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    • Adam Page Solo finishes this weekend ...
      • ... and if you haven't seen his show at Downstage, you should get your tickets now! Find out more hereAdam page SoloThat's what our patrons say about Adam Page Solo:"I look forward to another series of Adam Page's performances! He's such a funny and multi-talented musician, making music improvisations on the spot. A must-see show!""Awesome!""Hands down, the best show at Fringe this year! Adam Page
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        • Hannah Playhouse, 12, Cambridge Terrace, Mount Victoria, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6011, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


    • Not just hot air...
      • When I first arrived in NZ a couple of years ago, my friend and I were driving north when we happened upon the myriad of turbines dotting the lanscape of the Tararua Wind Farm. We thought it was the coolest thing we'd ever seen. It was like something out of a sci-fi movie, but in a good way, not an alien-is-gonna-burst-out-of-your-guts way. How cool it would be to look out at that skyline every
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        • Hannah Playhouse, 12, Cambridge Terrace, Mount Victoria, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6011, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


    • Adam Page Solo The Big Idea Q & A
      • below is a Q and A I filled out for the website www.thebigidea.co.nzi was feeling extra silly when filling it out. had alot of fun though!! here 'tis During what hours of the day do you feel most inspired?During the sleeping hours   How would a good friend describe your aesthetic or style? Aesthetically bare footed and stylishly unstylish   What aspect of your creative practice gives you th
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        • Hannah Playhouse, 12, Cambridge Terrace, Mount Victoria, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6011, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


    • 12 theatrical events to stir the senses and get your blood pumping!
      • Downstage Theatre is excited to announce its programme for the first half of 2009. After a very successful year with seven Chapman Tripp Awards for productions staged at Downstage, the 2009 Season One Showcase “Get your blood pumping!” offers another season of unique performing arts experiences at the theatre. The programme enters the festival spirit by showcasing a broad range of productions, legendary performances and exciting new works.
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        • Hannah Playhouse, 12, Cambridge Terrace, Mount Victoria, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6011, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


    • And the award goes to
      • After a wonderful ceremony at the Wellington Town Hall last night Downstage is proud to congratulate the 2008 CHAPMAN TRIPP THEATRE AWARD Winners, especially the following ones: Downstage Theatre Award for the Most Promising Male Newcomer of the Year Arthur Meek - On the Conditions and Possibilities of Helen Clark Taking Me as Her Young Lover
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        • Hannah Playhouse, 12, Cambridge Terrace, Mount Victoria, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6011, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


    • The Little Dog Laughed: A hack's view.
      • Let's get one thing straight; I'm not a theatre reviewer. I'm a cycling journalist who knows a cyclist who works in theatre. The old adage "it's not what you know, it's who you know" holds true in this scenario. While I know more about handlebars and chains than ad-libs and breaking a leg (and although that can happen in cycling, you wouldn't wish it upon someone embarking on a ride), I'm alwa
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        • Hannah Playhouse, 12, Cambridge Terrace, Mount Victoria, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6011, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


    • The Little Dog Laughed: Ellen's blog
      • Stupid people make me want to hurt myself. They are everywhere! There needs to be a law, if you are an idiot, you get your tubes tied and are cock chopped off! It infuriates me how much time I waste in my everyday life dealing with total brainless fuckwits! Yesterday in Starbucks – Yes shock horror I get coffee from Starbucks – get over it! I don’t believe in all that globalism bullshit anyways, so, there I was waiting for my vanilla latte hoping that the guy behind the counter would remember me from last week and give me free coffee again, - I don’t know what it is but people just keeping giving me shit at the moment. Anyways so I overheard this lollipop-head barbie telling her friend in Starbucks, that she had come to New York City to ‘Find herself’!!!!!!!!!!!!! what the fuck? You don’t ‘find yourself’ in NYC you stupid horse-face bitch!! The whole point of being in NY is so that you don’t have to even think about that kind of thing, I mean, if you want to put it spiritually or some shit, you come to NY, you stay in NY to ‘loose’ yourself if anything!! What has she been doing here? Sitting in Central Park next to the John Lennon memorial and singing strawberry fields forever??? For fucks sake?? So I leaned past her toothpick of a so called friend and said “Honey take my advice, I think you should just fuck off back to the farm you came from and start looking up your own arse because you’re clearly gonna have more luck there, there’s no room on the subway for fuckwits like you!” They both turned around and stared at me for a few seconds, and then the walking anorexia advertisement says to me ‘NO thanks, we’ve just ordered.” I flicked my cigarette ash into her coffee and walked off. What an Idiot. Later on I’m in Macy’s waiting for the alien behind the Chanel counter to go on her break so I can grab so lipstick and I hear this wrinkly old tart telling her equally as wrinkly and hideous friend that her daughter is getting married in a month but she’s not sure if she can go to the wedding because she can’t get into see her plastic surgeon till December and she is NOT going to the wedding unless she can get her eyes lifted. She then asks the girl behind the Dior counter if she had any “rouge.” I called out to her from my perch “Rouge is what hookers wear!”Stupid people deserve the stupid things that happen to them. Don’t leave your bag open on the counter while you choose your lunch! Don’t get a perm! Don’t go to the movies, sit in the back row and get annoyed if the people around you are having sex. Don’t think that by adding a cherry to my drink you can call it a cocktail and then throw me out of your stupid, hideous 80s décor bar if I throw it in your face. Don’t make faces at “tsk tsk” noises at me if I smoke standing next to your child at the park, Move!! You stupid saggy-tit moron!
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        • Hannah Playhouse, 12, Cambridge Terrace, Mount Victoria, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6011, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


