Kia Mau 2023 – Bats Theatre Season

Press Release – Siobhan Waterhouse

CONCERNING THE UFO SIGHTING OUTSIDE MT ROSKILL, AUCKLAND PRESENTED BY REON BELL (NGTI TWHARETOA, NGTI KAHUNGUNU KI TE WAIROA) Concerning the UFO Sighting Outside Mt Roskill, Auckland is a solo theatre show that tells the story of a young man in …

CONCERNING THE UFO SIGHTING OUTSIDE MT ROSKILL, AUCKLAND

PRESENTED BY REON BELL (NGĀTI TŪWHARETOA, NGĀTI KAHUNGUNU KI TE WAIROA)

Concerning the UFO Sighting Outside Mt Roskill, Auckland is a solo theatre show that tells the story of a young man in 1980’s Auckland that is struggling with his growing belief in aliens, and his life as a closeted gay man.

Dana is an average office worker for an insurance company in Mt Roskill, his monotonous life and perspective unravels after he encounters a UFO while out late cruising at a local park.

CREATIVE TEAM

Reon Bell (Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Ngāti Kahungunu Ki Te Wairoa) – Performer/Creator

Sean Dioneda Rivera – Director

Michael Lyell – Lighting

SHIFTING CENTRE

PRESENTED BY SHIFTING CENTRE + LE MOANA

First developed in the Measina Makers LAB 2021, Shifting Centre highlights the innate excellence of our Pacific peoples, through street and contemporary dance.

Directed by Oto Lupo and Sefa Tunupopo, this piece is an ode to the dream of our ancestors.

CREATIVE TEAM

Directors: Oto Lupo, Sefa Tunupopo,

Media team: Vain Creative, Havea Latu,

Cast: Braedyn Togi, Levi Siaosi, Montell Nickell, Kaysee Savali, Kōwhai Deuchars, Tamia FIlipo, Tasman Kaitara

Lighting and sound operator: Grayson Ziogas

Producer: Kasi Valu

Shifting Centre are a collective of artists based in Pōneke, Wellington. With the practice of cypher and Talanoa, we nurture the Vā within our communities through our artistry. We envision to create art that fosters dreaming indigenous worlds into fruition.

Le Moana are an arts organisation based in Aotearoa, New Zealand. Le Moana is a vessel for the exchange of stories, concepts and ideas through the medium of live performance. The company was established as a pathway for cultural exchange and the development of storytelling by Pacific Artists.

COOLIE: THE STORY OF THE GIRMITYAS

PRESENTED BY MISS LEADING

A chance of a lifetime!

To work and live in paradise, free travel, accommodation and food provided – The Dream.

Or nightmare for 60,000 Indian’s kidnapped or taken through coercion & blackmail to faraway countries to replace the gap left by the slavery system for something almost identical but rebranded.

Coolie is an immersive experience through the Pacific’s untold history of indentured labour from India to Fiji.

Join poet and music producer Miss Leading (AKA Nadia Freeman) as she performs this composition of live electronic music, poetry and song to tell the story of her ancestors.

On Friday the 10 June, the show will be followed by a 15-minute Question and Answer session featuring Nadia Freeman and special guest Nirmala Balram. Nirmala has a passion for contemporary art and history in particular her Indo-fijian and Girmit ancestry. She is the conservator of ethnographic objects at Te Papa and currently working on her thesis on ‘intangible heritage values’ with Victoria University.

CREATIVE TEAM

Writer / Performer / Composer: Nadia Freeman

Set Designer: Josiah Liston

Stage Manager: Isha Ramitha Bhatnagar-Stewart

Cast: Michael Mckeon

Script Advisor: Sameena Zehra

Voice Actors: Yogesh Chetty, Zilla Joesph and John Thoman

THE WORLD’S FIRST LOVERS

WRITTEN BY JESSICA LATTON (KĀI TAHU, WAITAHA)

A heady mix of uniquely Kāi Tahu narrative and a pulsating, smoke-filled, ‘80s Ōtepoti.

Forged in Te Wai Pounamu and revealed in an ethereal world of theatre, dance and sound, this new work from Jessica Latton (Kāi Tahu, Waitaha), pays homage to Hineahuone…and reminds us all how deeply we belong.

“Being Indigenous in a colonised country has been an intrepid navigation. Being an Indigenous woman in a colonised patriarchy has been a minefield; soothing and cajoling those who have power, apologising always for speaking, standing, existing. Living in the cracks to survive it. Not any more. We refuse. We make space in the world for ourselves, and so for our children. We are the uri of Rangi and Papa. We walk in the light on the earth that loves us.” – Metiria Turei (Development Creative 2021/2022)

CREATIVE TEAM

Writer: Jessica Latton

Director: Juanita Hepi

Producer: H-J Kilkelly

Cast: Jessica Latton, Nick Tipa, Grace Turipa, Manu Syme-Hepi and Catherine Duval

Taoka Puoro: Ben Whitaker

Set Design: Mark McEntyre and Tony De Goldi (GOM Arts Collective)

Costume Design: Amber Bridgman

Lighting Design: Marty Roberts

Sound Design – Tristan Dingemans

Production Manager: Sahara Pohatu-Trow

SLOWING THE SUN

ISAAC MARTYN – KAITUHI / PLAYWRIGHT

A story of modern indigenous times in tandem with the pūrākau “Māui me te Rā”.

A whānau in a town just outside of a coastal city is burdened by insurmountable challenges: a racist system, colonised minds, a tumultuous climate, lingering grief, and worst of all – the stubbornly unchanging nature of each member of the whānau. For the tamariki o te whānau, Putu, the answers for how you can achieve the impossible lie in the story of Māui slowing the sun.

How can something that has always existed be changed?

And what do you do when the people who are supposed to be your pou, are tearing you down?

CREATIVE TEAM

Isaac Martyn – Kaituhi / Playwright

3 STEPS BACK

PRESENTED BY EMMA KATENE

“I am always moving forward. I will persist. I will always take another step. If that is of no avail, I will take another, and yet another.” – Og Mandino.

Explore the pathways of my life. Where they go, where they intersect, and why Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) INSISTS on burning my map!

After being diagnosed with CFS (or ME/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis) at the beginning of 2020, Emma has spent 3 years mapping out her days while consistently being knocked back a peg.

Sit back and perhaps even eat some snacks, while Emma sings and dances her way through the feeling of two dimensions colliding. Watch out though, you might even see some of your own pathways reflected.

CREATIVE TEAM

Emma Katene – Writer, Performer, Sound design.
Kate Anderson – Director, LX Design

Kia Mau 2023 runs 2 to 17 June. Tickets are on sale now, with more info and tickets at www.kiamaufestival.org.

Content Sourced from scoop.co.nz
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