Standing Room Only for Sunday 11 November 2018

 

 

12:30 Tauranga's Baycourt and a growing cultural scene - James Wilson

Last year Tauranga overtook Dunedin as New Zealand's fourth largest city, but does it yet have the cultural reputation to match? It gained a fine new art gallery ten years ago, but this year its council voted not to build a museum for the city - much of its cultural treasures remain in storage. As our producer Mark Amery can attest to from the traffic -  the city is having its fair share of growing pains.

Recently Mark visited Tauranga's performing arts centre Baycourt and talked to new manager James Wilson who has been impressed by the range of arts activity bubbling away there: numerous theatre companies, a historic village enlivened by arts and community organisations, and pop-up initiatives like the container village Our Place, just down from Baycourt in CBD.

James has a good fresh pair of eyes to comment: he comes to Tauranga after six years heading the brand new Q Theatre in Auckland's Queen Street, and he was also chair for four years of New Zealand's performing arts network organisation PANZ, the national organisation for performing arts producers, venues and festivals.

James gave Mark a tour of the impressive Baycourt building, starting with its main theatre space and its rare wulitzer, and then its 200 seat second space, which hosts many touring shows, with an increase in performing artists getting their work out beyond Auckland and Wellington. Both theatres are well used. One interesting example is the national heats of the International Youth Silent Film festival - using one of only three in-use wulitzers in the country, says James.

 

12:45 What are we making that's any good? New Zealand Television Awards: Paul Casserly and Linda Burgess

The 2018 Huawei Mate20 New Zealand Television Awards are on November 22 and the main finalists have been announced, others the New Zealand Television Craft Awards were awarded earlier this week.

Leading the nominations for the main part of the proceedings with 11 nods is Great Southern Film & Television’s telefeature about an iconic Kiwi rock band: The Dance Exponents - Why Does Love? which aired as part of TVNZ 1’s Sunday Theatre series last year.  

The Eligibility Period for the 2018 Awards covers 1 July 2017 - 30 June 2018.

Joining us to discuss the nominations are two seasoned television critics, Paul Casserly in Auckland - a long time television producer himself - and in Wellington Linda Burgess.

 

1:10 At The Movies

Simon Morris looks at several Kiwi films based on reality – including documentaries Yellow is forbidden and Born Racer: The Scott Dixon story. Bohemian Rhapsody – co-written by New Zealand’s Anthony McCarten – tells the story of Freddy Mercury and Queen. Cinematographer Simon Raby talks about his award-winning work on the documentary The Heart Dances, and his upcoming gig as lighting cameraman for Mortal Engines, produced by Sir Peter Jackson.

 

1:33 New Zealand's music teacher of the year - Elizabeth Sneyd

We're leading up to the New Zealand Awards - the Tuis - with the technical Artisan awards that were given out early this week. And for the first time music teachers have been recognised.

The inaugural Music Teacher of the Year Tui was awarded to Elizabeth Sneyd who founded the Virtuoso Strings Charitable Trust in 2013, and has provided free music programmes to over 200 young people in East Porirua.

Mark Amery caught up with Elizabeth after the award was announced to talk about what makes a good music teacher and how has arts and music lessons after school shouldn't be an either/or situation.

The Virtuoso Strings' will perform with Jonathan Lemalu at Wellington's Opera House on 3 December. And the Tuis take place this Thursday.

 

1:50 Performance art is back - Sara Cowdell and Mark Harvey on Performance Art Week Aotearoa

Performance art covers such a wide range of disciplines - dance, music, visual art, political confrontation, street theatre - but it's often hard to nail down. Many of us remember it from the 1970s but recently it's had a revival. So much so that this year sees the second Performance Art Week Aotearoa, taking place this week in Wellington.

We talk to the founder and curator of the second Performance Art Week Aotearoa, Sara Cowdell, and to one of the artists featured, performance artist Mark Harvey who has been active in the field both here and overseas for some time.Harvey presents Interloper in various public spaces around Wellington from Wednesday.

Performance Art Week Aotearoa opens at Playstation gallery Wellington on Wednesday and offers 17 attention-grabbing, confronting performances across the city until Sunday. Go here for the programme, November 14-18.

 

2:06 The Laugh Track - Jonathan Price and Barnaby Olsen

Wellington theatre-makers Jonathan Price and Barnaby Olsen have produced an exploration of that well-known rite of passage the Big OE, inspired by Barnaby's trip to Turkey four years ago. The show's called The Turkish dogs are racist  and it is about to premiere at BATS Theatre.

