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Penguins on stage and street in climate change action – Massey University

Donning Catherine Bagnall’s costumes for the ‘Becoming Penguin’ walk are fourth year fashion students Jacob Coutie, Jordie Agnew and Hannah Tate.

Using theatre to turn people into penguins is a symbolic way to highlight some of the planet’s most vulnerable species in this year’s global Still Waving: Climate Change Theatre Action events in Wellington.

Co-organiser Massey University’s Associate Professor Elspeth Tilley says a number of Massey staff and students will become “human penguins” on stage and in the streets of Wellington this Labour Weekend. They are showcasing how artists and performers can respond to environmental and social issues – in this case, the serious threat of global warming to the existence of Antarctica’s penguin populations.

Her new play, The Penguins, is being performed in 14 locations worldwide from Paris to Shanghai and the United States, as well as at Massey’s Wellington campus on Labour Day (October 23). It is one of nine short plays on climate change featured at this year’s Still Waving: Climate Change Theatre Action event at Massey – part of a six-week global movement to highlight climate change issues through performance.

In a thematic prelude, participants will take to the streets of central Wellington in the “Becoming Penguin” performance walk, starting at the Cenotaph at Parliament at 1pm and heading to Massey University. Participants (everyone welcome) are invited to join the walk wearing whatever black and white items they have in their wardrobe that lend a penguin “look”.

Creator of “Becoming Penguin”, Massey lecturer in the School of Design | Ngā Pae Māhutonga, Catherine Bagnall, is an artist whose work focuses on the edges of fashion studies and its intersection with performance practices.

“In the context of questions about humanity’s relationship to the planetary ecosystem and how we categorise ‘other’ species, ‘Becoming Penguin’ explores ideas about the end of the Anthropocene and the beginning of the post-human world,” Ms Bagnall says.

The walk, she says, is to “symbolise support for all the communities taking personal responsibility for climate action at a local level, when governments won’t.”

World premieres staged

Following the “Becoming Penguin” walk, a cast of 23 – including well-known Wellington professional actors alongside Massey students and staff – will stage nine climate action plays by writers of Jamaican, Portuguese, Native American, Australian, New Zealand, Samoan, Canadian and US descent at the campus Theatre Laboratory from 2pm.

“The programme includes two world premieres – a short play by Samoan writer/director Ian Lesā about Pacific Island climate change issues, and one by Kat Laveaux, a playwright from the Lakota tribe in the United States, who visited Massey University earlier this year as part of the National Expedition and Internship Programme, and became keen to participate in Climate Change Theatre Action,” says Dr Tilley.

Also featuring is work by another School of English and Media Studies playwright, Philip Braithwaite, whose short play “Swing Among the Stars”, about colonising Mars, is scheduled for nine Climate Change Theatre Action performances globally.

In her play, Dr Tilley explores human behaviour and attitudes from another species’ perspective (one in which the males ‘stay home’ and look after the young) to provide an innovative and often hilarious framework into which serious ideas can be woven.

“It’s also a way of giving people hope. Penguins have been around for 60 million years, whereas humans have been on the planet for about two million years,” she says. “I think it’s important not to hit people in the face with a message.”

Art and creativity on social issues

Dr Tilley, a lecturer in theatre studies in the School of English and Media Studies – including the Creativity in the Community paper (in which students apply skills in theatre, performance, film-making, creative writing, media practice or mixed media to developing a creative response to a social issue or community need) – is the author of several award-winning plays on climate change and social issues, and producer of the biennial Aotearoa Climate Change Theatre Action events, launched in 2015.

She says the process of creating and performing theatre about a difficult and daunting topic can be empowering for participants and audiences.

“People get bombarded with information about climate change and the doom-filled scenarios – the result is that people become complacent and switch off,” she says. “The performances in Still Waving will entertain, console and confront you with works that are humorous and intense, problem-illuminating and solution-focused, powerful, sometimes funny, sometimes catastrophic, often moving and inspirational.”

All proceeds from the Still Waving event go to youth-led climate action group Generation Zero, which is campaigning for a zero carbon New Zealand economy.

For more information, check out the Still Waving: Climate Change Theatre Action Facebook page.

Source: Penguins on stage and street in climate change action – Massey University

Still Waving: Climate Change Theatre Action

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CCTA Aotearoa’s Nine Playwrights

With only a few days to go until Still Waving: Climate Change Theatre Action Aotearoa 2017, we are excited to bring you the full programme.

