Australian market spotlight on NZ performing arts

MEDIA RELEASE

Spotlight on New Zealand performing arts at
the Australian market

Three performing arts companies - Taki Rua Productions, From Scratch and Black Grace Dance Company - will be supported by Creative New Zealand to feature New Zealand work in spotlight performances at the 5th International Australian Performing Arts Market in February 2002.

More than one hundred producers, festival directors and venue managers from Australia, New Zealand, Britain, Europe, North America, South America and Asia are expected to attend the Performing Arts Market, to be staged in Adelaide over five days from 25 February 2002.

They will be there to buy performances that catch their attention while performing arts companies from Australia, New Zealand and Singapore will be at the Arts Market to sell their products through the spotlight performances and networking opportunities.

Among the 40 spotlight performances will be 25-minute excerpts from each of the New Zealand companies. Taki Rua Productions will present an excerpt from Witi Ihimaera’s play, Woman Far Walking; From Scratch an excerpt from Pacific Plate; and Black Grace Dance Company excerpts from its Best of New Works programme.

This is the second time New Zealand has been formally invited to showcase its performing arts at the biennial International Australian Performing Arts Market. Following its successful debut in 2000, Creative New Zealand is again working in partnership with the Australia Council for the Arts to support a New Zealand presence.

Creative New Zealand will also be hosting a booth at the Arts Market and producing a publication promoting 28 companies with ready-to-tour repertoire. Cath Robinson, Creative New Zealand Arts Development Manager, says the Arts Market is a wonderful opportunity for New Zealand’s performing arts sector to sell their vibrant and compelling work.

“International delegates are searching for that special must-have quality, the point of difference that makes a performance stand out above the rest,” Ms Robinson says. “For New Zealand, the freshness and diversity of our work, and its sense of place in the Pacific, is one of our strongest selling points.”

Ms Robinson says the most tangible outcome of New Zealand’s participation in the 2000 Arts Market was the “flood of interest, inquiries and bookings” for performances and tours by New Zealand performing arts companies.

“This interest in New Zealand work also means that increasingly, international directors and producers are travelling on to New Zealand from Adelaide to sample more New Zealand work,” Ms Robinson says.

“The Arts Market is about making connections, building ongoing relationships and opening doors. We particularly value our partnership with our counterparts across the Tasman, the Australia Council.”

At the 2000 event, Toa Fraser’s play, Bare, was one of the three New Zealand works featured in the spotlight performances. Ian Hughes, actor and producer of Bare, says New Zealand’s performing arts sector should make a spotlight performance at the International Australian Performing Arts Market a part of their long-term plan.

“The chance to do a show is worth a million posters,” Hughes says. “Once we did our excerpt of Bare it all happened. If you have the right product, you can tour for years once you get on the international circuit.”

ends

For further information:
Undine Marshfield
Media and Communications Advisor
Creative New Zealand
Tel: 04-498 0725
Mobile: 025 965 925
undinem@creativenz.govt.nz

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