Aotearoa Playwrights Conference 2003 - Programme

Playmarket's
Aotearoa Playwrights Conference 2003
in association with UNITEC

UNITEC, Auckland September 22-28
Auckland Festival 2003

ePROGRAMME

A Playmarket Event Dedicated to Script Development for New Zealand Theatre Writers.

Brought to you by Playmarket, in association with Creative New Zealand, UNITEC, British Council and Radio New Zealand.
With major funding from Creative New Zealand

Director: Anna Cameron
Programme Director: Mark Amery
Event Manager: Sandi Goodwin
UNITEC Producer: Norelle Scott
Administrator: James Hadley
Publication designer: Liana Nobilo
eProgramme Contents

1. From Playmarket
2. Conference Schedule
3. Programme
Pacific Island Playwrights Forum
Lunchtime Forums
The Workshop Series
The Writers' Intensive
Masterclasses
The Writers Lab Series
4. Biographies

Schedule

Notes
*Bolded events are open to the public and all APC participants. Except masterclasses, open to all playwrights (register with Playmarket)
*See further in for more details on events listed.

Monday
9am Powhiri
10am Writers Lab Group
10am Workshop: Stuart Hoar's Bright Star
11am Lab I - writers1-5
1pm Lunchtime Forum: The Playwright and the Deviser
2.30pm Reading: Writers Lab
2pm-5 Workshop: Bright Star
3.30-5pm Lab I - writers 6-10

Tuesday
9am Readings: Writers Lab
9am Workshop directors, dramaturgs and writers meet
10am Workshop: Bright Star and Windhorse
1pm Lunchtime Forum: Script Development
2-5pm Workshop: Bright Star
2.30-5pm Masterclass: Mark Amery - Redrafting
2pm Rehearsal Two Fish 'n a Scoop
5pm Public Presentation: Banging Cymbal, Clanging Gong, Jo Randerson

Wednesday
9am Lab II: writers 1-5
10am Workshop: Windhorse
11am Lab II: writers 6-10
1pm Lunchtime Forum: The Playwright and the Dramaturg
2-5pm Workshop: Windhorse
2.30pm RNZ Writing For Radio Seminar
2-5pm Rehearsal Two Fish 'n a Scoop
5pm Rehearsed Reading: Two Fish 'n a Scoop

Thursday
9-1pm Rehearsal Two Days in Dream
10-1pm Workshops: Bright Star and Windhorse
10am Writers Lab Group meeting
10.30am Masterclass: Peter Matheson - Ribbons of Words
1pm Lunchtime Forum: APC and Playmarket - The Future
2pm Lab III: writers 1-5
2-5pm Workshops: Bright Star and Windhorse
10.30pm Late Night Playreading at Silo Theatre

Friday
9am Masterclass: Ben Twist - New Media and Technology in Theatre
10-1pm Workshops: Bright Star and Windhorse
11am Lab III: writers 6-10
1pm Lunchtime Forum: Getting Produced
2-5pm Workshops: Bright Star and Windhorse
2.30pm Writers Lab Group
6pm Aotearoa Playwrights Dinner
10.30pm Late Night Playreading at Silo Theatre

Saturday
10-1pm Workshop: Windhorse
10-5pm Pacific Island Playwrights Forum
1pm Lunch

Sunday
12noon Workshop Presentation: Windhorse
2pm Workshop Presentation: Bright Star
4pm Rehearsed Reading: Two Days in Dream
5pm Drinks

Pacific Island Playwrights Forum

Steered by Creative New Zealand's Anton Carter, this day focuses on an exciting group of writer and practitioners who are providing Aotearoa New Zealand with a dynamic Pacific Island voice and bringing new colour and sophistication to our playwriting practise. Join us as we weave through a day of discussions and presentations which celebrate the establishment of contemporary Pacific Island Theatre. All conference participants and members of the public are welcome. This is a free event.

UNITEC Theatre. Saturday 27 September. 10am-5pm

Lunchtime Forums
Daily steered discussions on current key issues for New Zealand playwrights, with contributions from leading theatre professionals who specialise in the areas covered. All sessions are at 1pm and are free for all to attend.

„« Monday -The Playwright and the Deviser: Getting involved in collaborative work. Increasingly, theatre work begins on the workshop floor with actors. Where does the playwright fit into this? What script development process is best for devised work? How do we ensure good writing practise in theatre as a collaborative artform?
„« Tuesday - Script Development: What process suits you best? How do you avoid having your script ripped to shreds in a workshop? How useful are public rehearsed readings? What makes a good workshop?
„« The Playwright and the Dramaturg: How to make it work for you. Friend or challenger? Who should lead a workshop? Where can a dramaturg help where a director can't?
„« APC: the future. Where to next for the national playwrights conference? Have your say.
„« Getting Produced. The ins and outs of getting commissioned, why theatre's programme what they do and the relationship between the theatres and script development.

