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Performing Arts and Waterfront

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    • DCM Bookfair 2018 - One Week to Go!
      • 96 DCM Bookfair 2018 - One Week to Go! p{ margin:10px 0; padding:0; } table{ border-collapse:collapse; } h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6{ display:block; margin:0; padding:0; } img,a img{ border:0; height:auto; outline:none; text-decoration:none; } body,#bodyTable,#bodyCell{ height:100%; margin:0; padding:0; width:100%; } .mcnPreviewText{ display:none !important; } #outlook a{ padding:0; } img{ -ms-interpolation-mode:bicubic; } table{ mso-table-lspace:0pt; mso-table-rspace:0pt; } .ReadMsgBody{ width:100%; } .ExternalClass{ width:100%; } p,a,li,td,blockquote{ mso-line-height-rule:exactly; } a[href^=tel],a[href^=sms]{ color:inherit; cursor:default; text-decoration:none; } p,a,li,td,body,table,blockquote{ -ms-text-size-adjust:100%; -webkit-text-size-adjust:100%; } .ExternalClass,.ExternalClass p,.ExternalClass td,.ExternalClass div,.ExternalClass span,.ExternalClass font{ line-height:100%; } a[x-apple-data-detectors]{ color:inherit !important; text-decoration:none !important; font-size:inherit !important; 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DCM Bookfair 2018 - One Week to Go! View this email in your browser DCM's annual, fundraising Bookfair is ONE week away! Saturday 4 August, Shed 6, Queen's Wharf, 8am-6pm. Wellington's annual DCM Bookfair has been raising funds for vulnerable Wellingtonians for 23 years - but unless a new storage venue is found, this year's event will be the last. Our thanks to Lee-Anne Duncan for this story, published in today's Your Weekend. There's never a shortage of donations but the storage unit DCM has relied on will not be available next year, leaving the future of the book fair in doubt. Every year, book lovers flock to the DCM Bookfair on Wellington's waterfront to grab an armful of bargains in support of vulnerably housed citizens. But unless a new storage venue is found, this year's event will be the last. Lee-Anne Duncan reports. It's catnip to bibliophiles, that smell. It's the bouquet of books, heavy with dust and knowledge, to be stacked and sorted, packed then transported to Wellington's Shed 6 for next Saturday's DCM Bookfair. This year is the 23rd time hundreds of volunteers have poured thousands of hours into collecting, sorting, boxing and setting out nearly 100,000 books for the country's biggest book fair. The event is also DCM's biggest single fundraiser. Formerly known as the Downtown Community Ministry, DCM works "at the serious end" of homelessness. Along with supporting people to find sustainable accommodation, DCM provides a variety of services to support vulnerable Wellingtonians. The organisation calls the people they work with "taumai", meaning "to settle", preferring it to the less personal "client". While DCM receives funds from local and central government to carry out some of its work, donations and fundraising events like this one are its lifeblood. If this book fair is as successful as those past, a near quarter century of book fairs will have collectively raised at least $2 million to fund DCM's work. "That's $2 million we haven't had to ask of central or local government agencies," says Stephanie McIntyre, DCM's director for the past 14 years. "The only reason we have been able to raise that money is through the generosity of Wellingtonians who donate their books, the people who buy them, and of course the volunteers who give their time to make it all happen." A fundraiser's success often comes down to those volunteers, especially for an event as large and complex as DCM's annual book fair. But this year's event might be its last, as the planned development of Shelly Bay means the Wellington City Council-owned warehouse used to store and sort donated books won't be available next year. "All this is absolutely at risk," says McIntyre. "We have had zero response trying to find another warehouse. We'd love to have another book fair as it's become such a classic Wellington thing and it's essential fundraising for us. Next year is our 50th birthday and it would be a great shame not to have a book fair in such an important year." DCM director Stephanie McIntyre. Many – if not most – of the fair's volunteers give their time year after year. A core group of about 30 helpers travel to the warehouse on Thursdays or Saturdays, or both, for generally five or six hours a day every week between April and August. There, wrapped up against the winter chill, they receive donations, sort the books into categories, then into subcategories, and sometimes even into micro-categories. "I've found quite a few books on grief. I'm hoping I can get enough together to make a section of its own," says long-time volunteer Wendy Nelson. "And I've got all these diet books. This year we seem to have a lot of paleo books." Spirited exchanges have been known to happen over categories. All Blacks Don't Cry by John Kirwan, for example: "Is that sport or mental health? I even found copy in Psychology earlier," says Nelson. If there's more than one copy – and often there is – the books can be allotted wherever book seekers may think to find it. A marine biologist, Nelson works full time as a principal scientist at Niwa but spends her Saturdays sorting. She's been involved in the book fair every year since the first, in 1996. "The then director, Helen Walch, said she'd had this great idea to hold a second-hand book fair as a fundraiser that would engage the volunteers and community. "I thought it sounded like a good idea – I like books, so why not get involved? DCM does such important work, and is such an important part of Wellington. Sometimes it's hard to know how to contribute, but this is a way for us to do our own small bit."  