Standing Room Only for Sunday 8 May 2022

12:15  FAME at last - actor and choreographer Amanaki Lelei Prescott-Faletau

There are awards to encourage new generation creatives, and ones to recognise the work of arts veterans.  But what about those hard workers who are in mid-career?

Welcome to the FAME Mid-Career Awards.  Lynn Freeman talks to one of this year's winners -  actor, writer, dancer, choreographer, producer and director Amanaki Lelei Prescott-Faletau, who's of Tongan descent.

Her career has included scripts for film and TV, and several appearances in front of the camera in The Breaker Upperers, The Panthers and The Pact.   Amanaki plans to use the $15,000 FAME prize to take one of her own shows on tour.  

In 2013, she co-founded the performing arts collective Fine Fatale to amplify the voices of Māori and Pasifika Trans and Queer artists and launched the Tāmaki Makaurau based F.I.N.E Festival.

Amanaki tells Lynn why the award recognition meant so much to her.
 

12:33  The legacy of country star Jodi Vaughan

If New Zealand had an equivalent of Dolly Parton, Tammy Wynette and Loretta Lynn, it would have to be singer, songwriter and survivor Jodi Vaughan.   Jodi's back with a new album For the love of country - her 10th - just about entirely self-penned.   

Jodi was country when it was hardly cool, but regularly sold truck-loads and topped the TV ratings in shows like That's Country back in the Eighties.   

And her life continued to echo the best country songs - ups, downs, triumphs, disasters, and at one memorable moment a punchup with the Ku Klux Klan in a gay bar in Texas!

But above all, she had that heart-breaking voice, that perky personality and later the songs she wrote.   

Simon Morris invites Jodi Vaughan to look back on her legacy, and forward to two new albums.

The album For the Love of Country can be purchased as a CD signed by Jodi from www.key2store.com and shipped to your door! 

 

12:45  Queenstown's new arts space Te Atamira

It's been a long wait - around 20 years - but the Wakitipu community is about to get its very own state of the art multidisciplinary arts space.

Two former commercial spaces in the Frankton shopping centre have been converted into more than 20 spaces.  They'll house theatre and dance, a recording studio and both an art gallery and workshop.

It's been a huge undertaking for the trust which was tasked with finding almost $4 million for the refit.

The centre's called Te Atamira - meaning a stage or platform.. It hasn't even opened yet and it's all but booked out for the next few months.

Lynn Freeman talks with Olivia Egerton, the centre's Development Director.  Queenstown's Te Atamira opens on the 16th of May.

 

1:10 At The Movies

Simon Morris reviews Downton Abbey: A new era, and two Film Festival favourites, from Iran, A Hero, and from South Korea, Escape from Mogadishu.

 

1:31  John Psathas launches a double percussion concerto

Composer John Psathas came up with the music for a new double percussion concerto The All-Seeing Sky after reading Dante's Inferno.

Big emotions and big ideas are contained in the piece, which he's composed for an award-winning Swiss percussion duo, Luca Staffelbach and Fabian Ziegler.

The concerto has been co-commissioned by Orchestra Wellington, Christchurch Symphony Orchestra and the Swiss City Light Symphony Orchestra.

Lynn Freeman asked John about working with musicians for the first time, and whetherf he does a deep dive into their technique before composing for them:.

Luca Staffelbach  and Fabian Ziegler will perform the new concerto by John Psathas for the first time with the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra in Ōtautahi on the 14th of May, and in Te Whanganui-a-Tara  with Orchestra Wellington on May the 21st.  
 

1:47  Artists On Artists - capturing each other's creative moment

A new exhibition in Auckland aims to bring the visual artists out from behind the camera and canvas and into the spotlight.  The people involved have photographed, painted, even collaged other artists in the same show,

The Artists on Artists show includes Māori, Samoan, Chinese, Pākehā, Sri Lankan, Filipino, Czech and Middle Eastern artists, who've each come up with a portrait of one of the other participants.

Lynn Freeman spoke to the curator Lindsey Horne whose work also features in the exhibition alongside another of the artists,  photographer Abhi Chinniah, 

Lindsey says she had the idea in the midst of last year's winter lockdown.

Artists on Artists opens at Toi Tu in Tāmaki Makauru Auckland on the 12th of May.    

 

2:06 The Laugh Track - rising comedian Kura Turuwhenua

It's an often-stated truth that comedy is a funny way to make a living.  It's a job entirely dependent on the whims of the public.  You spend half the time buttering up audiences, and the other half challenging them - or at least trying to surprise them.

