July 29, 2020
Māori drama talent on show at Kōanga Festival
Six new plays developed while Aotearoa was in lockdown will be given their first public reading at this year’s Kōanga Festival in September.
The festival at Te Pou has become an annual highlight for the Māori theatre in Auckland.
Four works from established theatre makers will be read in double-bill evenings in the Whakarongo Mai Play Readings, while the two works in the Rangatahi programme will be presented online.
The development of the works has also been supported by dramaturgy sessions and regular mentoring from award winning playwright Albert Belz.
The programme includes a premiere one-week run of Whytangi??, a collection of five short plays by Albert Belz, Amber Curreen, Annette Morehu, Antonio Te Maioha, and Tainui Tukiwaho, responding to ongoing controversy over Te Tiriti o Waitangi and the impact to Te Reo Māori.
Tukiwaho also wrote and directed Te Haerenga o Hōiho, a te reo Māori theatre adventure for the whole whānau created by Te Pou in partnership with Te Rēhia Theatre Company.
It will returns for two showings.
The festival opens on September 1 with a reading of Regan Taylor’s play Mate, which follows the story of four Pākehā elders who are left to run the tangihanga of their recently deceased Māori friend.
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