On October 23, we will be staging nine short plays at 2pm in the Massey University Wellington Theatre Laboratory:

Start Where You Are, by E. M. Lewis – a poignant look at how to remain hopeful in the face of calamity, by an award-winning Oregon-based playwright
The Penguins, by Elspeth Tilley – lifting our spirits through comedy as we find out what penguins think of humanity
Truth Like Water, by Kat Laveaux – premiering a compassionate view of the world from an emerging Native American playwright whose tribe stands in defiance at the Dakota Access Pipeline protests
A Girl’s Dance, by Ian Lesā – also a world premiere: a powerfully spiritual work from a new voice, Samoan New Zealand playwright and director Ian Lesā
Brackendale, by Elaine Ávila – a wry comedy about Bald Eagles and rubbish dumps, from a Canadian/US writer of Azorean Portuguese descent
Single Use, by Marcia Johnson – a Jamaican playwright’s very modern sketch of online dating in the 21st century and how we decide what’s important in a partner
Swing Among the Stars, by Philip Braithwaite – an interstellar future, from the imagination of a multi-award-winning New Zealand playwright
Homo Sapiens, by Chantal Bilodeau – a trip to the zoo, a century from now. What will be on exhibit? A provocative comedy from the co-founder of Climate Change Theatre Action, and;
Rube Goldberg Device for The Generation of Hope, by Jordan Hall – an interactive experience that will get you off your feet, from a fresh and inspirational Canadian playwright.

There will also be readings of the three winning pieces in our Climate Change Theatre Action Creative Writing Competition, and a short talk from Generation Zero about what you can do to pitch in in the fight against climate change.

Still Waving is a paperless event, so please download our full programme in a PDF file, here for more detail of cast and crew: Still Waving Final Programme PDF 3

If you haven’t got your ticket yet, get one now from EventFinda: https://www.eventfinda.co.nz/2017/still-waving-climate-change-theatre-action-aotearoa-2017/wellington

And don’t forget, you can also join the ‘Becoming Penguin’ Performance Walk just prior to Still Waving if you’re keen – details at http://sites.massey.ac.nz/expressivearts/2017/08/30/becoming-penguin-a-performance-walk/

Lahar awareness research will help save lives – Massey University

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Many skiers and snowboarders on Mt Ruapehu do not know how to get to safety if a potentially deadly lahar came rampaging down the mountainside, research from Massey graduate Leleiga Taito shows.

Source: Lahar awareness research will help save lives – Massey University

Many skiers and snowboarders on Mt Ruapehu do not know how to get to safety if a potentially deadly lahar came rampaging down the mountainside, research from Massey graduate Leleiga Taito shows.

It is believed to be the first international research that has documented a disconnect between safety information about lahars (the volcanic flow of ash, snow and rocks) and the key 18-30 year-old age group of young adventure sport enthusiasts.

“Many people didn’t know what a lahar is, or that they may have less than two minutes from the warning siren to escape,” Ms Taito says.

The Upper Hutt woman, who is the first in her family to graduate from university, will be conferred with a Bachelor of Communication honours degree (First Class) at the Michael Fowler Centre on Thursday.

Her research, investigating barriers at Whakapapa ski field that may be stopping young people from following safety instructions, was partly made possible by the awarding of a GNS Science scholarship arranged in partnership with Massey’s School of English and Media Studies and the Joint Centre for Disaster Research. It is hoped Massey students will help to develop further resources based on Ms Taito’s research to address the issue in the future.

There are plans also for Ms Taito’s findings to be used by GNS Science, the Department of Conservation and Ruapehu Alpine Lifts to communicate better with young skiers and snowboarders.

Twice-yearly tests of the Eruption Detection System over the past five years showed up to 50 people per test failed to get out of the valleys. Those people were asked to fill in a survey, which showed some didn’t know they were in danger zones, or thought they had traversed high enough out of the valleys to be out of danger.

Ms Taito had only ever been on the snow once, joking: “Samoans don’t do snow”. She spent three months working for the ski lift operator while living at Whakapapa village at Mt Ruapehu last winter. Describing herself as a “Samoan population of one”, she conducted in-depth research observing the behaviour of 257 mountain users and interviewing 29 of them about their awareness of lahar risk.