Volunteer Wendy Nelson, a marine biologist and book lover. Each year DCM supports about 1000 people who are experiencing homelessness or in danger of becoming homeless. But the work DCM does goes far beyond putting a roof over their heads. Every DCM day begins with a karakia and waiata. DCM kaimahi (staff) and their taumai gather to give thanks for the new day at 9am when the organisation's doors open in Te Aro's Lukes Lane. Social workers are on hand to talk to taumai to get to the heart of why they're experiencing homelessness. They support the person to access a benefit and manage their money, find and sustain housing, and connect to whānau and culture, health and other services. Statistics New Zealand defines homelessness as: "Living situations where people with no other options to acquire safe and secure housing are without shelter, in temporary accommodation, sharing accommodation with a household, or living in uninhabitable housing." Research by Otago School of Medicine in 2016 put the number of New Zealanders living this way at more than 40,000 people, nearly 1 per cent of our total population – the highest rate of homelessness in the OECD. It's difficult to accurately quantify homelessness. During this year's census, DCM staff worked with Statistics NZ staff to encourage and support people who were homeless to complete the census forms. "We explained that government funding decisions are made on census data, so filling out the census made sure they were counted," says McIntyre. DCM's own data vividly describes the increase in demand. Over the past five years, the number of people who are homeless that come to DCM for support has increased by more than a third. "Even more worrying, the number of people we see who are actually without shelter – so rough sleeping, or sleeping in cars – has more than doubled." McIntyre expects the number of people DCM supports to increase this year. "When you get a severe housing crisis, as we have now, it's the most vulnerable who are kicked to the end of the line. As housing gets harder for everyone it gets especially hard for these people, which makes our work even more necessary." In May, the Government announced $100 million to address homelessness – $37 million of that was allocated to find places by the end of this winter, with the rest spent over four years on the Housing First programme. While DCM will be at the forefront of delivering Housing First in Wellington, the organisation will continue to rely on volunteers and donations to pay for its core services. We visit four Saturdays from sale day. There's a stiff nor'wester whipping the waves a few metres from the warehouse. Out in the harbour, a rare southern right whale is leading the news. Te Amo Roberts, another volunteer and someone DCM has supported, reports he saw the whale on his way in. He stirs himself a coffee between breaking down cardboard boxes and helping with some of the "grunt work". Volunteer Te Amo Roberts received assistance from DCM in the past. Today, he's an important part of the book fair team. "There are some biscuits on the sideboard, Te Amo – Cameo Cremes," says McIntyre, who's holding a brief meeting with a small group of volunteers, a long, tightly written to-do list on her crossed knee. Cut sandwiches and fruit are boxed on the sideboard, along with those Cameo Cremes. Everyone knows a volunteer army sorts and packs on its stomach. Most of the fair's book-sorting volunteers stick to their areas of expertise – a retired anaesthetist is set to work deciding which medical books are still useful, and a war buff flicks through the military books. They determine which books will sell and for how much, which subjects are likely to be "in"' this year, and which – judging by the number of those donated – are on their way out. The volunteers' knowledge also means they're well-placed to spot a valuable book. Then, with the aid of local auction house expertise and internet bookseller searches, a price is applied and the book is included in the high-value stack. "We do get some amazing finds where people might not have realised they've gifted us an extraordinary treasure, but we have no way of reuniting it with its owner," says McIntyre, who, drawing on her own pre DCM music industry career knowledge, found a rare Beatles book some fairs back. "At the same time I'm sure we've had books we've sold for $2 that may have been worth hundreds. But you've got to be philosophical." A hand-drawn diagram of the Shed 6 book fair layout is pinned to the wall. Each table has a number assigned to a book category: children's, history, health, fiction (so much fiction), New Zealand, art, and so on. The more work done now, the better 100 or so volunteers on set-up day know exactly where everything fits. Taking too many books to fit a category's allocated section would