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Full Scoop Coverage: Festival 2008

Scoop Coverage: Arts Festival 2008
NZ International Festival of the Arts: 22 February to 16 March 2008
Arts Festival website

The New Zealand Fringe ran from 8 February to 2 March
Fringe 08 Website
See also Fringe 08: And the winners are...

Wellington's Summer City festival runs until 29 March, including Gravity and Other Myths.


Modern Letters: Abandoned Novel Wins Poet $65 000

VUP author David Beach was presented with a $65,000 cheque in Wellington on Saturday 15 March, as winner of the biennial Prize in Modern Letters. His first collection of poetry, cheekily called Abandoned Novel, was published by Victoria University Press. More >>

New Zealand International Arts Festival Reviews - Week Four:

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Dominic Groom on French Finesse: This year's festival has not been kind to classical music. The organisers have favoured operas more notable for their non-musical elements and the a limited concert selection with a strong element of what might uncharitably be called novelty... The NZSO concert French Finesse certainly staged the festival's most serious content for the orchestral aficionado. More >>

"Last Riot" at City Gallery - Special Arts Fest Tours

Learn more about the current exhibitions and impress your family and friends! Our free exhibition tours are a great way to get more out of your visit to City Gallery Wellington. More >>

Writers Week: Writers Released Onto Streets

Once Upon a Deadline is the world's first wireless writing marathon. Watch as six New Zealand writers take to the streets. In the course of a single day they will each visit six locations, and by the end of the day have created a story of no more than 1200 words inspired by their adventures. More >>
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New Zealand International Arts Festival Reviews - Week Three:

Lyndon Hood on Giselle: It isn't a ballet - and for much of it's length it's as much theatre as dance. It might be what you get if you take the ballet, mix it with talent and bodily fluids and bury it in peat to ferment. It is inspired. More >>
Nick Tipping on The Boston Camerata: In recent years they have turned their attention to the music of the Shaker culture of the early US, and the folk hymns of the American Northeast. This repertoire presents a challenge to musical directors and performers: to modern ears it is very simple, consisting of a lot of monody (single lines), rounds, and basic pentatonic scales, and so keeping the attention of a 21st-century audience is not easy. Cohen and the Camerata are in some ways the ideal group to bring this music back to life. More >>
Lyndon Hood on Children's Cheering Carpet - The Japanese Garden: In Children's Cheering Carpet series, Italian company Compagnia TPO uses the same interactive technology as the dance piece Glow. Unlike Glow, however, we take our shoes off as we enter the room, because we might get to join in. The way this works makes The Japanese Garden a hugely successful use use of the new technology; one that redefines the idea of interactive theatre. More >>

Celebrity Stars For Bro'Town Live Show

Bro' Town Live on Stage, the world's first reality stage show (about a cartoon!), will be a star-studded affair. The crew have roped in famous faces from the show to help them tell their story, including Scribe, Flight of the Conchords, Neil Finn, Lucy Lawless, John Campbell and Carol Hirschfeld. More >>



New Zealand International Arts Festival Reviews - Week Two:
See: Arts Festival Daily Listings, 1 - 8 March "New Zealand International Arts Festival enters Week Two with NZ work premieres alongside award winning dancers"

Richard Thomson on Trial Of The Cannibal Dog: One of the endearing quirks of our nation is our ambivalence about nationhood. It becomes clear what a blessing this is on the rare occasion (sporting events excepted) when hysterical patriotism is unleashed, such as the reaction to flag-burning protesters one recent Anzac Day. But ambivalence brings other, unintended, consequences, and The Trial of the Cannibal Dog is almost a textbook example. More >>
Tyler Hersey on Resonances: In the first commercial misstep I have encountered this festival, a sparse crowd witnessed the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and visiting conductor Jonathan Stockhammer salvage a concert in the wake of late cancellation by violin soloist Chloe Hanslip. More >>
Lyndon Hood on Shen Wei Dance Arts: Shen Wei and his company have presented two very different dance pieces, each with their own fascination. First The Rite of Spring, a dazzling display of virtuso movement, followed by the slow and enigmatic Folding. More >>

Body Movies
Body Movies, a large-scale installation created by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer,
outside Te Papa every evening during the festival. More Images >>


New Zealand International Arts Festival Reviews - Week One:

Stephen De PledgeRobbie Ellis on Landscapes: "Here was another new New Zealand work (let's say one "work" and twelve "pieces"), and here was an incredibly sensitive pianist to perform it. Stephen De Pledge, a New Zealander now established in the UK, is no showy virtuoso. Rather, he is a very precise communicator in both his playing and his stage presence - and a delight to watch." More >>

Alison Little on La Vie: "Let's just call it fun. Enormous fun. La Vie is a great grownup's night out. The performers give their all in high energy performances, and they, like the audience seem to be having a wonderful time... La Vie is a brilliant burlesque look at death and sex. Get a ticket: definitely a Festival highlight." More >>
Sophie Wilson on A Hawk And A Hacksaw: "There's something quite engaging about a man in a mask, sporting an accordion, a Balkan bell-hat and a bright red shawl. Especially engaging is a man with cowbells taped to his left calf and a bodhran belted to his right thigh..." More >>
Kevin List on Black Watch: "Bryan Ferry of Roxy Music danced away the heartache - the actors of Black Watch dance themselves through a number of conflagurations throughout history and finally dance through a skirmish with insurgents in modern-day Iraq." More >>
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Shapeshifter 08: Alienesque Sculptures Cause Security Worries At Parliament

"A photo documentation of the sculptures in iconic nz landscape and places during our road-trip became a playful extension of our work. Finally arriving in Wellington we chose the Beehive for a suitable background to present the essence of the city... and then this is what happened..." More >>
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"Smiling Windmills" installation at SHAPESHIFTER essential New Zealand Sculpture
Exhibiton, Civic Gardens, Lower Hutt. More Images >>


TV3 Video: NZ International Arts Fest Opens In Wellington

This Friday the International Arts Fest Opens in Wellington, with major theatre, music, dance and circus events beginning over the weekend and more to come. Scoop's coverage will include extensive reviewing of festival productions. More >>
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New Zealand International Arts Festival Press Releases:

Fringe Festival:

Best Of Fringe Announced

The winners of the Fringe 2008 awards were announced at the Fringe wrap-up party on Sunday night. "Apocalyptic romp" March of the Meeklings took home the supreme award. More >>


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Previous festival coverage:
Arts Festival 2006
Fringe 2007
 

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