She found the sub-culture of young experienced snowboarders and skiers have their own lingo and use euphemisms that normalise crashing and unsafe behaviour on the mountain. They deal with serious situations such as accidents, hazards and emergencies using humour and friendly teasing.

“Skiing is such a hazardous sport and they become desensitized to the danger factor. They are there to have fun and don’t want to think about anything happening- they call it a buzz kill. Anti-authoritarian framing is the norm for a subculture such as adventure sports enthusiasts,” she says.

The research participants offered a range of safety suggestions, including better locational identification on trail maps and creating a cellphone app that provides safety information.

Ms Taito attended a pre-season briefing with emergency service staff from the mountain to share her insights. Her recommendations include better signage and using digital technology to inform and remind people they are on an active volcano and what to do when the lahar warning siren sounds.

“Young skiers and snowboarders’ love of speed could also be turned into a positive communication feature,” she says.

Safety communications could tap into their own group values by featuring a great skier speeding down the mountain contrasted with the speed of a lahar to show that nobody can outrun a lahar.”

After five years of study at Massey, Ms Taito is looking forward to visiting family in Australia, going back to the mountain to see her new snow buddies and looking for her first permanent communications’ job. But first of all there is going to be a big party this week when her large family celebrates her graduation. And she hopes to get her family up to the snow this ski season.

New Postgraduate Paper in Theatre for Innovation

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A/P Elspeth Tilley, paper coordinator

The School of English & Media Studies is launching a new postgraduate communication paper in 2016.

The paper, 139.764 Theatre for Innovation and Communication, is available to students in both the Master of Communication and Bachelor of Communication Honours programmes.

It is an internal, second-semester paper offered at Wellington, and is timetabled on a Tuesday from 4pm to 7pm to enable working professionals to attend in the evening. Other PG papers in the same programmes are available on Wednesday and Thursday evenings so that professionals studying while working can make up a viable schedule of after-work study on Wellington campus.

Theatre for Innovation and Communication offers an advanced, practical exploration of theatrical improvisation techniques in relation to enhancing creativity, innovation, leadership, teamwork, and communication performance, with an emphasis on the application of theatrical techniques to communication and innovation challenges.

It is designed for those with organisational experience who want to understand how theatre and roleplay can extend their skills as a communicator, manager and team facilitator, or for those with theatre experience who want to move into applying that background to organisational training or communication roles.

In class, students will examine a range of historical and contemporary models for improvisational theatre through reading, seminar discussion and evaluative writing and engage in a range of practical theatre exercises such as spontaneity, story-telling, and character and dramatic narrative development during workshops. They will also study organisational communication theory and models, particularly evidence-based approaches to non-verbal communication and teamwork. As part of the final assessment, they will be required to bring these two areas of learning together to research, plan, pitch, deliver and evaluate their own short workshop using theatre and improvisation to offer a communication intervention.

Paper coordinator Associate Professor Elspeth Tilley said the course filled a clear gap in available curricula for postgraduate communication study. “There is growing recognition of the value of creative techniques for improving business and theatre techniques for enhancing communication, but there is nothing like this that brings them together in one integrated learning experience at postgraduate level.”

Dr Tilley has a background as an improviser and theatre practitioner, and has also taught and researched in communication and public relations at advanced levels for more than a decade, meaning she was able to connect up these two areas of expertise in designing the paper. “Organisations have been asking me repeatedly for input on how this is done – with this paper we will be able to upskill a whole new cohort of communication professionals who have evaluated the evidence about creative and improvisational approaches, had practice in designing and delivering workshops, and can go out into industry and start using these techniques effectively to create change in how our organisations innovate and communicate. I’m very excited by the potential for this to lead to significant improvements for New Zealand businesses.”