The Workshop Series
As part of the conference week Playmarket are workshopping two significant new full-length works for the stage, which we believe have strong professional potential. The playwrights will work in workshop with a dramaturg, director and actors over a four day period, with a presentation of the work to the public on Sunday September 28.

Between 1980 and 1994 Playmarket workshop series were biannual and have brought to light the likes of Greg McGee's Foreskin's Lament, Renee's Wednesday to Come and David Geary's Lovelock's Dream Run. The workshop series was reinstituted in 2002, and two works presented last year are in professional production at the time of the conference as part of AK03: Carl Nixon's The Book of Fame and Albert Belz's Awhi Tapu.

Windhorse - Janie Walker
Director: Anna Marbrook
Dramaturg: Elizabeth O'Connor
Cultural Advisor: Hone Kouka

A young Maori woman leaves New Zealand to climb the Himalayas and connects with a Tibetan community in India. She faces challenges that not only find her reaching Himalayan peaks, but also challenges that unravel the armour of her life. Janie Walkers first full-length play looks at what it is to live in exile; from a country, whanau and ones own spirituality.
Presentation: Sunday 28 September, 12 noon.
Public ticket price $5. Door sales only.

Bright Star - Stuart Hoar
Director: James Beaumont
Dramaturg: Philippa Campbell
Cultural Advisor: Hone Kouka

In 1842 Charles Armitage Brown, a recent settler to New Zealand and close friend of the English poet John Keats, died in New Plymouth. Intriquing, entertaining and multi-layered, Stuart Hoar's new play weaves together fresh looks at love, the New Zealand bicultural colonial experience and the Victorian literary landscape.
Presentation: Sunday 28 September, 2pm
Public ticket price $5. Door sales only.

Late Night Playreadings
Join us at the bar at Silo Theatre (Lower Greys Ave, behind the Auckland Town Hall) for two special nights in which you can share in the magic of hearing new work come off the page in an informal social setting. We invite you to join us at the bar before the readings start at 10.30pm. Plays to be announced.
Playreadings: Thursday and Friday, September 25 and 26, 10.30pm

The Writers Intensive
With generous support from The British Council, Playmarket are pleased to welcome back to New Zealand, British director and script developer Benjamin Twist. Ben is working in development with two New Zealand playwrights on early drafts of their new plays. Prior to the conference Ben will be in email conversation with the writers from the UK and will work for a further week with the playwrights and workshop actors in Wellington. He will then direct rehearsed readings of new drafts of these plays during the conference week.

Two Fish 'n a Scoop Carl Nixon
Set in a typical New Zealand fish and chip shop, Carl's new play explores issues of racism and belonging among Asian immigrants and first generation Kiwis in this country's rapidly diversifying social landscape.
Rehearsed Reading: Wednesday September 24, 5pm, UNITEC

Two Days in Dream Mario Gaoa
Mario's is a story that spans the life of one man and the things that make him that man. A death a life and a death again.
Rehearsed Reading: Sunday September 28, 4pm, UNITEC Theatre

Masterclasses

Redraft Mark Amery Tuesday September 23, 2.30pm
A collaborative workshop on approaching play redrafting: we'll look at what you know you have to do when you redraft, the problems you encounter, and tools to overcome them. As an example, we'll follow a scene from a play through several drafts and check the changes, before then collectively writing a scene and redrafting it.

Ribbons of Words Peter Matheson Thursday September 25, 10.30am
A practical intensive looking at form, and different techniques and components for building effective dialogue. Bring a writing implement, some paper and a character you know very well.

New Ways of Telling Old Tales Benjamin Twist Friday September 26, 9am
Theatre has always stolen the best new technologies. Our generation has to find out how to use the new media in theatre-enhancing ways. This starts with the writer. We'll discuss how new media might add to theatre, and how we need to change our approaches to incorporate video projection, digital graphics, live video action and other media into our work.

The Writers Lab Series

Over the course of the conference week ten writers will work individually and as a group with five script developers on projects, ranging from scripts at the ideas stage to first, final and post-production drafts. The script developers are: Benjamin Twist, Peter Matheson, Emma Willis, Andrew Foster and Mark Amery.

Playreadings - Writers Lab: Monday September 22, 2.30-3.30pm and Tuesday September 23, 9am-1pm.
Presentation - Banging Cymbal, Clanging Gong, Jo Randerson: Tuesday September 23, 5pm.

