Standing Room Only for Sunday 12 August 2018

 

12.16  Body Art - the human canvas

The human body is the canvas of choice for artists here and overseas who are feverishly practising their designs for the upcoming 10th New Zealand Body Art Showcase.

Special effects makeup and body art specialists will be competing for the top prizes.

This year's central theme is The Water Element and it's the idea of one of this year's judges Jonathan Smith.

Jonathan's been involved with the event from the start and is also half of drag performer duo Buffy and Bimbo.

Three years ago he was awarded a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for his services to the LGBT community and event industry, and he talks to Lynn Freeman live at the RNZ studio, Napier.

The New Zealand Body Art Showcase takes place at Q Theatre in Auckland on the 1st of September.

12.30  Craig Phillips' scary tales from the deep, dark woods

His graphic novel of folktales has won Craig Phillips the 2018 Russell Clark Illustration Award.

The Taupo-based illustrator's take on traditional scary stories, which he both illustrated and wrote, took out the hotly contested prize at the 2018 New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults.

The stories include some well known characters like Snow White and Rose Red, Finn McCool and Thor, but many others will be new to 21st century readers.

Craig's changed the stories so there's a 50-50 gender split and so children are always the heroes, but believes he's true to the spirit of the original tales.  Lynn Freeman talks to Craig Phillips about  Giants, Trolls, Witches, Beasts - Ten Tales from the Deep, Dark Woods - published by Allen and Unwin.

12.43 Clare Caldwell and the art of the homeless

For three years, Clare Caldwell has taught painting at the Auckland City Mission, long enough to know what a difference it makes to offer a means of expression to people who are homeless and voiceless.

As an art tutor and therapist, she's a healer.  As an artist, she wants to ask some hard questions and challenge our preconceptions.

Clare is about to open her first solo show - In Time - at Depot Artspace in Devonport, Auckland.  Lynn Freeman discovered that she started out using art as therapy in a hospice:

1.10  At the Movies

Simon Morris reviews Mission Impossible Fallout, The wife, starring Glenn Close, and Interlude in Prague, featuring Mozart in love

1.33  The prime movers of the Hawke's Bay Arts Festival

Five years ago Pitsch Leiser abandoned Wellington for Hawke's Bay. He found it had everything - everything except a functioning Opera House and an arts festival.

So he rolled up his sleeves and started the Hawke's Bay Arts Festival.  The programme's has just been released for the fourth one.

You can't do something that ambitious alone, and Lynn Freeman meets Pitsch and his longtime collaborator and performer Puti Lancaster.

The Hawke's Bay Arts Festival starts on the 15th of October.  

1.48  Monique Lapins and the NZ String Quartet

It's a big call, replacing a member of a long-established New Zealand String Quartet - big for both the ensemble and for the newbie.

Monique Lapins took over as second violin for the New Zealand String Quartet two years ago and since then has toured the UK, US, Canada, Europe, Asia and Australia.  

Now the Quartet - with Monique - is about to embark on a nationwide tour, starting on August the 17th in Featherston.

Monique tells Lynn Freeman she first heard and admired the New Zealand String Quartet in Australia more than a decade ago,  and two years after joining the ensemble she feels very much at home:

2.04  Laugh Track - Tim Ross, Australian comedian and design nerd

"Design" and "comedy" aren't two words that often go together, so we were highly sceptical when we read about one of the highlights of the upcoming contemporary art show CoCa 50 in Christchurch.

It's Australian comedian, TV and radio superstar and self-confessed "design nerd", Tim Ross.   Tim's acclaimed show - it's had rave reviews around the world - is called How much for the green chair with the wooden legs and he's today's Laugh Track guest.

Tim's picks include actor Thomas F Wilson, Dave Allen, Robert Webb, Ricky Gervais and Ian McKellen.

He performs his acclaimed hour-long show at Christchurch's Mair Gallery at Coca on August the 25th.   

2.26  Strengthening Hawke's Bay's Opera House

One year down and another year and a bit to go.