For more information about the paper, see http://www.massey.ac.nz/paper/?p=139764&o=1229693 or contact Dr Tilley on Email: e.tilley@massey.ac.nz or Phone: + 64 4 9793565

Waves online programme

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Below you will find the full programme for Waves: Climate Change Theatre Action

Theatre Lab, 5D14, Massey University Wellington Campus, Wellington, 1pm November 1. (Waves is a paperless event, and so we have posted the programme here, and will provide free wifi to the audience.) For more information about Waves, or to join us, see previous post at: Waves: Climate Change Theatre Action

Acknowledgements:

Thank you to ‘Theatre Without Borders’, ‘The Arctic Cycle’ and ‘NoPassport’, in particular Caridad Svich (recipient of 2012 OBIE for Lifetime Achievement in Theatre), Chantal Bilodeau (Artistic Director of The Arctic Cycle), and Elaine Avila (Recipient, Mellon Foundation Environmental Arts Commission, Pomona College, Los Angeles) for curating and coordinating the global programme of Climate Change Theatre Action 2015 from bases in L.A. and New York. Through the vision and hard work of these three women, from today (the global launch) to mid-December, more than 100 Climate Change Theatre Action events will be staged in 22 countries, featuring the work of more than 40 distinguished international playwrights. This is the third and largest global theatre action event organised by the team, the others being ‘The Way of Water’ (2012, theatre action on oil spills) and ‘Gun Control’ (2013).

Waves, the only Climate Change Theatre Action event in Aotearoa and the first in the world of the global schedule, is produced and directed by Elspeth Tilley, with lighting design by Emma Bennetts of Backlight, film editing and multimedia technical support by Samuel Williams, and video recording by Mark Steelsmith. Scene-change visuals between items are from the Pacific Climate Change documentary ‘Storm Islands’, provided courtesy of director Steve Menzies. The Massey University School of English & Media Studies fed and costumed the actors among many and various other supportive inputs. Artcop21 (the global cultural programme of the United Nations Conference on Climate Change 2015, of which Waves is a registered part) provided free hosting for our event at http://www.artcop21.com/events/waves/ Link to other Artcop21 events worldwide from that page.

A huge thank you to all the Waves performers (whose intriguing details are at the end of the programme) and authors for providing their time, talents and inspirational creative work to Climate Change Theatre Action to help contribute a crucial cultural and artistic element to the worldwide conversation about our planet’s wellbeing. A huge thank you to you, our audience, for coming out today to show your support for the role of the arts in provoking new thinking about the issues that matter. Follow the global project at #climatechangetheatreaction to see more events unfold worldwide over the next six weeks.

Programme

Item 1: Danny’s monologue from ‘The Atom Room’ by Philip Braithwaite

Read by Philip Braithwaite

Danny and Sarah are a modern couple. They are living in a long-distance relationship: he is in Wellington, and she is on Mars. But this is a universe where the Earth has been catastrophically damaged by tsunamis and nuclear meltdowns, and the rich elite are moving to outer colonies and Mars.

Sarah is an engineer and scientist in the Mars programme. Danny is on his own on Earth, working for Envirocorp, the only organisation left that looks out for the environment. Every now and then they can meet in The Atom Room: the most advanced virtual avatar programme in the galaxy. In his monologue, Danny is engaged in a series of interviews, trying to talk about the death of his planet, and why he refuses to leave it.

About the author: Philip Braithwaite has won multiple playwriting awards including the 2001 BBC World Service International Radio Playwriting Competition, the 2013-14 William Evans Playwriting Fellowship, and New Zealand’s top playwriting prize, the Adam NZ Play Award, in 2014.

His work has been produced in New Zealand, Australia and Europe, and he has collaborated with the Royal Court Theatre in London, the BBC and SEEyD theatre company. His radio plays have been produced on the BBC World Service and Radio New Zealand. Oh and he once had a beer with Alan Rickman. You will be the first in the world to hear a reading from this brand new work.

Item 2: Mōrehu and Tītī by David Geary

Mōrehu – Hamish Boyle

Tītī – Moira Fortin-Cornejo

Al Gore/Aurora – Sara McBride

Mōrehu is an ancient male punk rocker tuatara. In the Māori language of the Indigenous Peoples of New Zealand, Mōrehu means survivor or remnant. Tuatara means ‘spiny back’. Tuatara are rare, medium-sized reptiles found only in New Zealand. They are the last survivors of an order of reptiles that thrived in the age of the dinosaurs. Mōrehu is stuck on a drifting raft with Tītī, a young female sooty shearwater bird, muttonbird, Puffinsus griseus, or tītī (pron. Teetee). The young of these birds are a traditional food source for Māori, preserved in copious amounts of their own fat and salt. So though they may perish in large numbers before reaching adulthood, the tītī can rest assured those who eat them regularly will die prematurely of heart attacks.

AG/Aurora Australis – a famous person and The Southern Lights – makes an appearance as the raft nears Antarctica.

