Category: Theatre

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STILL LIFE WITH CHICKENS: it begins

Image courtesy Auckland Theatre Company.

The lead up to the opening has been more public than I expected. The write-ups and mentions continued in the Herald, the Listener (hardcopy only), and Tagata Pasifika have been nice to read and watch.

On opening night I was accompanied by  The Lovely Wife, The Girl and The Boy, and I was very, very happy to have my family with me. The opening night audience liked the show — that’s always grafifying. The early reviews in BroadwayWorld and Concrete Playground are positive.

For some reason this doesn’t feel real. Maybe it’ll hit me at some point — soon, hopefully, maybe — that I’ve achieved something tangible, something to be inordinately proud of. Instead I’ve been looking over my shoulder, waiting to be awoken from some impossibly good dream.

I’m biased so I shan’t exhort you to see the show.  But I will point you in the direction of the Facebook page and Twitter feed so you can decide for yourself.

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STILL LIFE WITH CHICKENS: home stretch

The play opens this Thursday. I don’t know where the time has fled. Meantime:

I’m in Wellington for the Arts Market (and some theatre, yuss) so this week’ll fly.

(Please forgive the avian puns. I hope you understand.)

In the meantime, please can someone suggest why this pic —

Clint, a feisty Barnevelder/Orpington cross.

— keeps making me flash on this:

Batman (1989). Image copyright Warner Brothers.

Your answers and suggestions welcome in the comments.

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STILL LIFE WITH CHICKENS: rehearsal reports

Rehearsals are continuing apace in Auckland while life goes on in Northland. An unexpected perk on this production is the rehearsal reports I’m sent at the end of each work day: a one-pager of what happened, what’s needed, and any observations.

Yesterday’s report got me cackling and yahoo-ing in the Fortress Mamea environs:

Rehearsal report detail — click on image to see full report.

And it made me flash on this:

Yusss.

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STILL LIFE WITH CHICKENS: rehearsals commence

L–R: The writer, the puppeteer, the director, the designer, the actor, and the manager. (Image courtesy Auckland Theatre Company.)

Rehearsals for Still Life With Chickens kicked off this week with an Auckland Theatre Company welcome followed by a reading, then a read-through.

I got to meet and thank set, puppet and costume designer John Parker. I caught up with director Fasitua Amosa and actor Goretti Chadwick, as well as met the masterfully coiffured Chicken puppeteer Haanz Fa’avae Jackson and the very quiet, very calm technical stage manager Andrew Furness. Also well-met were those whose names are unlikely to appear in the brochure but whose work is just as vital as those on and around the stage: Eliza, Natasha, Nicola, Emma, Jan, Jade, Nicole, Siobhan and Miryam.

I realised with a shock that opening night is only four weeks away. It feels perilously close.

Going by how I had to blink back tears through a couple of mere read-throughs, as far as I’m concerned, the show is in good hands.

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2017 on Stage

I’m as shocked as you are: I haven’t done a best-of of live theatre since 2012 — and even then I lumped it in with the screen stuff.

Highlights from 2017:

  • Riverside Kings by Natano Keni and Sarita So — Wellington talent to keep an eye out for;
  • Kororāreka: The Ballad of Maggie Flynn by Red Leap Theatre — dance theatre usually leaves me a little bewildered — but Kororāreka was exhilarating and captivating;
  • Amadeus by Peter Shaffer, Auckland Theatre Company — a big show, a rock ‘n’ roll story, and awesome, extravagant theatre.
Kororāreka: The Ballad of Maggie Flynn, Red Leap Theatre. (Image courtesy Red Leap Theatre, www.redleaptheatre.co.nz)
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2017 in Points

Animal Vegetable Miracle.jpg
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My reading output (input?) this year was better than last year. But it coulda should’ve been much better. Standouts from the reading diary:

  • Animal Vegetable Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver — I maybe should’ve read this when the Lovely Wife suggested it before agreeing to follow my wife to rural Northland;
  • Ratatouille (2007 draft) by Brad Bird;
  • Stray Bullets: Sunshine and Roses 007–029 by David Lapham — I thought this sprawling small crime epic was consigned to the unfinished classics section of comic history until I tripped over this at the local library;
  • Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl;
  • Lazarus X+66 001–005 by Greg Rucka, Eric Trautmann, Steve Lieber and Michael Lark — a very welcome salve while the main Lazarus series is on hold;
  • Atlanta S01E01 by Donald Glover;
  • Te Puhi by Cian Elyse White — a beguiling slice of New Zild history about our first Māori Miss New Zealand;
  • The Pissy Tits Gang by Rosie Howells;
  • The Walking Dead 162–174, including Here’s Negan!, by Robert Kirkman, Charlie Adlard, Cliff Rathburn — the Negan character arc in the Walking Dead comic is a masterclass in humanity, patience  and compassion.
Image courtesy The Walking Dead Wiki www.walkingdeadwikia.com
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