 |
Young and Hungry Arts Trust is a New Zealand based youth theatre initiative. They have held festivals of plays, commissioned playwrights, toured New Zealand and helped along the careers of many New Zealand actors, writers, designers and directors. The first event was a festival held in 1994 at BATS Theatre.
The first ideas for Young and Hungry came from BATS Theatre in Wellington after the director Guy Boyce commissioned four plays in 1993 for a youth audience. [1] The format of the festival was to commission plays, and then putting experienced directors and production crew with a mentored cast and crew with a 16 - 25 age range culminating with a festival season at BATS Theatre. The first festival was held in 1994. [2] [3] It continued to be an annual programme with a festival at BATS until 2000 where the programme expanded to Auckland at the Basement Theatre and added an Ambassadors programme with Auckland Theatre Company to support engagement with youth for longer than the rehearsal period and season. [1] The focus has always been to support learning about theatre for young people through application. [4]
Playmarket published a volume in 2010, Three Plays - Young & Hungry with plays: queen b, by Pip Hall; Exchange by Lauren Jackson; and Urban Hymns by Mīria George. [5] [6]
Some notable productions presented at the annual festivals include in RPM (2008), written by Dave Armstrong, directed by Leo Gene Peters, [7] in 2009 three plays, Oyster by Vivienne Plumb, directed by Rachel More, Sit On It, by Georgina Titheridge, directed by Lyndee-Jane Rutherford and Urban Hymns by Mīria George, directed by Fiona Truelove and The 21st Narcissus (2015) by Sam Brooks. [8]
Past playwrights commissioned include Jackie Van Beek, Victor Rodger, Jo Randerson, Jean Betts, Danny Mulheron, Arthur Meek, Hone Kouka, Helen Varley Jamieson, Gary Henderson, Pip Hall, and Briar Grace-Smith. [7]
Current productions take the form of a tour to high schools curated from extracts of New Zealand plays. The 2021 tour was called Whaddarya? and includes parts of plays by Stephen Sinclair, Hone Kouka, Renée, Craig Thane, Greg McGee, Sam Brooks, and Albert Belz. This concept was previously produced by EnsembleImpact who handed it over to Young and Hungry. [9]
BATS Theatre is a theatre venue in Wellington, New Zealand. Initially founded as the Bats Theatre Company in 1976, then established in its current form in 1989. BATS Theatre has seen the development of many performing arts talents of New Zealand.
Bruce Edward George Mason was a significant playwright in New Zealand who wrote 34 plays and influenced the cultural landscape of the country through his contribution to theatre. In 1980, he was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire. The Bruce Mason Playwriting Award, one of the most important playwrighting accolades in New Zealand, is named in his honour. Mason was also an actor, critic, and fiction writer.
The Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards was the main theatre awards in New Zealand's capital city, Wellington from 1992 - 2014 and has been succeeded by the Wellington Theatre Awards.
Hone Vivian Kouka is a New Zealand playwright. He has written 13 plays, which have been staged in New Zealand and worldwide including Canada, South Africa, New Caledonia and Britain. Kouka's plays have won multiple awards at the Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards, the 'Oscars' of New Zealand theatre. Kouka has also worked as a theatre director and producer. In 2009, Kouka was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to contemporary Māori theatre.
Hori Ahipene is an actor and director in theatre, film and television in New Zealand. He's also an award-winning playwright with the Māori play Hide 'n Seek co-written with Hone Kouka. He became a well known face in New Zealand for his dramatic performances in films such as Jubilee (2000) as well as parts in The Piano (1993) and a guest role Xena:Warrior Princess in 2001. A versatile actor he has also played lead roles in television sketch series including the 1990s hit Skitz, The Semisis, Telly Laughs and Away Laughing. Most recently he was in the core cast of Maddigan's Quest and currently playing the role of Angel in the television drama Outrageous Fortune. He is an accomplished director with more than 15 years in the arts industry. He was a senior director on Skitz as well as long running Māori-language programmes Korero Mai and Pukana. He was a creator and co-writer of the sitcom B&B with comedian Te Radar for Māori Television.
Colin William McColl is a New Zealand director in theatre, opera and television. He is a leading figure in the world of professional theatre in the country, winning numerous awards as well as working internationally with major national companies. McColl's career spans more than 30 years in the performing arts where he has also been an actor and a producer. He has won Best Director at the Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards three times, received the prestigious Arts Laureate Award in 2007 and was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2010. McColl was born in Lower Hutt in Wellington, the country's capital.
Rachel Jessica Te Ao Maarama House is a New Zealand actress, acting coach, and director.
Joanna Ruth Randerson is a New Zealand writer, director and performer. She is the founder and artistic director of Barbarian Productions, a Wellington-based theatre production company.
Mīria George is a New Zealand writer, producer and director of Māori and Cook Island descent. Best known for being the author of award-winning stage plays, George has also written radio, television and poetry, and was one of the film directors of the portmanteau film Vai. In November 2005, she won the Emerging Pacific Artist's Award at the Arts Pasifika Awards. Mīria George was the first Cook Islands artist to receive the Fulbright-Creative New Zealand Pacific Writer's Residency at the University of Hawaii.
Philippa Hall is a New Zealand stage, screen and radio script writer and actor.
Emily Duncan is a New Zealand playwright. She is co-founder of Prospect Park Productions, an organisation aiming “to create and produce original New Zealand theatre and collaborative projects that reach into other art forms." Duncan held the 2019 Robert Burns Fellowship at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand. She lives in Dunedin.
Taki Rua is a theatre organisation based in Wellington, Aotearoa / New Zealand that has produced many contemporary Māori theatre productions. Taki Rua has been going since 1983 and has had several name changes over that time including The New Depot, Depot Theatre and Taki Rua / The Depot. The full current name is Taki Rua Productions. Since inception the mission of Taki Rua has been to showcase work from Aotearoa. Because of this and the longevity of Taki Rua many significant New Zealand actors, directors, writers, designers and producers have part of the history including Riwia Brown, Nathaniel Lees, Rachel House and Taika Waititi.
Ahilan Karunaharan is writer, director, actor and producer of Sri Lankan descent from Aotearoa / New Zealand. He is a recipient of the New Zealand Arts Laureate Award.
The Bruce Mason Playwriting Award is an annual award that recognises the work of an outstanding emerging New Zealand playwright. The winner is decided by the votes of a panel of leading New Zealand artistic directors and script advisors.
The Adam NZ Play Award is an annual award in New Zealand given to new plays. There are a range of categories and submitted plays are read blind by a panel of industry professionals.
Nga Tangata Toa is a 1994 play by New Zealand playwright Hone Kouka. The play has themes of revenge, family honour, and long-held secrets.
The Kia Mau Festival, previously called Ahi Kaa Festival, is a biennial performing arts festival in Wellington, New Zealand. In te reo Māori, kia mau is "a call to stay - an invitation to join us".
The Prophet is a 2004 play by New Zealand playwright Hone Kouka. The play has themes of teenage pregnancy and suicide. It is the third play in the Waiora trilogy of plays. It was first performed at the 2004 New Zealand Festival of the Arts in Wellington. It was published by Playmarket in 2006, and televised as part of the six-part series of Māori plays Atamira in 2012.
Waiora Te Ūkaipō - The Homeland is a 1996 play by New Zealand playwright Hone Kouka. The play describes the social dislocation that happens to Māori who leave their tribal lands. It is the first part of a trilogy with Homefires (1998) and The Prophet (2004), and the teenagers of The Prophet are the children of Waiora's Amiria, Rongo and Boyboy.
Jason Te Kare is a New Zealand director, playwright and actor.