About the author: David Geary writes plays, television, film, fiction, and haiku on twitter @gearsgeary. He is of New Zealand Māori and Pākehā heritage, and is now also a citizen of Canada. He teaches at Capilano University, North Vancouver, in the Indigenous

Filmmaking and Documentary programs, leads playwrights’ workshops for Playwrights Theatre Centre, and works as a freelance dramaturge. He is the author of ‘Lovelock’s Dream Run’, co-wrote and co-directed the television documentary ‘The Smell of Money’ and his short story collection, ‘A Man of the People’ was published in 2003. He has worked as a scriptwriter and storyliner for television including Shortland Street, Mercy Peak, Jackson’s Wharf and Hard Out. He won the Bruce Mason Playwrights’ Award in 1991 and the Adam Foundation Playwrights’ Award in 1994. ‘Mōrehu and Tītī’ was written specifically for Climate Change Theatre Action 2015. This is its world premiere.

Item 3: Climate Change Poems from Aotearoa
Readings selected and presented by Dr Ingrid Horrocks

Many recent poems by New Zealand writers grapple, directly or indirectly, with questions of climate change. In “The Uprising,” which appears in nature poet Dinah Hawken’s latest collection, Ocean and Stone (2015), Hawken considers the rising oceans. So does Lynn Jenner in her book of poems, Lost and Gone Away (2015). Several Massey graduate students, among them poets Lynn Davidson, Sarah-Jane Barnett, and Janet Newman, have spent time exploring new ways to engage with and write about the environment. Ingrid will read fragments from some of these recent works.

About the authors: Dinah Hawken was awarded the Lauris Edmond Award for Distinguished Contribution to Poetry; Lynn Jenner has won both the Adam Prize in Creative Writing and the NZSA Jessie Mackay Award for Best First Book of Poetry; Lynn Davidson is widely published and just completed her PhD in Creative Writing at Massey University; poet and Massey creative writing tutor Sarah-Jane Barnett just released her new (and second) poetry collection, titled Work; and Massey Master of Creative Writing student Janet Newman just won the Open category of the New Zealand Poet Society’s 2015 International Poetry Competition.

Item 4: Flotsam by Elspeth Tilley

Mariana – Anna Barden Shaw

Natalia – Charlotte Tilley

Stefan – Jack Hitchens

Mariana has a tough job, judging climate-change-refugee applications. Her teenaged daughter Natalia has been reading Facebook and is less than impressed with her mother’s decisions. Things don’t look good, weather-wise – but it’s OK, Mariana can afford to build a nice big wall to keep it all at bay.

About the author: Elspeth Tilley is a graduate of the University of Queensland drama programme, the La Boite improvisation, devising and writing for theatre courses, the Gold Coast Institute of Technology acting courses 1 and 2, and the Queensland Film Academy screen actor training programme. An experienced actor for stage and screen, she now teaches theatre and creative activism at Massey University Wellington, publishes on performance and postcolonialism, and enjoys directing regular student theatre both scripted and devised. She was inspired to write ‘Flotsam’ to illuminate the massive damage and inequalities climate change is wreaking in the Pacific. ‘Flotsam’ is an official Climate Change Theatre Action selection, chosen by the curators for inclusion in the worldwide programme. This is its world premiere.

Item 5: Earth Duet by E.M. Lewis

Read by: Grace Bucknell and Jack Hitchens

An elegiac poem, for two voices.

About the author: E.M. Lewis is an award-winning playwright, librettist, and teacher of playwriting. She was a finalist for the 2014 Shakespeare’s Sister Fellowship, received the Hodder Fellowship from Princeton University in 2010-2011, and won both the ATCA/Steinberg Award and the Award for Outstanding Writing of a World Premiere Play from the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle for her play ‘Song of Extinction’. She won the Primus Prize for her play ‘Heads’. Her work has been produced around the world – and we are very excited to be able to bring it for the first time to New Zealand.

Item 6: Our Corner of the World by Jacqueline E. Lawton

Emily – Alice Guerin

David – Tobias Nash

Emily and David have moved to Detroit, where you can buy a house for a dollar. Emily stands on the porch of their once-condemned new home that they are slowly renovating. The lawn that surrounds the house is covered with abandoned tires and dirt. There is a cracked sidewalk and an empty street. Emily stands on the porch and cradles a young baby in her arms. David enters on a bike. Emily does not turn to look at him.

