Performing arts in New Zealand
Knowledge was transferred and preserved in art, including carvings (whakairo), weaving (raranga), song (waiata) and dance (haka).
[2][3] Artist and scholar Rangihiroa Panaho relates to viewing and understanding Māori art as a meandering river, through the viewpoints of both a 'traditional' and 'contemporary' lens.
(Rangihiroa Panaho, 2015)[4]It is known from mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge) that there were Whare Tapere, pre-European places of storytelling and entertainment which included waiata (songs), haka (dance), ngā kōrero (stories), taonga pūoro (musical instruments), Ngā Taonga-o-Wharawhara (body adornments), karetao (puppets) and tākaro (games and amusements).
[5][6] Academic Te Ahukaramū Charles Royal says of Whare Tapere: "They fell into disuse in the 19th century and new ways of performing were subsequently developed by Maori communities.
Haka is translated into English as dance but as scholar Tīmoti Kāretu says it is more than a pastime; it is a composition, an expression of disciplined emotion and can hold a variety of roles including as welcome, as entertainment, as challenge, and as defiance and contempt.
[14] Working-class people from England, Ireland and Scotland were the biggest earliest migrant groups and they brought their performing arts traditions of singing, folk dancing and storytelling.
[18] New Zealand audiences wanted to see plays and the competition from cinema had mostly stopped the touring companies coming so amateur societies filled the gap.
Other exceptions were the Community Arts Service in Auckland and the Māori Musical Society, which presented in 1941 an adaption of Hinemoa by Arthur Adam with soprano Te Mauri Meihana in the lead role.
[19] Dance halls were how many people spent their entertainment time in the 1940s including a media outcry that this was introducing a slipping of morals, compounded by the numerous American soldiers stationed around New Zealand.
[35] Contemporary Māori performance company Te Ika a Maui Players started in 1976 with a three-year New Zealand tour of the play The death of the land by Rowley Habib.
[36] Te Ohu Whakaari, was a Māori theatre cooperative formed in the early 1980s that created and performed plays across New Zealand, touring for 15 years to schools and marae.
It was directed by Phillip Mann and featured commedia dell'arte masks by designer Raymond Boyce, and a character 'The Leader' based on the Prime Minister of the time Robert Muldoon.
Manatū Taonga showed 'that the arts and creative sector contributed $14.9 billion to New Zealand's GDP for the year ending March 2022', this is 4.2% of the total economy and is the highest since 2000 when recording began.
People involved over the years in Touch Compass include Catherine Chappell, Suzanne Cowan, Alisha McLennan Marler, Adus Smith, Sierra Diprose, Julie van Renen, Rodney Bell and Lusi Faiva.
[47][48] Contemporary performance works by Asian artists in New Zealand include plays by Lynda Chanwai-Earle, Renée Lang, Sarita So and Ahi Karunaharan.
Other notable Asian theatre productions include The Mooncake and the Kumara by Mei-Lin Hansen, the opera The Bone Feeder by Renee Liang, and OTHER [chinese] by Alice Canton.
(Austin Tseng, 2017)[51]In 2022 Scenes from a Yellow Peril by Nathan Joe was presented by Auckland Theatre Company, SquareSums&Co, and Oriental Maidens.
Auckland Theatre Company director Jonathan Bielski described it as: 'Heartbreakingly personal, gloriously queer, furiously political and unexpectedly funny.
[61] Well-known New Zealand comedians include Rose Matafeo, Billy T James, The Flight of the Conchords, Dai Henwood, John Clarke, and the Topp Twins.
[63] Comedians Tofiga Fepulea'i and Eteuati Ete formed the Laughing Samoans in 2003 and toured a new show annually for many years starting in 2003.
Plays they have developed and presented include Fresh Off The Boat by Oscar Kightley and Simon Small first staged in 1993, and more recently in 2019 at the Court Theatre.
In 2023 a national 'deficit in arts and culture media coverage' was identified in a research underdone by Dr James Wenley and Isobel Tan.
Regions fare worse than cities, and organisations that can afford to pay publicists are at an advantage creating an unequal playing field.
(Rosabel Tan and James Wenley, 2023)[104] Notable New Zealand musicals include the Rocky Horror Picture Show, and That Bloody Woman.
The Kila Kokonut Krew produced the Pasifika musical The Factory with an original score by Poulima Salima that had a sold out premiere season in Mangere Arts Centre, Auckland and toured to Australia in 2014.
[118] The collective includes Jermaine Dean, Falencie Filipo, Tanu Gago, Tapuaki Helu, Elyssia Wilson Heti, Nahora Ioane, Hōhua Ropate Kurene, Moe Laga-Toleafoa, Ilalio Loau, Tim Swann, Pati Tyrell and James Waititi.
Their activities have included presentation of plays with Po’ Boys and Oysters by Estelle Chout at the Basement Theatre and a regular Playwrights' Lab.
In 2022 a Playwrights’ Lab Showcase with scripts from Alex de Vries, Alvie McKree, Ayo Becksley-Adesanya, Dione Joseph, Estelle Chout, Kauthar Eckstein, Keagan Carr Fransch and Tawanda Manyimo.
[124]The BCA Playwrights Showcase was an exceptional example of the diversity of Black Kiwi plays waiting for an audience in the New Zealand theatre scene.
[136] Young and Hungry was a festival (1995 and 2017) and a schools tour (2015–2022) that had many notable alumni including playwrights Eli Kent and Whiti Hereaka.
