we doing about it?

This conference will serve as an initial discussion about some of the foundational issues around our diverse and emerging discipline in Aotearoa. Is it diverse, for instance? Is it a discipline? Is it emerging? Arising out of issues around expectations for creative theses, the conference has a special focus on postgraduate issues in Creative Writing. Professing Creativity will also feature a panel discussion on creative writing, which will join national and international teachers in a dialogue around some of the big issues in the field.

By 15 November, 2013 submit a 300 word abstract related to the following themes:

Purpose of the profession: what is creative writing in New Zealand today? What will it be tomorrow?

 

Marrying creative & critical: What is a creative-critical thesis? What expectations do we have as supervisors and examiners?

 

Biculturalism in the Classroom: How do issues of Maori identity and access shape our teaching? What changes are needed?

 

Writing in the Tower: In what ways does creative writing as postgraduate research differ from creative writing outside of the academy?

 

Doctor of What: What is the creative PhD and what should it be? What issues do we face in the moderation and examination of creative work? What distinguishes the creative PhD from the Masters?

 

Playing it Loose: What role do theatre and media script writing have in Creative Writing?

 

Where in the World: How does teaching in New Zealand fit into an international context?

 Key Note Speakers

Joan Connor, University of Ohio

Michele Leggott, University of Auckland

Kevin Brophy, University of Melbourne

Angie Farrow, Massey University

Panel Chair: Damien Wilkins, International Institute of Modern Letters

 Registration Costs

Standard conference registration: $60

Student registration: $25

Visitor day rate: $30

An additional fee will apply for those who’d like to attend the conference dinner.

Online registration details will be available from 1 December.

 Creative Writing Consortium

The Professing Creativity Conference is also intended as the kick-off for an ongoing consortium of creative writing teachers intended to keep the discussion active and assist us with such practical issues as finding examiners for postgraduate work. If you’re unable to attend the conference but would like to be involved in the consortium, please contact Nicholas Allen (nicholas.peter.allen@gmail.com) and let him know.

Key Dates

 15 November, 2013: Abstracts due

 1 December, 2013: Online Conference registration open (early bird rates apply)

 26 January, 2014: Online Conference registration closes (additional registration available during the conference)

 12 February – 14 February: Professing Creativity Conference

 Contact

Please send abstracts and general enquiries to Conference Coordinator, Nicholas Allen, at nicholas.peter.allen@gmail.com

 Professing Creativity Conference Committee

Thom Conroy Jack Ross
Angie Farrow Bryan Walpert
Joy GreenClaire Grant Tina MakeretiJulie McKenzie

 

Sex worker story to prize-winning play

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Kate Davis, whose play Between the Cracks is the inaugural winner of the Bitsa Playwriting and Performing Competition.

A short story about an unlikely friendship between a sex worker and a middle-class woman has been turned into the winning entry in a playwriting competition at the Albany campus. Written by Bachelor of Arts student Kate Davis, the play, Between the Cracks, was among entries in the inaugural Bitsa Playwriting and Performing Competition. It will be performed during Orientation Week next February.

Set on Auckland’s colourfully infamous Karangahape Road, the drama centres around Kathy, a small-time pot dealer who gets busted for an ounce and sentenced to community service in a K’ Road soup kitchen where she meets Georgie – “a street worker with a Robin Hood complex”, according to the synopsis. It is based on Ms Davis’ short story Georgie, which was published in Landfall issue 224. The story is one of four published stories from her as-yet unpublished, 22-strong collection about sex workers, titled The Whore Next Door.

The judges, Dr Rand Hazou (lecturer in Theatre Arts), Dr Jenny Lawn (senior lecturer in English), Stuart Hoar (Playmarket script advisor and Massey lecturer in script writing), and Becki Chappell (Massey University Theatre Society secretary and student), described her script as “vivid, warm, energetic,” adding that the play “stands out for its clear local references and life-affirming fondness for all the human flotsam of the K’ Rd scene. “The dialogue cracks along at a sharp pace, and is fluent, idiomatic, sometimes witty, and rich in Kiwi slang. The characterisation is believable, and the class and gender crossovers give enough of a sense of personal discovery, without falling into diversity didacticism”.

Ms Davis formerly worked in the sex industry then went on to work as regional coordinator in Auckland for the New Zealand Prostitutes’ Collective for five years. She lobbied to decriminalise prostitution leading to the Prostitution Reform Act 2003, and first enrolled in a Certificate of Health Promotion at Massey. When she changed tack to do a Creative Writing paper, her tutor Dr Bronwyn Lloyd encouraged her writing talent and invited her along to a writers’ group, where she began her short story collection and decided to pursue full-time study for a Bachelor of Arts.

Ms Davis, who is studying English and Politics, says her stories, written from an insider’s perspective, are a way of demystifying the world of sex workers, and their diverse personalities, sexual identities and life stories. Theatre lecturer and Bitsa judge Dr Hazou says her writing talent lies in her ability to bring a creative and critical eye to those marginalised by society.

Second place in the competition went to Georgia Forrester for Lines of Literature, and third Place to Sam Nicholls’ Sharks, Hookers and Exes.

Auditions to recruit students and community members to perform the winning three entries will be held on November 21 from 12 to 3pm at the Theatre Lab in the Sir Neil Waters Building. Rehearsals will be held over summer. Directors, set designers and technicians are also needed.

The Bitsas are the culmination of a busy year of theatre activity at the Albany campus, with the launch of a new theatre space called Theatre Lab, a student theatre group (MUTS) and new papers in Expressive Arts offered at the Albany campus.

For more information on auditions contact: masseyunimuts@gmail.com

‘Daffodils’ poem by Sue Wootton wins 2013 Cancer Council Victoria Arts Award

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MCW student wins the 2013 Cancer Council Victoria Arts Award with her poem ‘Daffodils’

Current Massey Masters of Creative Writing student Sue Wootton has won the poetry section of the 2013 Cancer Council Victoria Arts Awards with her poem ‘Daffodils’. The award was judged by prominent Australian poet Jennifer Harrison, who said, ‘‘Daffodils’ is a formally elegant poem in which subtle slant rhyme, extended metaphor and thoughtful pacing entice the reader emotionally into the poem. When reading this poem, one embraces the solitude, renewal and resilience of human experience more widely than before. An outstanding entry, this poem is full of delicate wisdom. Although Wordsworth is not explicitly referenced I like the way this poem resonates with the history of poetry, with the recurring, seasonal ‘daffodil’ in poetry, especially with Wordsworth’s ‘host of golden daffodils’.

The Cancer Council Victoria awards are held annually and include categories for visual arts, film, fiction and poetry.http://www.artsawards.com.au/about

A former physiotherapist, Sue has a long-standing interest in the intersection of science and the humanities generally, and poetry and medicine in particular. Earlier this year she shared second prize in the 2013 International Hippocrates Prize for Poetry and Medicine for her poem ‘Wild’.  Working with her supervisor Thom Conroy, Sue is midway through a critical-creative thesis which includes an extract from an upcoming novel.