There Laugh Tracks? Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie, Eddie Izzard, Mitchell and Webb and Ellen De Generes.

 

2:25 An extraordinary body of work for children - illustrator Robyn Belton

Illustrator Robyn Belton last week was the recipient of the Excellence Award at the inaugural Ignition Children's Book Festival in Dunedin. She picked up the award for her extraordinary body of work, going right back to the famous Greedy Cat, written by Joy Cowley in 1979.

Her latest is The Anzac Violin a picture book written by Jennifer Beck based on the First World War experiences at Gallipoli and the Somme of Dunedin’s Alexander Aitken (1895-1967) and his violin. It has been published by Scholastic.

 

2:40 New Zealand and the sea - Frances Steel

Here in New Zealand, we pride ourselves on our connection with the land. Our name spells it out - Aotearoa, Land of the Long White Cloud. We tend to forget that we're just as defined by the sea - or if we think of it, we just think how cut off we are by the ocean.

But a new book may change that. It's a richly illustrated, multi-disciplinary work called New Zealand and the Sea, edited by expat Kiwi Frances Steel, a Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Wollongong. It's published by Bridget Williams Books.

 

2:49 Wellington pottery turns 60 -  how it came back into fashion

Big in the 1970s and then relegated to the craft section thereafter - recently, pottery - or ceramics as it has come to be known - has once again become fashionable. Major surveys of leading figures in major galleries have made that resurgence clear. Through it all regional pottery collectives have kept on firing up their kilns.

One of the oldest if not the oldest is the Wellington Potters' Association, which this week celebrates its 60th birthday with its annual showcase of new works. Joining Mark Amery to discuss is potter and the Wellington association's vice president Elaine Marland. They discuss the resurgence in membership, that 60 year history and the remarkable kilns the association have in Horokiwi.

The Wellington Potters Association annual survey exhibition Cerarmicus is on at NZ Academy of Fine Arts from 16 November until 1 December. The guest exhibitor and selector is Sam Duckor-Jones

 

3:06  Beyond Kate - fighting the same fight  

Girls can do anything, or so the saying goes. And today, many women work across industries that have previously been dominated by men. But while women have more choices about how they want to live their lives, the past still informs women’s roles in the workforce and the inequality relating to pay today. The final episode of Beyond Kate explores feminised or gendered professions that were carved out in our past, and still impact on the lives of women in the workplace today.

 

Music details

Artist:   Queen
Song: Killer Queen
Composer: F. Mercury
Album: Sheer Heart Attack
Label: EMI
Played at: 12.30pm

Artist: Why Does (Love Do This to Me)
Song: The Exponents
Composer: Jordan Luck
Album: Something Beginning With C
Label: Mercury
Played at: 12.48pm

Artist: Sweet
Song:  Ballroom Blitz
Composer: M.Chapman, N.Chinn
Album: Strung Up
Label: RCA Victor
Played at: 12.58pm

Artist: Glitter Band
Song:  Angel Face
Composer: John Springate, Ashley Abram, John Rossall and Gerry Shephard
Album: Hey!
Label: Bell Records
Played at: 1.10pm

Artist: T Rex
Song: Metal Guru
Composer: Marc Bolan
Album: The Slider
Label: Reprise Records
Played at: 1.45pm

Artist: Roxy Music
Song:  Virginia Plain
Composer: Roxy Music, Bryan Ferry, Robi Insinna, Andy Mackay, Ashley Abram, George Kwiatkiewicz, Nick Baker, Michel Richter
Album: Greatest Hits
Label: Polydor
Played at: 1.58pm

Artist: New York Dolls
Song: Personality Crisis
Composer:  David Johansen, New York Dolls, Johnny Thunders Ashley Abram John Anthony Genzale, Jr. Neil Cooper
Album: New York Dolls
Label: Mercury
Played at: 2.05pm

Artist: Slade
Song: Cos I Love You
Composer: Slade
Album: Whiskey in the Jar
Label: Universal Music
Played at: 2.35pm
 
Artist: Suzi Quatro
Song: Devil Gate Drive
Composer:  Mike Chapman Nicky Chinn Phil Dennys Chinn And Chapman Ashley Abram Ray Beavis Percy Mayfield
Album: What Goes Around - Greatest & Latest
Label: CMC
Played at: 2.55pm

Artist: David Bowie
Song: Jean Genie
Composer: David Bowie
Album: Best of Bowie
Label: Parlophone
Played at: 3.05pm