A festival celebrating Samoan language, theatre and dance is aiming to share stories that are precious to the culture, with the Samoan and wider New Zealand community.
Transcript
A festival celebrating Samoan language, theatre and dance is aiming to share stories that are precious to the culture, with the Samoan and wider New Zealand community.
The Measina Festival 2015 will be held in Wellington's Whitireia Performance Centre from the 26th to the 31st of May, during Samoan Language Week.
The producer of the festival, Sandi Malesic, told Leilani Momoisea that theme is for perfomers to share stories that are precious to them.
Sandi Malesic : The performances will be three main events, they're from all over the country and completely different. Some incorporate dance, some have songs, some are purely acting, and then we will have a youth night which is more of a open night to help our young ones get up on stage, and help them get a little bit more experience and feedback from the crowd and have their opportunity, new acts to shine.
Leilani Momoisea : Is there a theme that people are working to at all?
Sandi Malesic : The main theme is, because it's in the Samoan language week, and it is the Measina Festival, aiming for that whole treasure theme, we're going with stories that are precious to the practitioners that are making them.
Leilani Momoisea : Because it's with Samoan language week, are people encouraged to speak Samoan within their performances?
Sandi Malesic : There will definitely be Samoan spoken within the performances, especially within the movement pieces, however it's not limited to just Samoan audiences, it's very visual as well so that everybody can kind of understand and follow. So the goal is to get the performances relatable. So they're real peoples stories, or they're real peoples inspirations that are precious to them, and in sharing those, we're trying to celebrate the things that are beautiful about the culture, as well as the language so that the young people don't lose what they've got, their culture, even though they're in a different land, so that they can keep that up through generations.
Sandi Malesic says because the festival sold out last year, they have added more shows, and expanded it to a week long event.
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