Hobnob

Just over a year ago, I reeled from a Pasifika playwrights forum.

This year, I networked at it.

Yes: I hate networking. It feels false:

(I really should just let go of such exchanges – it’s just -, it’s not often that I want to smash someone in the face [half an hour later because it didn’t register with me at the time].)

What I meant to illustrate as false was something like this:

What was different this time around was that I knew more of the faces. Familiarity breeds confidence.

Now for some rampant name-dropping:

• TV and feature writer Oscar Kightley;
• I got snapped by playwright Gary Henderson;
• visual and performance artist Shigeyuki Kihara;
• playwright and producer Makerita Urale;
• film and TV director Sima Urale (and Makerita’s sister);
• film and TV director, and reluctant producer Justine Simei Barton; and
• actor and theatre director Nancy Brunning.

It wasn’t all about the laying on of hands – forum attendees were treated to works in progress:

• Ali Foa’i‘s MindSex;
• Victoria Schmidt‘s Then Sings My Soul;
• Jonathan P Riley‘s Makigi;
• and Chetan Patel & Eric Smith‘s I Don’t Do Coconut.

(A first draft of this post had one-word adjectives for each of the above. I’ve changed my mind, obviously: you can stew in anticipation.)

My plan to be in the right place at the right time has yet to bear fruit. But seeds have been sown. The competition has been reconnoitred and noted.

I am patient.