Scoop  Features  Full Scoop Coverage: Festival 2008

Full Scoop Coverage: Festival 2008

NZ International Festival of the Arts: 22 February to 16 March 2008
Arts Festival website

The New Zealand Fringe ran from 8 February to 2 March
Fringe 08 Website
See also Fringe 08: And the winners are...

Wellington's Summer City festival runs until 29 March, including Gravity and Other Myths.

Modern Letters: Abandoned Novel Wins Poet $65 000

VUP author David Beach was presented with a $65,000 cheque in Wellington on Saturday 15 March, as winner of the biennial Prize in Modern Letters. His first collection of poetry, cheekily called Abandoned Novel, was published by Victoria University Press. More >>

New Zealand International Arts Festival Reviews - Week Four:

Dominic Groom on French Finesse: This year's festival has not been kind to classical music. The organisers have favoured operas more notable for their non-musical elements and the a limited concert selection with a strong element of what might uncharitably be called novelty... The NZSO concert French Finesse certainly staged the festival's most serious content for the orchestral aficionado. More >>

• Lyndon Hood on Honour Bound
• Tyler Hersey on Little Bushman

"Last Riot" at City Gallery - Special Arts Fest Tours

Learn more about the current exhibitions and impress your family and friends! Our free exhibition tours are a great way to get more out of your visit to City Gallery Wellington. More >>

Writers Week: Writers Released Onto Streets

Once Upon a Deadline is the world's first wireless writing marathon. Watch as six New Zealand writers take to the streets. In the course of a single day they will each visit six locations, and by the end of the day have created a story of no more than 1200 words inspired by their adventures. More >>
ALSO:

• Victoria University - NZ's largest literary prize to be announced
• TV3 Video - Campbell Live talks to prolific author Ian McEwan

New Zealand International Arts Festival Reviews - Week Three:

Lyndon Hood on Giselle: It isn't a ballet - and for much of it's length it's as much theatre as dance. It might be what you get if you take the ballet, mix it with talent and bodily fluids and bury it in peat to ferment. It is inspired. More >>

• Tyler Hersey on Absolute Arabian Nights
• Robbie Ellis on Book of Longing
• Lyndon Hood on Traces
• Nick van Dijk on Green Fire Islands
• Lyndon Hood on The Songs of Kurt Weill

Nick Tipping on The Boston Camerata: In recent years they have turned their attention to the music of the Shaker culture of the early US, and the folk hymns of the American Northeast. This repertoire presents a challenge to musical directors and performers: to modern ears it is very simple, consisting of a lot of monody (single lines), rounds, and basic pentatonic scales, and so keeping the attention of a 21st-century audience is not easy. Cohen and the Camerata are in some ways the ideal group to bring this music back to life. More >>

• Lorraine Ward on The Dentist's Chair
• Lorraine Ward on Sacred Monsters

Lyndon Hood on Children's Cheering Carpet - The Japanese Garden: In Children's Cheering Carpet series, Italian company Compagnia TPO uses the same interactive technology as the dance piece Glow. Unlike Glow, however, we take our shoes off as we enter the room, because we might get to join in. The way this works makes The Japanese Garden a hugely successful use use of the new technology; one that redefines the idea of interactive theatre. More >>

• Lyndon Hood on Glow

Celebrity Stars For Bro'Town Live Show

Bro' Town Live on Stage, the world's first reality stage show (about a cartoon!), will be a star-studded affair. The crew have roped in famous faces from the show to help them tell their story, including Scribe, Flight of the Conchords, Neil Finn, Lucy Lawless, John Campbell and Carol Hirschfeld. More >>

• TV3 Video - Bro Town - the stage version
• Robbie Ellis on Bro'Town Live on Stage

New Zealand International Arts Festival Reviews - Week Two:
See: Arts Festival Daily Listings, 1 - 8 March "New Zealand International Arts Festival enters Week Two with NZ work premieres alongside award winning dancers"

Richard Thomson on Trial Of The Cannibal Dog: One of the endearing quirks of our nation is our ambivalence about nationhood. It becomes clear what a blessing this is on the rare occasion (sporting events excepted) when hysterical patriotism is unleashed, such as the reaction to flag-burning protesters one recent Anzac Day. But ambivalence brings other, unintended, consequences, and The Trial of the Cannibal Dog is almost a textbook example. More >>

• Robbie Ellis on Absolute Mahler
• Robbie Ellis on Bro'Town Live on Stage

Tyler Hersey on Resonances: In the first commercial misstep I have encountered this festival, a sparse crowd witnessed the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and visiting conductor Jonathan Stockhammer salvage a concert in the wake of late cancellation by violin soloist Chloe Hanslip. More >>

• Nick Tipping on Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill
• Lyndon Hood on Lifeboat
• Alison Little on The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain

Lyndon Hood on Shen Wei Dance Arts: Shen Wei and his company have presented two very different dance pieces, each with their own fascination. First The Rite of Spring, a dazzling display of virtuso movement, followed by the slow and enigmatic Folding. More >>

• Nick Tipping on The Bad Plus
• Richard Thomson on Te Karakia
• Alison Little on Dave Dobbyn and Friends

Body Movies, a large-scale installation created by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer,
outside Te Papa every evening during the festival. More Images >>

New Zealand International Arts Festival Reviews - Week One:

Robbie Ellis on Landscapes: "Here was another new New Zealand work (let's say one "work" and twelve "pieces"), and here was an incredibly sensitive pianist to perform it. Stephen De Pledge, a New Zealander now established in the UK, is no showy virtuoso. Rather, he is a very precise communicator in both his playing and his stage presence - and a delight to watch." More >>

Alison Little on La Vie: "Let's just call it fun. Enormous fun. La Vie is a great grownup's night out. The performers give their all in high energy performances, and they, like the audience seem to be having a wonderful time... La Vie is a brilliant burlesque look at death and sex. Get a ticket: definitely a Festival highlight." More >>

• Lyndon Hood on Blackbird
• Robbie Ellis on The Poet

Sophie Wilson on A Hawk And A Hacksaw: "There's something quite engaging about a man in a mask, sporting an accordion, a Balkan bell-hat and a bright red shawl. Especially engaging is a man with cowbells taped to his left calf and a bodhran belted to his right thigh..." More >>

• Tyler Hersey on Ornette Coleman
• Lyndon Hood on The Lindbergh Flight, The Seven Deadly Sins

Kevin List on Black Watch: "Bryan Ferry of Roxy Music danced away the heartache - the actors of Black Watch dance themselves through a number of conflagurations throughout history and finally dance through a skirmish with insurgents in modern-day Iraq." More >>

• Alison Little on Cirque Ici - Secret
• Lyndon Hood on Three Sisters

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Shapeshifter 08: Alienesque Sculptures Cause Security Worries At Parliament

"A photo documentation of the sculptures in iconic nz landscape and places during our road-trip became a playful extension of our work. Finally arriving in Wellington we chose the Beehive for a suitable background to present the essence of the city... and then this is what happened..." More >>
ALSO:

• Wellington institute of Technology - A wonderland in a black box
• TV3 Video - Shapeshifter: Showcase of NZ sculpture
• Out-Link - Arts Fest: Shapeshifter 2008

"Smiling Windmills" installation at SHAPESHIFTER essential New Zealand Sculpture
Exhibiton, Civic Gardens, Lower Hutt. More Images >>

TV3 Video: NZ International Arts Fest Opens In Wellington

This Friday the International Arts Fest Opens in Wellington, with major theatre, music, dance and circus events beginning over the weekend and more to come. Scoop's coverage will include extensive reviewing of festival productions. More >>
ALSO:

• TV3 Video - 'Honourbound' offers a chilling look into life at Guantanamo Bay
• TV3 Video - Campbell Live talks to prolific author Ian McEwan
• TV3 Video - Where We Once Belonged: New play a universal story with a Polynesian twist
• TV3 Video - Arts fest dance Borrowed Light based on shaker religion
• TV3 Video - Bro Town - the stage version
• TV3 Video - Ukulele's not just a toy for little people
• TV3 Video - Festival opera traces Captain Cook's Pacific voyages
• TV3 Video - Iraq war play 'Black Watch' opens in Wellington
• TV3 Video - Lifeboat
• TV3 Video - 'La Vie' the sexy circus - naughty and a little bit cheeky
• TV3 Video - The British Ukulele Orchestra is here to charm you
• TV3 Video - Cirue Ici: One man circus raising eyebrows in the capital

New Zealand International Arts Festival Press Releases:

• Arts Festival Daily Listings, 1 - 8 March
• From Air Ballet To Astonishing Technology
• Where We Once Belonged - Coming of Age
• One Day Sculpture - ONE DAY SCULPTURE prepares to launch (March 7)
• Absolute Arabian Nights - Groovily Exotic - Jarvi Rocks the Band
• Absolute Mahler - Chamber Music Performed With a Twist
• Steven Isserlis: French Connection - Master of Eclectic Enthusiasms
• Steven Isserlis: Twelve Cellos - Take a Bow Mr Cello
• Steven Isserlis: Schumann and Friends - Exploring a Menage of Music
• Glow - From Glow to Interactive Whoa
• Giselle - Not 'Yer Conventional Ballet': New Take on Giselle
• Sacred Monsters - Sparks Fly as Ballerina Realises Sacred Monsters
• Meow Meow - Meow Meow... Sequinned Sex Bomb Waiting to Detonate
• A Costura do Invisivel: The enchanted world of Jum Nakao - Two Events Sponsored by Embassy of Brazil
• Body Movies - Giant Shadow Play To Transform Wellington
• From Score To Screen - Bro' Town Creator to MC Free Festival Concert
• Trial Of The Cannibal Dog - Were the Dogs of the South Seas the Savages?
• Trial Of The Cannibal Dog - Lexus Song Quest winner returns
• Resonances - NZSO Festival Guest: Chloe Hanslip
• Writers And Readers Week - Addressing Contemporary Society in Literary Feast
• Writers And Readers Week - Pakistan Situation: Festival Author Reconsiders
• Writers and Readers Week - Stories Feature in Free Activities During Festival
• Writers and Readers Week - WORD ON THE STREET: Once Upon a Deadline
• Writers and Readers Week - NZ's largest literary prize to be announced
• City Gallery Wellington - Festival Late Night Session March 6
• Aniwaniwa / Last Riot - Public programmes at City Gallery


• Accor Hotels and Resorts - Wellington Hotels Support International Arts Festival

Fringe Festival:

Best Of Fringe Announced

The winners of the Fringe 2008 awards were announced at the Fringe wrap-up party on Sunday night. "Apocalyptic romp" March of the Meeklings took home the supreme award. More >>

• Lorraine Ward on A Comedy Omnibus

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Previous festival coverage:
Arts Festival 2006
Fringe 2007