    • The Little Dog Laughed starts at Downstage - A note from Director Willem Wassenaar
      • Diane: And that’s how one wins. By shutting up. You can win. And all you have to do is shut up. Don’t say anything. This is where we are in our lives. This world is a brothel. And we are all prostitutes; selling ourselves to fit the ideal image of success and happiness. What is hidden behind the perfect smile of those Hollywood icons we have come to love and hate? They are people at the top of their profession, who have everything, who have achieved greatness… and yet, we love to grab a random tabloid, go to the red carpet pages and put their achievements to the test. Fold the page over those cheesy grins and the eyes start to reveal a whole other story. Compromise ─ I hate that word, as a human being and as an artist. Has our idea of happiness superseded our primal need to love and be loved? The Little Dog Laughed by Douglas Carter Beane presents the façade, the make believe world that we all consume, chew over and spit out in fits and starts. But would we have it any other way? In this dark comedy of manners, we watch in horror as four people make their individual choices to be happy. The truth has consequences; but the lies are a living hell. So, do we shut up in order to win? My thanks to the amazing, brave team of The Little Dog Laughed and Downstage Theatre, and a special mention for my long term collaborator Daniel Williams. This is our last project before this beautiful man heads out into the world to go on outrageous adventures. Let’s hope for the theatre in New Zealand that he comes back. I also wish to thank… (cut to music) Willem Wassenaar Director The Little Dog Laughed
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        • Hannah Playhouse, 12, Cambridge Terrace, Mount Victoria, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6011, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


    • Seriously good.
      • There's a great line in a Simpsons episode (well there's a plethora of them really) when C. Montgomery Burns is viewing the less-than-flattering nude portrait of him which Marge has painted. In his typically non-plussed manner, he states "I don't know much about art, but I know what I hate; and I don't hate this."Now, I don't profess to know much about art either, but Adagio-Seriously Sophisticated Circus had me enthralled and not thinking about hate one bit. From the opening minute, when each of the performers was introduced to the audience in a sequence which had us in a quandry as to which performer to focus on, to the mirror-image closure, I was amazed, amused, and just plain entertained in a way that I'm not generally accustomed to. But I liked it. A lot.Without being able to properly dissect the performance, to verbalise the nuances of the techniques deployed, or even identify the performers correctly, I'll at least have a crack and break it down to a Monty Burns-esqe critique. Adagio combines live music, comedy, pantomime, dance and most of all (as the name implies) amazing feats of gymnastic ability on an array of 'equipment' (chairs, swings, ropes etc). The two main protagonists were a diminutive male and a blonde female whose pure strength and incredible poise was so immense and impressive that you would think it looked so easy, but then you'd digest what they were doing and imagine trying to do it yourself, summising with a mental "no way!". This was my second experience at Downstage, after the also brilliant Strike earlier this year, and if the quality of these two shows is an indicator of the fare on offer, then I can see myself making more regular visits. And I'd recommend that everyone should get along and experience Adagio... it's been extended, so there's no reason not too. Might even make it back for seconds myself.Thanks to Markus at Downstage.Brett Kennedy
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        • Hannah Playhouse, 12, Cambridge Terrace, Mount Victoria, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6011, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


