The First Time
Media Release
Kat
Glass Creative presents
THE FIRST TIME
Written by Courtney Rose Brown, Directed by Stef Fink
Fierce And Fearless Women Star in Explosive Award-Winning Kiwi Play
The First Time by Courtney Rose Brown has enjoyed repeat seasons and critical acclaim in Wellington at Circa Theatre and BATS and in Dunedin. Its Auckland Premiere this year at Basement Theatre was met with sold-out audiences and critical acclaim. Now the Auckland cast and crew bring this incredible script to Toi Wahine Festival for its Hamilton premiere. The First Time is a significant and insightful piece of contemporary feminist NZ Theatre. The play won Highly Commended in the 2016 Playmarket Playwrights b425 Awards and was Shortlisted for Plays for the Young in 2017.
The First Time tells five interconnecting stories of young Kiwi women experiencing the first hurdles of adulthood. It compassionately addresses important issues such as mental health, sexual assault, LGBT relationships, and socio-economic struggle. The script has been lauded as “socially insightful” (Theatreview) and “exciting, contemporary, and relevant.” (Dave Armstrong). Playwright Brown has crafted five unique young Kiwi women, so believable that “it's tempting to think we are witnessing autobiographical sharing” (Theatreview) but indeed Brown has crafted them all, inspired by the young women around her in her native Wellington.
The First Time also represents the maiden flight of Director Stef Fink - a member of Massive Company since 2009, Fink attended the drama school of Ecole Philippe Gaulier in France in 2014 and is a graduate of the 2017 Massive Company Directors Lab. Fink is fiercely interested in politics and social conditions in NZ. She is passionate about bringing The First Time to life utilising her background in Physical Theatre as well as her belief that it is crucial that we carve out opportunities to hear the voices of our young women. Fink says that “as a young woman, I feel that female experiences are still not talked about enough, and I want to change that…If we know how and what our fellow humans are thinking, feeling, and experiencing, we cannot ignore it.”
The First Time puts five significant female voices that are impossible to ignore, front and centre.
The First Time is performed by Toi Whakaari Graduate Miryam Jacobi (Balls, Auckward Love); Unitec Graduate Carla Newton (Pan is Dead); Alex Tunui (Long Cloud Youth Theatre, Shortland Street), Kolopa Simei-Barton (Massive Nui Ensemble), and Courtney Bassett (Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Faustus Project).
THE FIRST TIME plays
Dates:
Thursday 9th August, 8pm
Venue:
The Meteor Theatre
Tickets: $15.00 -
$25.00
Bookings:
www.themeteor.co.nz/event/toi-wahine-the-first-time/
For
more information contact:
Kat Glass
kat@katglasscreative.com
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Toi Wāhine is a festival that celebrates the creativity, ideas and actions of women from the past, the present and from the Waikato and beyond.
This carefully curated and unique
11-day festival explores the diversity of women’s
experiences through theatre, film, literature, comedy,
music, workshops, panel discussions, practical skill
building events, networking opportunities and other arts
events.
Our aim.. To unite men and women from all over
the Waikato Region and provide a platform from which to add
their voice and stories to the current positive global
movement.
ends