About the author: Jacqueline E. Lawton was named one of the top 30 national leading black playwrights in the USA by Arena Stage’s American Voices New Play Institute and is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships including the 2015-2016 Kenan Institute’s Creative Collaboratory Project Grant, two Young Artist Program Grants from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities for Playwriting; the Ellsworth P. and Virginia Conkle Endowed Scholarship for Drama; the Jean McKenzie Schenkkan Endowed Scholarship in Playwriting; and the Morton Brown, Nellie Lea Brown, and Minelma Brown Lockwood Endowed Scholarship in Playwriting.

Item 7: Expressive Arts Club Climate Change Creative Writing Competition Finalists
Melting Clocks, by Braidicea Warriner, read by Braidicea Warriner

A Race to Extinction, by Stevie Greeks, read by Elspeth Tilley

Fade Out, by Sophia Dempsey, read by Sophia Dempsey

Item 8: Prizegiving
Announcement and presentation of the prize for best piece of Expressive Arts Club Climate Change Creative Writing

Item 9: Korero
Please stay for a chat. We invite you to ask questions of the performers and artists, express your views, and generally linger for a relaxed korero about climate change and what we can do about it.

About the Fantastic Waves Performers:

Alice Guerin. Last year Alice played a Russian spy and a Swedish housewife in the same show. She’s excited to be in Waves as she truly cares about climate change and believes it is a topic that needs to be talked about more.

Anna Barden Shaw wanted to be part of the Climate Change Theatre Action as it is something that she feels passionately about. Over the years she’s played all sorts of roles from witches to prostitutes, the last being a settler’s wife in ‘The Ragged’ earlier this year. Now she finally gets to play someone a little more mundane – a lawyer, a mother of a politically aware teenage girl (which she also has!). Her astrology always said she should be a lawyer – Anna figures this is the closest she will get.

Braidicea Warriner recently completed a Bachelor of Arts where she developed a passion for writing screenplays. The weirdest thing she’s ever written is a love poem from a grassy lawn to a willow tree. Some of her favourite-sounding words include; effervescent, epiphany, clandestine and cacophony.

Charlotte Tilley has studied drama from age 7 and has distinctions in Trinity College London musical theatre and performance exams. Previous stage roles include an orphan, a wolf and the captain of a sinking ship, with her favourite being Rapunzel for ‘Fractured Fairytales’.

Grace Bucknell fell in love with performing when she was cast as chief ferret in ‘Toad of Toad Hall’ aged 10. She has studied drama for 10 years and is completing her diploma.

Hamish Boyle has spent the past the past three years regularly escaping into Wellington from the Hutt, only to stumble around the stage and screen and call it acting. Credits include Summer Shakespeare 2015 and 2016, Young and Hungry 2015, and Alone it Stands with Lord Lackbeards.

Ingrid Horrocks is a Senior Lecturer in the School of English and Media Studies at Massey Wellington. Ingrid is a poet and nonfiction writer. She has published books of poetry and travel writing, and her work has been anthologised in collections such as Essential New Zealand Poems and New Zealand Love Poems.

Jack Hitchens. So far Jack has been in 6 different musicals, including The Gabe, from New Zealand’s original ‘Next to Normal’ cast which premiered mid last year. He originally had his stage debut, wearing a full red ruby dress with intense high heels and bright red lipstick, as a sassy sister, Ruby, in the pantomime, Pantalot.

Moira Fortin-Cornejo. Birds seem to like Moira… she has played many birds before, and from different cultures, Chilean and Rapa Nui. Now she’s very happy to play a New Zealand bird… not a kiwi… but nearly!

Sara McBride played Santa when she was 12, so gender bending roles are nothing new to her. The play was about Santa being forced to go a health and fitness camp to lose weight. In one scene, she had to run through the audience and … her pants accidentally fell down in front of everyone. Like the true professional she is, Sara pulled her pants up and kept acting. That early brush with mass embarrassment didn’t diminish her love of theatre as she has continued acting and singing throughout her adult life. Currently, Sara is part of Wellington Footlights, where her specialties include singing, dancing, and making sure her costume doesn’t fall off.

Sophia Dempsey is a veteran of three NaNoWriMos, twice winner of the senior high school poetry competition, and likes to indulge in Facebook conversations that look like philosophy students got drunk on metaphor.