lead to chaos – setting out 90,000 books is a precise science. "We've got a phenomenally good offering of children's books this year, so we've had to shuffle up some other things to accommodate that," says McIntyre, scrutinising the diagram. "The foreign languages are fine but the music is the big headache at the moment," says one volunteer, popping in to give McIntyre a quick update on her areas. The team is following a packing plan with scheduled revision points. According to the plan, by this day 75 per cent of books must be sorted, tallied and packed on pallets (each holding about 800 books) ready for transportation to Shed 6 at dawn the day before fair day. With clipboard in hand, Alexi Manouilenko is responsible for the tally. DCM stepped in when he needed support a couple of years ago, which led to him volunteering on fair day in 2016. "As well as wanting to give back to DCM, I'd been out of work for a while and people are reluctant to hire you when you don't have anything to explain your time off. I realised the best way to get back into work was to volunteer to show I could work. I already knew DCM so I volunteered for two years. That led to some paid work and now I have a full-time job with DCM."  Part of Manouilenko's job is to decide how many books in each category should go to the fair and use his maths skills to keep tabs on the packing. "I look at the previous two years to see how many books were taken in each category and how many were sold. From that I try to guess at what we should take this year, and I tell the volunteers how many boxes in each category to pack." This level of organisation is why DCM must close the book on donations four weeks out from the fair. Even on the last day, every few minutes book-toting donors poke their heads around the peeling-painted door. "I just want to drop some books," says a man, setting down his burden. "Thank you, mate," says McIntyre. "Come to the fair and buy a whole lot more, won't you?" Surely he will – book lovers only clear their shelves to fill them with new finds. While the DCM Bookfair is certainly about finding new homes for old books, it's also about raising funds to support marginalised Wellingtonians into homes of their own. Nelson remembers when the team was ecstatic to raise $15,000 – now the book fair raises around $100,000, which goes directly into funding DCM's work with people experiencing homelessness. It's that work, as well as their shared love of books, that motivates the volunteers. Volunteer Tamara Morton with stacks of books ready for the fair. Tamara Morton is a consulate advisor at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, but spends her Saturday mornings in the warehouse's fiction section, estimating the book-buying public's appetite for Philippa Gregory and Dan Brown. "When I was living overseas, circumstances happened that I found myself looking for a place to live. It was short-lived and I've never been truly homeless, but I can't forget the anguish that came with thinking, 'What am I going to do? I've got nowhere to go.' To be able to help an organisation with the resources to address that is why I do this for DCM. "There's also the huge bonus of making connections with people you wouldn't meet in a lifetime of routine days. The people who work here come from all sorts of backgrounds and different stages of life. It's really cute to see the cheeky banter that goes on between a Millennial and a Baby Boomer. It's really delightful to be a part of that." Nelson is busy assessing travel guides (nothing published before 2010 goes on sale). "What I love about the book fair is that everyone's winning," she says. "The people off-loading their books feel they're going to a good place, the people who rock up to the book fair get fantastic bargains, and the people who volunteer get satisfaction from contributing to something. And it's about making connections into the community." Our thanks to Lee-Anne Duncan for this story, published in today's Your Weekend. Feel free get in touch with us at DCM over the coming week if you have any questions about the Bookfair on (04) 384 7699 or events@dcm.org.nz Click Here to Donate Now! <!-- --> Copyright © 2018 DCM, All rights reserved. Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list
      • Accepted from DCM alerts archive by feedreader
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    • following your passion
      • Normal 0 false false false EN-NZ X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;} This week in drama* on the waterfront, we hear from Scotty Cotter about atypical day in rehearsal of the beautiful ones – following your passion!  