Standing Room Only for Sunday 18 March 2018

 

12:16  Writing tomorrow's TV dramas - a beginner's guide

You could be forgiven for thinking free to air TV is a closed shop these days, with just a handful of production companies securing most drama series and docu-dramas.

But our next generation of TV scriptwriters are looking outside the usual outlets.   Streaming services are constantly looking for the next big thing to lure subscribers, and overseas that's where just about all the ground-breaking dramas are coming from.

So far New Zealand on Air hasn't dipped its toe into co-productions with the likes of Lightbox and Netflix, though it does fund web-series and multi-media projects.

Now Script to Screen wants to encourage new TV writers to try new things with its pilot programme Episodic Lab Aotearoa - the first programme of its kind in New Zealand.  Both NZ on Air and Lightbox are supporting the project.

Script to Screen's Executive Director Esther Cahill-Chiaroni talked with Lynn Freeman about why now is the right time for a specialist TV writing project:

 

 

12:34  Jeanette Shäring

A Swedish-Kiwi environmental artist is tapping into one of the big issues facing this country and indeed the planet - water quality.

Jeannette Shäring, who's living in Mt Maunganui, has been busy collecting water samples and stories about how people feel about and use water.

In a blend of science and art, Jeanette is also having the water quality analyzed and then displaying the findings in a way that'll give visitors ideas on how to better protect the environment.

She's calling the Tauranga Art Gallery exhibition Whose Water Are You.  Jeanette tells Lynn Freeman it's an idea she's explored in overseas galleries too.

12:46  The opening of Te Papa's ambitious new art spaces

It's taken 20 years and more than eight million dollars.  So will Te Papa's new art exhibition spaces finally do justice to the nation's art collection? 

Art now gets 35% more floor space in the national museum, and these areas are more flexible to accommodate large-scale and immersive new works.  

The new Toi Art gallery was revealed to the public yesterday, spanning two levels of the museum and including both works from the Collection and brand new work commissioned for the space.

Lynn Freeman invites two critics - Mary-Jane Duffy, Head of the Whitirea Creative Writing Programme, and The Big Idea's Mark Amery - to give their assessment of the new space.

1:10 At The Movies

This week Simon Morris reviews the latest version of Death Wish, The mercy, starring Colin Firth and New Zealand documentary Kobi.

1:33 Treading softly on Tom Hoyle's leafy dreams

Photographer Tom Hoyle has been photographing leaves in his laundry and working ropes and pullies for aerial dancers in a Commonwealth Games Festival show on Australia's Gold Coast.

But Tom's day job is producing alpine-related publications, where he's made a name for himself with his landscape photographs.

What made him shift his focus from mountains to individual leaves was a collaborative exhibition with choreographer Sacha Copland called Tread Softly.  In it, performers dance amongst fallen leaves in a gallery, surrounded by Tom's leaf images, and its about to open at Wellington's Toi Poneke Gallery on the 6th of April.

With such a wide range of work, Lynn Freeman started by asking why Tom Hoyle describes himself as "a photographic expeditionary".

1:49  Tallulah Holly-Massey - dancing after the Apocalypse!

She had calligraphy written all over her body for filmmaker-turned-artist Vincent Ward.  She's posed for life-drawing classes here and overseas.  And now Tallulah Holly-Massey is creating a post-apocalyptic world within a small space as the new Artist In Residence at Auckland's Basement Theatre.

Tender is the Night is the first of three works Tallulah has planned for her residency year.  The Auckland-based choreographer and freelance dancer describes it as "two beings demonstrating their survival techniques in a hostile world in dysfunctional ways".   

Of course, when she was posing for Vincent Ward last year, survival techniques were useful there too - from water tanks to working in cold environments.  Tallulah tells Lynn Freeman that dancing was part of her life pretty much from the start.

Tender is the Night, choreographed by Tallulah Holly-Massey, opens at Auckland's Basement Theatre on the 27th of March.

2:06 The Laugh Track - Gillian English

If you know your Shakespeare - particularly the Wars of the Roses plays - you'll know that Queen Margaret of Anjou was one of the scariest women in all history.  Blood-thirsty and monstrous, she made Lady Macbeth look like Mary Poppins...

Except it's not true.  It was all spin, like so many accounts of women who dared to put their heads above the parapet.  And there was no spin-doctor quite as enthusiastic as Will Shakespeare, particularly when it came to buttering up the Royal Family of the time!

