10 Aug 2011

Play workshops underway in NZ for Pacific and Maori writers

11:01 am on 10 August 2011

Workshops are underway across New Zealand to encourage more Pacific Island and Maori writers to pen plays.

The agency, Playmarket, is running the series of play writing workshops outside of Auckland for the first time over August and September.

The first one was held in Wellington at the weekend with playwrights Stuart Hoar and Victor Rodger.

Of Samoan descent, Victor Rodger, says his first play Sons debuted back in 1995, and says he'd initially been motivated to write about a personal matter.

"The real reason I started writing I guess was I had a story to tell, that I was burning to tell, and that was about the rather torturous relationship I had with my father, and that set me on the path of really trying to explain what I was going through. And that's how it started, and that's how a lot of people start, they've got something they really need to say."

New Zealand based playwright Victor Rodger.

Other workshops are planned for Christchurch, Whangarei and Hamilton.