Scotty Cotter, currently starring in the beautiful onesThe rehearsal day normally starts at 9.30am, everybody comes in rugged up in clothing due to the cold weather that has hit Wellington. (I’m from Auckland and as you can tell I fear the cold, TYPICAL!) Dolina Wehipeihana, the choreographer, starts the music and it’s all on. Muscle and bone for a hour. This consists of  stretching, moving, rolling on the ground, body conditioning, figuring out how you get your left foot in front of your right, how to leap gracefully without feeling like a fat hippo. I successfully pass warm up! The room is now hot and everyone has shed their winter layers, including socks, and are now to the basic shorts and t-shirts. From there we head into working over one of the dance sets. Detailing and cleaning each move and lift and figuring out how we do this seamlessly. I find myself lifting a lot of people. I feel like the Hulk! This makes me smile. The room is fueled with determination to get each point right, but also filled with a lot of laughter. I walk over to Sandip, who plays Sachin, to have a pretend wrestle with him. He taps out. I win. We work on the choreography till lunch time. By this time we are all sweating and having fun. I have passed the morning. Time for lunch. Lunch normally starts with us all skulling back water to keep hydrated then rugging back up to fight the cold. Normally we're all still warm so just chuck on a hoody or a jacket. The Circa balcony has the best view of the waterfront, if you ever get a chance to see the rehearsal rooms you’ll see the balcony. You can see right to the ranges on a clear day and when it’s sunny its the most epic view. We all figure out what we are having for lunch cause by this point we are starving! This cast loves to eat – it’s great! After lunch we are into the acting side of the mahi. Braedyn and Sharn, who play Juju and Ardie, are working on their scene with the director Hone Kouka. Braedyn is cracking me up and I think to myself he is someone we should all keep our eye on. He has a natural instinct when he performs and he has a bright future in the arts. From the side of my eye I spot Sharn doing the splits, he is an amazing dancer. I somehow find myself signing up to the splits challenge where at the end of the season I would be able due to me stretching everyday, do the splits. I’ll keep you updated on how that goes. The rest of the ‘youngins’ leap up on the floor to work on the scene. Te hau and Paige who play Vaine and Lil Paulina are part of that crew. These two are our wahine force! They both effortlessly draw your attention, both amazing dancers in their own right. I like rehearsing with this crew we have a instant complicité. Kali Kopae walks in with her baby Willow. The whole room stops and makes baby noises and faces towards the baby for a couple of minutes then we are all back into rehearsal. After the youngins have finish their scene we find out that we have the music for a song that Kali sings produced by K*saba and composed and written by Tama Waipara and Kali Kopae. See starts to sing along. Her voice is a formidable. I’m glad she’s my mate so that I can tell people how flash she is. She tells me to shut up and then we laugh at each other. It’s fun to work with her again. Manny Solomon, who plays Ihia, gets up and dances to K*Saba's track. I like this kid. He’s got spark. He knows how to hold a stage. I appreciate that. I find myself trying to hug Te Hau so that I can get her into a playful headlock she is already on to my tricks and try's to get me in one. We make a truce then crack up. Besides all the fun. We work hard. Which is why I love making theatre. Work shouldn’t be boring. For me following your passion and being excited about what you do is why I am involved in the arts. Having fun creating, imagining, telling stories, allowing the audience to dream and self reflect. That is why I make theatre. To share time and transport the audience to another place. SO COME AND CHECK OUT THIS SHOW!!!! Dust off all your old dance moves and bring them along. the beautiful ones is an exiting visual tapestry that will have you shaking and grooving in your seats. See you all there! Peace. Scotty Cotter the beautiful ones is on at Circa Theatre until 11 July, the last production in the inaugural Ahi Kaa AK Festival. Book now at 04 801 7992 or www.circa.co.nz View the trailer on Youtube:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTKXhFCHkMI
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        • Circa Theatre, Taranaki Street, Te Aro, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6011, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


    • commedia dell’arte
      • This week on drama* on the waterfront, Colleen McColl, publicist for A Servant to Two Masters, delves into the commedia dell’arte style of theatre commedia dell’arte = ‘comedy of the profession’, ‘theatre of the professional’, ‘comedy of art’ One of the most interesting things about working as a publicist is delving into other various aspects of the production and finding out about things not previously known. A Servant to Two Masters offered me a wonderful  chance to look more closely at commedia dell’arte. Google is a wonderful friend! It appears commedia dell'arte originated in streets and market places of Italy during the Italian Renaissance. Commedia was a hugely popular form of theatre with street performers. They offered improvised stories usually representing fixed social types, stock characters, such as  foolish old men, mischievous servants and young lovers. Actors joined the company very often at a young age and in each production played one character – it became their specialty. They spent their whole careers with that same company. As they aged they would moved into other roles eventually ending up as the old master. It was known as a colourful and extremely theatrical art form which allowed improvised scenarios that facilitated a comic plot to arrive at a humorous climax, with a happy ending. The performers, who used masks with exaggerated comic features to draw additional attention to themselves and complement their physical and acrobatic skills, eventually teamed up in troupes of actors, often with a travelling stage, to firmly establish commedia as a genre in it's own right by the mid-1500s.  