Stevie Greeks is an Expressive Arts student, who believes in the power of the written word to start important discussions.

Tobias Nash is a writer and student whose acting experience comes mostly from school plays, helping out with university projects and pretending to be interested in other people’s opinions, but he’s keen to broaden his horizons and try something new.

Summer Scholarship win for Leleiga’s Safety Communication Project

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Congratulations to Bachelor of Communication Honours student Leleiga Taito who has won a second award for her potentially life-saving Mt Ruapehu safety communication research. In January, Leleiga received an award from GNS Science to conduct research into safety communication on Mt Ruapehu. Now, Leleiga has received a Summer Scholarship to work with Associate Professor Elspeth Tilley over Summer in order to produce creative digital research outputs from her Mt Ruapehu ethnographic video data.

Leleiga has just spent three months living in Whakapapa Village on Mt Ruapehu gathering written and audiovisual ethnographic field data about safety culture – you can see her fantastic blog about her experiences here: http://www.esocsci.org.nz/social-science-snow-and-safety-communications-why-do-people-ignore-safety-warnings-guest-blogger-leleiga-taito/

Over Summer Leleiga will be busy in post-production, editing and finalising film footage so as to make her research findings easy to share with others, and spread the word in creative ways about mountain safety communication. The 2-minute sample of raw video footage posted with this blog shows a real-time view of just one ski slope during a lahar warning test – the video shows that many people don’t move out of the way and, had the test been real, could have been in the path of a boiling river of mud, water and rocks with the viscosity of wet concrete, moving at up to 65 kilometers per hour down the valleys of the mountain and destroying everything in its path.

Leleiga’s field work aims to crack the puzzle of why people don’t move quickly when the warning sounds, or why some move into the valley floor instead of to higher ground, so that the effectiveness of mountain safety communication can be improved. Her research is part of a broader collaboration between the School of English & Media Studies and Massey’s Joint Centre for Disaster Research on disaster safety communication, and was funded by a scholarship from GNS Science. Her Summer Scholarship is funded by Massey’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences. Leleiga’s research is innovative and transdisciplinary, looking at safety research from new angles to add to our existing understanding. She is supervised by the cross-disciplinary team of Associate Professor Elspeth Tilley (School of English & Media Studies) and Dr Mimi Hodis (School of Communication, Journalism & Marketing).

See more about the project at:

Skitrip yields important safety information

Leleiga’s first scholarship win

Ruapehu on the radio

Creativity in the Community Returns in 2016

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Students produced a zine about recycling (on sustainable paper) with an eye-catching cover.

Expressive Arts staff are delighted with the success of the new and innovative creative activism paper, 139.333 Creativity in the Community, and proud to announce that it will be offered again at both Wellington and Auckland campuses in 2016.

Launched in 2015, the paper generated three groundbreaking and diverse student projects in its first year. Staff are looking forward to building upon its success and taking it to new heights of innovative creative activism and creativity for social justice next year.

In 2015, one group of students at Wellington who worked in a student-centred pedagogical mode voted to use their project to confront rape culture. They delivered a thought-provoking yet also sensitive multimedia/theatre production and achieved a full house in the theatre lab venue (and we even had to turn people away – an incredible achievement for such a difficult topic). See more about their event at http://www.massey.ac.nz/news/?id=6662 Some of those students’ creative writing work that evolved out of the workshopping process has subsequently been published in Massive Magazine – see for example Lena Fransham’s ‘Blurred Words’ at http://www.massivemagazine.org.nz/blog/16926/blurred-words/, Tessa Calogaras’ ‘Ground Meat’ at http://www.massivemagazine.org.nz/blog/17193/ground-meat/ and Hannah Bridges’ two works – ‘Glitter’ at http://www.massivemagazine.org.nz/blog/17201/glitter/ and ‘For Libby’ at http://www.massivemagazine.org.nz/blog/17184/for-libby/

At Albany, students developed short films, music videos and a theatre performance in partnership with a nearby residential care facility, Aria Gardens, looking at issues associated with living with dementia. See more at http://www.massey.ac.nz/news/?id=6652

Back in Wellington, a second student group was deeply concerned about environmental issues, and created awareness through a ‘Rubbish Monster’ art installation along with a zine offering practical solutions, which they planned, wrote, designed, produced and negotiated a deal to have delivered for free throughout Wellington city. The zine used slang to grab attention then offered tips that students could easily apply when flatting. You can read their story at: http://www.massey.ac.nz/news/?id=6764