A year ago this month strengthening work began on the grand old Hawke's Bay Opera House, after 80 percent of submissions to the Hastings District Council wanted the building to be reopened.

The woman overseeing the multi-million dollar strengthening work is Megan Peacock-Coyle who was born and bred in the region and worked at the Opera House in a variety of roles before heading away for a few years..

She talks to Lynn Freeman about the progress on the historic building.

2.39  Mansfield in Bloomsbury

Writer Virginia Wolf was shocked by Katherine Mansfield's 'commonness,' while the New Zealander said she felt like a cat among tigers, on their first meeting.

Wellington playwright Lorae Parry is exploring the friendship that grew from those unpromising first impressions in a new play called Bloomsbury Women & the Wild Colonial Girl

It's part of Wellington's130th birthday celebrations for Katherine Mansfield.

Lorae spent months reading correspondence between the two women and what they wrote about each other apart from those letters.

Verbatim extracts from other members of the illustrious if pretentious Bloomsbury Group also find their way into the work.

Lynn Freeman talks to Lorae, and to Isobel MacKinnon who plays Katherine. 

Bloomsbury Women & the Wild Colonial Girl opens at Circa Theatre in Wellington on the 18th of August.  It's part of both the KM130 and Women's Theatre Festivals.  

2.50  Daughter and father collaborate on a dance work

Zahra Killeen-Chance wanted the perfect backdrop for her new dance work, Elliptical Fictions, that's part of the next Footnote Dance company national tour.

So she approached her father Richard Killeen, one of our most distinctive artists best known for using digital images to generate his work.

It was almost a case of being careful what you ask for, after Richard collected so many images for Zahra to choose from.

While admirers and supporters of each other's work, this way of working together is something new for the father and daughter creatives, as they tell Lynn Freeman.

Elliptical Fictions is part of Footnote Dance Company's touring show Balancing point.  It premieres at Te Whaea, National Dance and Drama Centre in Wellington on the 16th of August before heading to Christchurch and Auckland.

 

3.04  Drama at Three -  SEEyd

In a devised play, a young couple attempt to establish a small farm and a family in SEEyD.

 

 

Music played in this show

Artist:  Original cast
Song: Kansas City
Composer: Rodgers-Hammerstein
Album: "Oklahoma"
Label:  Capitol
Played at: 12.12

Artist: Malvina Reynolds
Song: Little boxes
Composer: Reynolds
Album: Best of Broadside
Label: Smithsonian
Played at: 12.29

Artist: Elton John
Song:  Burning buildings
Composer: John-Taupin
Album:Breaking Hearts
Label: Rocket
Played at:  12.58

Artist: The Commodores
Song: Brick House
Composer: King-LaPraed
Album: Brick House
Label: Collectibles
Played at:  1.08

Artist: The Drifters
Song: Up on the roof
Composer: Goffin-King
Album: The very best of
Label: Rhino
Played at:  1.44

Artist: NZ String Quartet
Song: Quartettsatz
Composer: Schubert
Album: N/A
Label: (RNZ)
Played at:  1.46

Artist: The Ting Tings
Song: The Guggenheim
Composer: DeMartino-White
Album: Songs from Nowheresville
Label: Sony
Played at:  1.58

Artist: Frank Zappa
Song: Elvis has just left the building
Composer:  Zappa
Album: Broadway the hard way
Label: Ryko
Played at:  2.04

Artist: Eddie Cochran
Song:  20 flight rock
Composer: Fairchild
Album: Best of
Label: EMI
Played at:  2.36

Artist: Ani diFranco
Song:  Buildings and Bridges
Composer: DiFranco
Album: Canon
Label: Righteousbabe
Played at:  2.58

Artist: Regina Spektor
Song:  Buildings
Composer:  Spektor
Album: N/A
Label: Sire
Played at:  3.04

Artist:  Patty Loveless
Song:  Working on a building
Composer: Traditional
Album: Mountain soul 2
Label: Saguaro Road
Played at:  3.58