They performed outside and relied on various props in place of extensive scenery. These "commedia troupes" performed for and were accessible to all social classes. Language was no barrier, with their skilful mime, stereotyped stock characters, traditional lazzi's (signature stunts, gags and pranks), masks, broad physical gestures, improvised dialogue and clowning they became widely accepted wherever they travelled. In later years, the tradition spread all over Europe, eventually adopting a major French influence where many of the scenarios were scripted into commedia-style plays. It is from the commedia world where such characters as Arlecchino (Harlequin), Columbine, Punchinello (Punch), The Doctor, The Captain and Pantalone emerged. It was fascinating to learn that during this period, commedia dell’arte was the only form of theatre where women were allowed on stage. A Servant to Two Masters was originally written in 1745 by Carlo Goldoni as part of the commedia dell’arte style of theatre which was still very popular at the time. He was commissioned to devise a play for a famous Harlequin. The story goes that Goldoni wrote it with a lot of room for improvisation (the scenario was pinned to the side of the stage), as was the tradition at that time, and then went away and left them to it. The production was a huge success but when he returned he was appalled by the indulgence of the actors.  In a fit of pique he wrote down a text for the players to learn and thus dealt a fatal blow to the centuries-old tradition of commedia dell’arte. It was the birth of farce as we know it today. Award winning dramatist Lee Hall (The Pitmen Painters, Billy Elliot) has adapted Goldoni’s A Servant to Two Masters for our current production at Circa. He offers us a fabulous new, rapid fire version with the language updated to now to create a pacey, action-packed physical comedy.   In light of my Google time travelling, I am astounded by Lee Hall’s ability to adapt and re-boot this timeless classic so that it is relevant, funny and highly entertaining to a contemporary audience. BRAVO MR CARLO GOLDONI! BRAVO MR LEE HALL! All Photographs by Stephen A'Court. A Servant to Two Masters runs until 30 May.  Tickets available online:  www.circa.co.nz
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        • Circa Theatre, Taranaki Street, Te Aro, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6011, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


    • the audience loves Don Juan
      • This week on drama* on the waterfront, we're two weeks into the four-week season of Don Juan, and it has received heaps of praise from audience and reviewers alike! So far audience members have said: “I went to this show and haven't laughed so hard in a long, long time.
      • Accepted from drama* on the waterfront posts
      • Tagged as:
      • waterfront

        • Circa Theatre, Taranaki Street, Te Aro, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6011, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


    • Reflections from week one of The Mystery of Edwin Drood
      • Drood, Glorious Drood! This week on *drama on the waterfront, we hear reflections from week one of The Mystery of Edwin Drood Just over a week ago The Mystery of Edwin Drood thundered out of the gate at Circa, with a bold and boisterous opening night event that served up a feast of madness, mystery, murder and music to the more than 200 people who joined the cast and crew to send Drood off to the races in style. Fabulous....Brilliant...Awesome...Amazing...You should see it more than once!By now, nearly 1500 of you have been welcomed to the Music Hall Royale to meet the incredible suspects, watch for clues and red herrings and decide for yourselves who the Dickens did the deed! Highly recommended that all lovers of Dickens go see this show. It’s been wonderfully exciting to see the different possible endings emerge (with some hilariously improbable pairings already proving popular! Most of all, it’s been humbling and gratifying to hear how much fun you’re all having Stunning in every way and rollicking good fun!Phew! As those of you who’ve seen it will know, The Mystery of Edwin Drood is a massive and spectacular undertaking, needing truckloads of energy, wit, speed, passion…..and people to share it with! We’re still  firing on all cylinders and there are heaps of endings still to be seen, so it’s just as well we’ve got another three weeks to bring you a larger-than-life experience at The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Everyone should go and see this as quickly as they can; it is HILARIOUS!All photos taken by Tabitha Arthur, with quotes from the audience of this season of The Mystery of Edwin Drood.
      • Accepted from drama* on the waterfront posts
      • Tagged as:
      • waterfront

        • Circa Theatre, Taranaki Street, Te Aro, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6011, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


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