The Performing Arts

Under this title come such things as theatre, dance, poetry and various combinations of these. At this year's arts festival in Auckland there wilt be a number of traditional performances, but also several experimental works, and more emphasis on participation rather than spectation. Here is the latest news:

Theatre:

Many of the universities will be bringing up original works. "Nam" from Victoria is based on the letters of an American G.I. soldier. "Anthologies", a multi-media experimental piece from Otago. Auckland's Theatre Workshop and the Living Theatre Troupe will each be presenting new works. Some of the major productions include Marlowe's "Or. Faustus" (Otago), Gunter Grass' "The Plebeians Rehearse the Uprising" (Auckland) and "Too True to be Good" (Massey), a new play by George Bernard Shaw. There will also be quite a few one-act plays by writers like Tom Stoppard, Joe Orton, Sartre.

Workshops:

Opportunities to get involved. For a limited number of people, two theatre workshops will be held by the Mercury Theatre-one on theatre techniques, including street theatre-and the other on the theatre of Brecht. Applications for this will have to be made in advance to the drama controller. Additional workshops on street theatre will be held, and also a mask-making workshop leading towards a grand street procession. People taking part in this will have to be in Auckland a week before the festival.

Mixes:

There'll also be a street fair at the end of the week, street theatre performances, a circus and collages, combining dance, theatre, poetry, film and music. It is hoped that most of the material for these comes from work done during the week.

Dance:

Where lies the joy, the specialness of dance but in the total involvement of body and soul in the relationships and communication of the dance; in the power to feel or understand with all parts of the body; in it's ability to involve anybody; in that it is a Now event. The relationships or at least the outcome of relationships in creative dance happen spontaneously not defined by or confined to any other reality but that of the moment. Each moment Is—it defines itself and demands to be acted up on.

For most of us dance Is a joyous educational process, a way of developing awareness and sensitivity to ourselves, to others, to music, words and space. So, In this Art's Festival the dance workshops are open to any person who wishes to learn about qualities of movement and their relation to how one feels (kinesthetic) sense), about space and most important aspect, how to dance (communicate) with others. The nature of creative dance Is such that within any group there can be people of differing abilities.

One workshop given by Baujke Van Zon will involve amongst the areas mentioned above poetry and dance; another a two day Multi Media workshop with Phillip Dadson, Val Hunter, Deb Pearson and Linda Taylor will involve experiencing movement sound and paint.

On the performance side there will be no one big dance concert. From Auckland the Van Zon Dancers and the A.U. Creative Dance Group will take part in a Collage along with music, drama and poetry. There will be an Asian-Pacific programme (and I hope some workshops from these people.) Victoria will present a number of dances with their drama production, while Otago will present a revue combining dance, music and drama.

There will be two professional groups performing—the New Zealand Dance Ensemble will perform new works by John Casserly in a programme of modern dances. They will also be giving an all day master class. The second group will be the Australian Dance Theater who may also give a master class.

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Poetry:

There are going to be a lot of poets in Auckland over the [unclear: stival] from all over the land. Among them will be Ian Wedd. and Trevor Reeves. At least one major reading is being organize by Russell Haley, Arthur Baysting and Murray Edmond, and for many of the poets this will be the last before they leave for other lands. Individual poets are also being asked to contribute to the mixed-media collages in less formal, perhaps more bizarre ways.

There will be a display, too, of poems from people throughout the country, invited to contribute, whose names have been randomly selected from telephone directories. This will be on all week at the Grafton Road Arts Centre.