Scriptwriter
There’s a lot of ground to cover in this part, so let’s leave the pictures to do the talking. In March, The Boy was in a frightful car accident and was hospitalised for a month. Fill* and The Boy — Auckland Hospital, March 2019. After three months at home and regular physiotherapy, he returned to full-time work in July. …
I’m of two minds when it comes to this blog and publicity. Is this a good-news-only blog where I celebrate the joy and wonders of writing and production? Or is this a all’s-fair-in-love-and-war blog where, in addition to the celebrating, etc, above, I also lay out the failures and disappointments? Precedent suggests the latter. Whilst doing publicity …
Sometimes I’ll get to an early stage of developing a project and I’ll stop. It’s not writer’s block, or a gap in character, story and/or background knowledge. You likely already know that at Fortress Mamea, writer’s block is never an issue, the characters write themselves, story is always a cakewalk, and I never let ignorance and incuriosity …
So I’ve raced ahead with a script but all I have are a beginning and an ending. I’ve avoided and prevaricated but that’s not getting me any closer to meeting a(n admittedly self-imposed) deadline. Right, then. Still Life With Chickens is the story of a cranky old woman who reluctantly adopts a barnevelder chicken and …
The following list is not exhaustive — some commission projects cannot be listed for contractual reasons. Some scripts are available on request. PLAYS MISS RIDLING INVESTIGATES (2022) A retired librarian and a dementing former detective investigate the murder of a fellow retirement village resident. FALE AĪTU: HOUSE OF SPIRITS (2021) Newly orphaned siblings RUTH and …
WE ARE MANY (2022; 75min play) Written by D F Mamea Produced by Nathan Mudge Directed by Sarai Perenise-Ropeti 1–5 November 2022, Circa Theatre, Wellington STILL LIFE WITH CHICKENS (2018; 75min play) Written by D F Mamea Produced by Auckland Theatre Company Directed by Fasitua Amosa 2017 Adam New Zealand Play 2017 Adam Award for Best …
I suppose it’s an annual pilgrimage: as Matariki descends upon this lush nation, I take myself to my hometoon of Wellington for a bit of colour and culture. The Lovely Wife didn’t accompany me this year as our schedules didn’t work out (and we’d been down this way only a few weeks earlier). This time …
Earlier this month I had the pleasure of a workshop on the latest play (its presentation was warmly received, thank you), and since then I’ve had a debrief with the principals, I’ve made a couple of pages of notes on what I could do next, and … done nothing else. It’s partly planned and partly …
The other week, I went to the changing of the guard at the Auckland Playmarket office: Stuart Hoar is moving on to less reading (of other people’s writing) and more writing (of his own) (which is as it should be), and will be replaced by Allison Horsley, formerly Court Theatre Literary Manager. There was food and drink on hand, and …
Introducing new supporting characters to an existing narrative is a challenge: they have to have a good reason to join up; they have to add value; and they better be damned interesting. The Dark Brown One, The Light Brown One and The Mid-Brown One. That’s pretty much how I felt when The Goddess decided to …
