August 03, 2017
Te Pou workshop to polish Maori plays
Auckland Maori theatre collective Te Pou has chosen four Maori playwrights to workshop original scripts which will be performed as part of next month's Going West Festival.
The four are Aroha Awarau, Maraea Rakuraku, Krystal Lee Brown, and Jason Te Mete.
The Creative New Zealand-funded programme is based on a successful indigenous developmental works programme in Australia.
Aroha Awarau's work Provocation expolores the defence of provocation … also knowsn as the gay panic defence – that has allowed killers to have their charges downgraded from murder to manslaughter.
Maraea Rakuraku's play looks at the idea it takes a village.
First time playwright Krystal-Lee Brown's Huia Kaimanawa is a bilingual Christmas story, while another new voice, Jason Te Mete, is working on a a fusion of haka and contwemporary dance looking at youth depression and suicide.
The works form part of Te Pou Theatre’s Koanga Festival which runs from September 1 to 17.
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