So are women in power judged more harshly than men?   Don't be silly - of course they are, but how much more?  That is the question in Gillian English's new show that's about to open at Wellington's Bats Theatre as part of the Fringe. Gill is Canadian by birth, Australian by adoption and her show is called She Wolf.  Her Laugh Track picks include DeAnne Smith, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, Samantha Bee and Demi Lardner.

2:25 Otago Mozart Fellow, the very busy Dylan Lardelli

Dylan Lardelli started out teaching himself to play his big sister's abandoned guitar.  Now he travels the world playing with ensembles and is considered to be in the vanguard of our next generation of composers.

Dylan is this year's University of Otago Mozart Fellow, and in between composing new work and working with students, he's flying to Asia to build on his long standing collaborations with Japanese musicians.

He's also been the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra's composer in residence, he performs with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, as well as the Stroma and 175 East Ensembles, and he's just performed in two concerts with overseas musicians. So, as he tells Lynn Freeman, he has a lot to thank his big sister for:

2:36  Children's author Raymond Huber blends science and fiction

It's a love of both science and writing that helped versatile Dunedin writer, Raymond Huber carve a niche for himself in the crowded children's book market, here and overseas.

His children's novels, Sting and Wings, are science-based fantasy.  His picture books include Flight of the Honey Bee and Gecko, and he's written about non-violent resistance in his Young Adult novel Peace Warriors.

Raymond is this year's University of Otago College of Education/Creative New Zealand Children's Writer in Residence, staying in the historic cottage bequeathed by the late playwright Robert Lord.

Lynn Freeman started by asking Raymond Huber about his own favourite children's books growing up.

 

2:49 Wrapping up WOMAD

At the end of the weekend, only the die-hard WOMAD fans remain at the annual music event in New Plymouth. 

It's been a frenetic couple of days of performances by musicians from pretty much everywhere, offering music of every genre.

But WOMAD isn't quite as purist as it used to be - one of the last acts is a reunion by beloved expat Kiwi band Dragon.   Yadana Saw from Music 101 reports back to Lynn Freeman about the highs and lows of the weekend.

 

3:06 Drama at 3 - The Terror at Tinakori Road by Neil Giles.

 

 

 

Music played in this show

Artist: Bing Crosby and Peggy Lee
Song: A slow boat to China
Composer: Loesser
Album: Duets
Label: Grammercy
Played at: 12.16

Artist: John Hiatt
Song: Slow turning
Composer: Hiatt
Album: Slow Turning
Label: A&M
Played at: 12.29

Artist: The Pointer Sisters
Song: Slow hand
Composer: Bettis-Clark
Album: The best of
Label:  RCA
Played at: 12.58

Artist:  Midge Marsden
Song:  Slow walk jive talk
Composer: Rutherford-Marsden
Album: Midge Marsden Connection
Label:  Mandrill
Played at:  1.08

Artist:  Ayo
Song: Slow slow run run
Composer: Ayo
Album: Gravity at last
Label:  Universal
Played at: 1.45

Artist: Keb Mo
Song: Slow down
Composer:  Keb Mo-Parker
Album:  Slow down
Label: Okeh
Played at: 1.58

Artist: Sara Evans
Song: Slow me down
Composer: Green-Morgan
Album:  Slow me down
Label: RCA
Played at:  2.04

Artist: Stroma
Song: Four fragments
Composer: Lardelli
Album: N/A
Label:  Waiteata Press
Played at: 2.25

Artist:  Chubby Checker
Song: Slow Twistin'
Composer: Sheldon
Album: Dancin' Party
Label: Fantastic
Played at: 2.35

 

Artist:  Dragon

Song: April sun in Cuba
Composer: Hewson-Hunter
Album: Running free
Label: Portrait
Played at:  2.50

Artist: The Braxtons
Song: Slow flow
Composer: Stewart-Hall
Album: single
Label: Atlantic
Played at: 2.58

Artist: Eric Clapton
Song: Slow down Linda
Composer:  Clapton
Album:  Money and Cigarettes
Label:  Warner
Played at: 3.04

Artist: Chris Knight
Song: The band is playing too slow
Composer: Knight
Album:  Chris Knight
Label: Decca
Played at: 3.58