“All in all we are delighted with the way that the paper has enabled a range of students to showcase the issues they care about through the channels that matter to them,” paper curriculum designer Associate Professor Elspeth Tilley said. “None of the students found the paper easy – dealing with the messy realities of actual issues, community partners, deadlines, real audiences, ethics and budgets, never is. But they also loved having the opportunity to put into practice the skills learned throughout their degree, and gain experience for their CVs. They learned heaps – one student even said ‘I could write a dissertation on what I learned in this paper’ and many of them have been coming back for more, signing up to participate in extracurricular creative activism projects such as our forthcoming Climate Change Theatre Action event.”

Creativity in the Community (139.333) will be offered in first semester 2016 at both Albany and Wellington – see http://www.massey.ac.nz/paper/?p=139333 for more information.

Waves: Climate Change Theatre Action

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Join us for Waves, a provocative afternoon of short plays by international and local playwrights, spoken word poetry, and readings from the finalists in our Expressive Arts Club Climate Change Creative Writing Awards.

Waves is our contribution to Climate Change Theatre Action (#‎ClimateChangeTheatreAction‬), a series of worldwide readings and performances led from New York by Theatre Without Borders, The Arctic Cycle, and No Passport as part of Artcop21 – the global cultural programme of the United Nations Conference on Climate Change.

We are the only Climate Change Theatre Action event for Aotearoa – so register now to be part of the audience at 1pm on Sunday November 1st in the Theatre Laboratory (5D14) at Massey University Wellington Campus.

Students and staff from Massey’s theatre studies and expressive arts programmes will entertain, console and confront you with works humorous and intense, problem-illuminating and solution-focussed, powerful, sometimes funny, sometimes catastrophic, often moving and inspirational. The works include exciting new world premiere short plays from David Geary (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Geary), Jacqueline Lawton (http://www.jacquelinelawton.com/bio.html) and E.M. Lewis (http://emlewisplaywright.com/). Our own English & Media Studies creative communication tutor and NZ playwriting star Phil Braithwaite (http://www.playmarket.org.nz/playwrights/philip-braithwaite) will give us a reading from his new work, The Atom Room, plus we launch some brand new talents.

Links:
Make sure there’s a seat for you and your party: register now to reserve seats at https://masseyuni.wufoo.eu/forms/waves-climate-change-theatre-action-aotearoa/

See more info and follow for updates at our FB event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1486295995032736/

Arts on Wednesday, Wellington campus, on April 9th will be full of Improv!

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Members of the Wellington Improvisation troupe including from left Darryn Woods, Belle Harrison, Christine Brooks, Ryan Hartigan and Peter Dorn

Improv show more than just quick laughs

Theatre and comedy act the Wellington Improvisation Troupe headline a free lunchtime show at Massey University’s Wellington campus on April 9 aimed at not just gaining some audience laughs but demonstrating the art of quick thinking too. Members of the public are welcome to see the one-off performance invented on the spot from audience suggestions.

The show, in Massey Wellington’s Theatre Laboratory, is part of the Arts on Wednesday series hosted by the School of English and Media Studies, which brings free performances and artists onto campus on Wednesday lunchtimes.

Organiser, Associate Professor Elspeth Tilley, says Massey’s Bachelor of Communication students are also gaining skills from seeing such theatrical techniques acted out on stage.

“Decisiveness and nimble thinking are particularly crucial skills in today’s fast-moving media and business worlds, which is why our Bachelor of Communication students are learning theatrical improvisation alongside more traditional business communication skills.”

“We are delighted that Wellington Improvisation Troupe has agreed to give a live demonstration of where the students’ work on spontaneity, storytelling and public performance can take them.

“WIT is a world-class improvisation group, and as well as being a lot of fun, their shows embody the kind of rapid problem-solving skills that business leaders are telling us they want in graduates – the ability to think on their feet,” she says.

The series aims to expose students to a diverse range of arts and artists to spark their creativity.

“Students often genuinely can’t afford to see a lot of shows. We know the value of seeing and hearing a wide range of artists to the development of their aesthetic understanding, so Massey works with both established and emerging artists to bring short free shows onto campus whenever we can,” Dr Tilley says.

“The public are also most welcome to join us for all Arts on Wednesday shows.”