    • Adagio extended till 1 Nov
      • Good news! Downstage and Awkward Productions are proud to announce that ADAGIO’s season at the theatre is extended by popular demand till 1 November. The show, which takes circus out of the tent and into the theatre, features a blend of syncopated circus acts and music from Jonathan Crayford. Directed by Deborah Pope, ADAGIO received excellent feedback from both audiences and reviewers.Downstage also introduced a family pass for the 6.30 pm performances from Monday till Wednesday and the 3 pm matinee on Saturday 25 October. The family ticket is available at a price of $100 at the Downstage box office and on the phone and includes admission for two adults and two children.ADAGIO is a combination of physical theatre, circus, contemporary dance, music and comedy. With Mason West, Rowan Heydon-White, Angela Green, Jenny McArthur and Asalemo Tofete the show features five highly skilled physical performers, unique in their approach to theatre making, joined by New Zealand Symphony Orchestra double bassist Vicki Jones and jazz musician Rosie Langabeer.ADAGIO is playing at Downstage Theatre till 1 November, Monday to Wednesday at 6.30 pm and Thursday to Saturday at 7.30 pm, with an afternoon matinee at 3 pm on Saturday 25 October.Ticket prices range from $20 to $42. Tickets can be purchased online at www.downstage.co.nz, by phone at (04) 801 6946 or in person at Downstage’s box office.For more information on the show please visit www.downstage.co.nz/adagio“Adagio offers a beautifully crafted hour of existential physical theatre. Perfect spring fare."John Smythe, Theatreview.com“What a circus, what a show. Go see!”Laurie Atkinson, The Dominion Post“By far the most entertaining seventy minutes I had experienced at the theatre in a very long time. Just superb.” Texture.co.nz
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        • Hannah Playhouse, 12, Cambridge Terrace, Mount Victoria, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6011, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


    • Watch Bare - Now at Downstage Theatre
      • "Once again the combination of great performances and dazzling writing makes for a thoroughly entertaining, gentle satire of 'our people today' that clearly stands the test of time. Go."Mary Anne Bourke (Theatreview) on BARE Love, sex, family, friendship, youth and bad movies at multiplexes - listen to our people talk!Directed by award-winning director Oliver Driver Toa Fraser's classic New Zealand comedy BARE is an hilarious matrix of urban poetry. Armed with the voice of the street, two actors riff on body image, films, takeaway food, graffiti and English literature. Downstage is proud to present this limited season (13 performances only!) of this new production of BARE that premiered at Silo Theatre in Auckland last year.
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        • Hannah Playhouse, 12, Cambridge Terrace, Mount Victoria, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6011, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


    • Watch this AMAZING SHOW
      • Don't miss our current show STRIKE: ELEMENTAL, described as "amazing show" by Simon Sweetman. Founded in 1993 as a classically trained percussion ensemble, Strike has evolved into a high-energy drumming group combining movement and theatre-based performance. "Filled with movement, shadow, space, light, darkness, mime and - most gloriously - loud, clattering drums, Strike's ELEMENTAL is the best show I have seen from the talented quartet.
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        • Hannah Playhouse, 12, Cambridge Terrace, Mount Victoria, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6011, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


    • My Brilliant Divorce Production Diary - Sound Design
      • Sound Designer, Gil Craig, recorded the voice overs on Wednesday morning and supplied a small set-up with the help of House Technician, Marc Edwards. This allowed us to test the recordings on a basic level in the rehearsals. From here Ginette and Geraldine discovered it didn't quite fit the picture they are trying to create.This is a technique often used by Sound Designers to test out their ideas and ensure they are on the same page as the Director.
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        • Hannah Playhouse, 12, Cambridge Terrace, Mount Victoria, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6011, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


    • My Brilliant Divorce Begins
      • With the first few days of rehearsal over, Ginette McDonald and Geraldine Brophy are getting into the swing of things. We now have a vague blocking of almost the entire show and Ginette is quickly memorising her lines, allowing her to truly dive into the rehearsals. A big task for a one woman show.
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        • Hannah Playhouse, 12, Cambridge Terrace, Mount Victoria, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6011, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


    • Welcome to Downstage's Updated Forum!
      • Like to leave your opinion about Downstage Theatre? Or a particular show? Have a look at our discussion forum at http://downstage.freeforums.org/ We would like to encourage you to leave us your opinion. Register today to take part in the discussion! We are happy about all useful comments that help us to improve our theatre and present you shows and a place you enjoy.
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        • Hannah Playhouse, 12, Cambridge Terrace, Mount Victoria, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6011, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


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