And yet - people are queuing up to become comedians, and these days they're coming from all directions.  Diversity is in, old-school is out.  And one of the hottest of new names on the scene is a young wāhine Māori called Kura Turuwhenua.

This year Kura's been up for awards for Best Newcomer, Comic Originality and Outstanding Contribution to the Industry.  And that's in her first year!  What will she do in her second?   Lynn Freeman asks her.

Kura Turuwhenua's picks include the Flight of the Concords, Hannibal Buress, Arj Barker and Aaron Chen.

You can find Kura Turuwhenua on Instagram and TikTok @kumara_chipz 

 

2:25  Self-publishing - advantages, and pitfalls to avoid

Finalist lists for pretty much every major New Zealand book award these days usually feature several self-published authors.

And contrary to the preconception that these are all newbies who can't get publishing houses interested, many are established writers who choose this course.

Self publishing may come with the freedom from anyone changing word of your precious script, but that's also one of the potential fishhooks.  How do you use self-publishing to your advantage?

Angela Curtis has set up SPINZ - the Self-Publishing Institute of New Zealand - to offer advice to authors wanting to go down this track.  The first online course starts this weekend.   Lynn Freeman asks Angela what the reaction has been so far.

 

2:37  20 years of the NZTrio

20 years of playing and 75 works commissioned specially for them over that time - the NZTrio is heading out around the country to celebrate their latest milestone this month.

There are three new commissions included in three different Legacy concerts, performed by cellist Ashley Brown,  violinist Amalia Hall and pianist Somi Kim.

Ashley's been there from the start while Amalia and Somi joined him in a new look NZTrio four years ago.

Amalia explains to Lynn Freeman that it's not just the excellence of the playing of the individual musicians that makes a great Trio.

The NZTrio's Legacy 1 concert is on the 18th of May in Wellington. The Legacy 2 and 3 concerts will take place later in the year.

 

2:48  Photographer Ilan Wittenberg wants direct eye contact

Ilan Wittenberg wants visitors to his new exhibition of photographic portraits not to see subjects in front of a camera, but real people.

To do this, he's asked those who sit for him to stare straight into his camera lens.

It means visitors can't avoid making direct eye contact with people photographed around the world in their own homes or work places.

Lynn Freeman asks Ilan why eye contact is so important in human connection.

Ilan Wittenberg's exhibition Faces of Humanity opens at Parliament Building in the Beehive's Executive Wing on the 12th of May.
 

3:06 Drama at 3 - Mum's the word:  four short plays by Shirley Eng.

Specially for Mother's Day, this week's Drama Hour is devoted to a series of linked play-readings.  Two Mothers is read by Danielle Mason, followed by Knowing Where To Look, read by Meg Alexander, and Mother's Day from Michelle Amas.  And finally Danielle Mason returns to read Mother's Surprise.

 

Music played in this show

Artist: Big Mama Thornton
Song: They call me Big Mama
Composer: Robey-Thornton
Album: The Peacock recordings
Label: MCA
Played at: 12.12

Artist: Mother Goose
Song: Only you
Composer:  Young
Album: Stuffed
Label:  Mushroom
Played at: 12.29

Artist: Jodi Vaughan and Brendan Dugan
Song:  If I needed you
Composer: Van Zandt
Album: Together again
Label: Festival
Played at: 12.33

Artist: Jodi Vaughan 
Song:  The Card
Composer: Vaughan
Album: For the love of country
Label: Tasman
Played at:  12.40

Artist: Jodi Vaughan and Brendan Dugan
Song: I'll be there for you
Composer: Vaughan
Album:  For the ,love of country
Label:  Tasman
Played at: 12.42

Artist: Mothers of Invention
Song: Big Leg Emma
Composer: Zappa
Album: Absolutely Free
Label: Ryko
Played at: 1.07

Artist: The Mamas and the Papas
Song:  Look through my window
Composer:  Phillips
Album:  Best Of
Label: MCA
Played at: 1.44

Artist: Mother Mother
Song: The Stand
Composer: Guidemond
Album: Eureka
Label: N/A
Played at: 1.58

Artist: Every Mother's Son
Song: Come on down to my boat 
Composer: Goldstein-Farrell
Album: Come on down
Label: Cherryred
Played at: 2.05

Artist: Flight of the Concords
Song: Albi the racist dragon
Composer: Clememnt-McKenzie
Album: Folk the world
Label: Private
Played at: 2.27

Artist: Charlie Pickett
Song: What I like about Miami
Composer: Pickett-Buck
Album: Bear Family Records
Label: Bear Family
Played at: 2.58

Artist: Mother Earth
Song: It won't be long
Composer: McFarland
Album: Living with the animals
Label: Woundedbird
Played at: 3.58