Yet another great review for this year’s Summer Shakespeare production, “The Winter’s Tale”. The production runs until Saturday 11 March 2017.
“The Winter’s Tale”
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Review – “The Winter’s Tale”
A great review for Sara Brodie’s production of “The Winter’s Tale”. We hope it will entice you to come and see this wonderful piece. Thirty six people in the cast who range in age from 17 to 76. It is a delight!
Globe Theatre Awards – Best Ensemble
Congratulations to Massey’s 2016 Modern Drama class for picking up the award for Best Ensemble at the Globe Theatre awards this weekend! The Globe Awards celebrate the best of Palmerston North’s non-professional theatre, and we were delighted to be in such esteemed company. The production was Caryl Churchill’s 2012 Love and Information, directed by Rachel Lenart, with design, performance and all aspects of production by the 300-level students. The future of New Zealand theatre is bright with these students leading the way!
Moa Magic
Madam Black, a short film written by Matthew Harris, one of our senior tutors in Auckland, has recently picked up Best Short Film at The Rialto Channel NZ Film Awards (the ‘Moas’). The film has now won 38 international awards, including the Prix du Public at the Clermont-Ferrand in France – the biggest audience prize for short film in the world. After this weekend’s win the film was described by Rialto as a “globally acclaimed short” on an “historic awards run”. Matthew says “the volume of these festival awards are definitely encouraging, so I’ll be devoting a lot more time to screenwriting, but I maintain other areas of interest too – short fiction, academic writing, teaching – I’m looking forward to tutoring Creative Writing this semester!”
Clermont-Ferrand short film festival winner
Big congratulations to our Wellington media production lecturer Costa Botes and his longstanding mentee Zoe McIntosh who have won a coveted prize in the 2017 Clermont-Ferrand short film festival in France. The festival is the biggest event of its type in the world. It’s a feat just to get selected for competition, then Zoe and Costa’s film The World in Your Window has picked up the Student Prize in the international competition – this is an award given by an international student jury. The jurors described the film as “a real visual poem”. The jury announcement said “we were all touched by the relationship you depicted between a dad and his son. The breath of humanism and tolerance that emerges from your film is extremely moving.” The World in Your Window is directed by Zoe McIntosh, written by Costa Botes and Zoe McIntosh, and produced by Hamish Mortland. It will have its New Zealand premiere at the New Zealand International Film Festival mid year.
Shakespeare in Schools
Don’t miss this year’s amazing Summer Shakespeare production of “The Winter’s Tale” directed by Sara Brody, which begins on March 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 9th, 10th and 11th at 7.30 pm at Victoria Esplanade, Palmerston North. As part of our Shakespeare in Schools Project run by our School in Manawatu, Sara worked with drama students at Freyberg High School on Tuesday during a workshop on “The Winter’s Tale”.
“Lifetime” achievement
Associate Professor Angie Farrow’s play “Lifetime” was presented in London this week as part of the Pint-Sized festival. The same play will be performed by the Toulouse Comedy Players in Pibrac and Castelnau de Monmiral, France, in May. Good work, Angie!
A world of information but what is trustworthy?
Our colleague, Associate Professor Lisa Emerson, is leading a group of researchers in a three-year project to help students gain skills to become more information-literate. Read more.
Manawatu River becomes a Shakespearean backdrop
Director Sara Brodie is bringing a bit of wild to Summer Shakespeare 2017, with the Manawatu River as a backdrop and all sorts of surprises planned.
In her position as the artist in residence at Massey University, the Kapiti-based director and choreographer has chosen The Winter’s Tale as her play.
“It’s comic and tragic and I want to evoke a winter’s night and the fantastic tale element of it as much as possible.”
A stretch of Palmerston North’s Esplanade river walkway will be the stage for the open theatre piece, and Brodie said all sorts of things become possible in such a setting.
“When the audience actually come along here it will all be set up like a mid-winter fair with braziers, bunting, food stories and fire poi. We enter into the court scenes first where the jealous ravings of King Leontes start.”
Brodie is no stranger to staging outdoor events and said the “happy accidents” that occur are one of the best elements.
“Beautiful sunsets or wind at just the right moment. Those sort of things that really add to the experience for people. This will be like going into the fantastical wilds.”
The annual event is in it’s 14th year and will be drawing on Palmerston North’s non-professional theatre community for the production that will be held next March.
A workshop will be held at 10am on Saturday at Massey University’s Sir Geoffrey Peren Building, which Brodie said will give people an idea of the process.
“It’s for anyone who is interested to come along to meet me and to hear about the production and see some concept imagery around it. We will talk about the story and get our teeth into some of the text and some exercises to have some fun with it.”
Formal auditions for The Winter’s Tale will be held at the end of November and as well as actors and dancers, Brodie is also on the look out for production behind-the-scenes people.
Globe Theatre Awards – Massey’s nominations
We are delighted with the nominations for the Globe Theatre Awards across four Massey University productions this year. Our student driven production, Arts Uncontrolled, received a nomination for best ensemble. MUDS (our drama society) received two nominations for Misfits, and Kelly Harris received a nomination for Best direction for our Summer Shakespeare production The Merry Wives of Windsor. Our third year course Modern Drama received three nominations for their production of Love and Information, directed by Rachel Lenart.
The winners will be announced during an awards ceremony at the Globe Theatre in Palmerston North on 24 February 2017.
Theatre with Massey has had an outstanding year in Palmerston North! Congratulations to all our nominees.