Beauty Mark - Kathyrn Van Beek/3girls6legs
Oho Ake - Miria George
Epidemic - Thomas Sainsbury
Te Kauta - Moira Warama
Wild Horses - Mike Hudson
Hate Crimes - Paul Rothwell
Banging Cymbal, Clanging Gong - Jo Randerson
Identity Card - Craig Thaine
Kikia te Poa (Kick the Boer) - Matthew Saville
Feedback - Toa Fraser

Featured Playwrights

The Workshop Series
Stuart Hoar
Stuart's first stage play was Squatter (Mercury Theatre, 1988) and his most recent The Face Maker (Court and Circa Theatres, 1999-2000). He has been Playwright in Residence at the Mercury Theatre (1988/89) and was awarded the Bruce Mason Award in 1988. In 1990 he was Literary Fellow at Auckland University and in 1993 was Burns Fellow at the University of Otago. One of the films for which he wrote the screenplay was selected for Un Certain Regard at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival. The screenplay for the short film Lovelock won the New Zealand Writers¡¦ Guild Best Screenplay Award 1993. He has had over thirty radio plays produced (Mobil Award Finalist 1990 and 1994, Mobil Award winner 1995) as well as various opera libretti. The libretto for the opera Bitter Calm was a finalist in the Pater World Media Award¡¦s Music and Literary Division in 1990. His first novel The Hard Light was published by Penguin in 1998. He returned from England in 2000 to be Writer in Residence at Canterbury University and now lives in Christchurch.

Janie Walker
Before completing Ken Duncum's MA Scriptwriting course at Victoria University last year, Janie has been a producer for the performing arts and advertising industries, both here and in Australia. This year she has written for a TVNZ children's show and been a postie. Windhorse is her first full-length play.

The Writers Intensive
Mario Gaoa
Mario is an actor and writer, and founding member of The Naked Samoans. Mario has appeared in numerous theatre productions including Dawn Raids and most recently Island Girls. He is currently breakfast host on Niu FM - New Zealand's only nationwide Pacific Island radio station.

Carl Nixon
Carl was born in Christchurch and has an MA in Religious Studies from Canterbury University. He taught high school English briefly before teaching in Japan for two years. He is now a full time writer. He has twice won the Sunday Star Times Short Story Contest (1997 and 1999) and was runner up in the prestigious Katherine Mansfield Literary Awards in 1999. His stories have been published widely both here and overseas and many have been broadcast by Radio New Zealand. His involvement with theatre began in 1986 at The Court. His recent work for theatre includes Crumpy, The Book of Fame, Kiwifruits and Kiwifruits 2 - Heaven Sent.

The Writers Lab Series
Craig Thaine
Craig Thaine has written for stage, radio and television for the past 25 years. His most recent work was Telling Stories at Circa Theatre, Wellington in August. During time working at Centrepoint Theatre he began writing for the stage. His first performed works, Gruzzlefummit! (1980) and Stagger (1981) were produced there. Craig has worked as a playwright in residence at the New Zealand Drama School, resulting in his play Today's Bay . His stage play New Day In The Valley was workshopped at the Playmarket 1982 Playwrights' Conference. Aside from his numerous plays, Craig has lived in Egypt, England, Italy and Sweden working as an ESOL (English to Speakers Of Other Languages) teacher and trainer, written a children's multi-media English language course for Italian State Television and written for Shortland Street. He completed an M.A. in Applied Linguistics in 1995 and his play Retro was performed as part of the 1998 Young & Hungry Season at Bats Theatre, Wellington.

Thomas Sainsbury
Thomas grew up in the Waikato and is now living in Auckland. He works at an Actors Agency and writes whenever he can. The author of a number of plays Thomas was a winner in the 2002 New Zealand Young Playwrights Competition and gained a highly commended in 2003. He is currently working on a film script about the 1987 stock market crash with a producer and recently completed a degree in theatre from the University of Auckland. Says Thomas, "I love acting and comedy but feel playwriting is a medium in which the writer has a responsibility. I believe a playwright needs to comment on and inform society."

Matthew Saville
A graduate of Toi Whaakari and Otago University, Kikia Te Poa - Kick the Boer
is Matthew Saville's second play. He has twice been commended in the New
Zealand Young Playwrights Competition and this year received a scholarship to
attend the Sarkies and Sarkies Script 2 Screen course from the Film Investment
Corporation. Matthew's first play The Boxer has been performed at BATS and several New Zealand regional arts festivals. It will receive another production in Wellington at Circa Studio later this year as part of the Fresh at Circa and Playmarket New Writers Season.

Mike Hudson
After completing a Bachelor of Arts Degree at Auckland University, Mike travelled to London, where he spent the next nine years working in film and video production as well as studying writing for theatre and film. On his return to New Zealand Mike wrote his first play Harry, which was performed at the Basement Theatre, Auckland in 1997. Since 1997 Mike has written two short films The Sweat, 2000 and Lance 2001, both made in Sydney. He was also a contributing writer to Club Volcanic at The Classic 1999. His second play Beautiful Losers premiered at the Silo Theatre in 2002 as part of the Restless Ecstasy Festival. Mike is currently working on additional scenes for a fully realised version of Beautiful Losers that will open at the Silo in December 2003, as well as two feature length film scripts which are both in pre production.

Miria George
Miria George has written two short plays for Radio New Zealand. She has had a collection of poetry The Wet Season, published by Wai-te-ata Press, which is coming out at the end of the year. Her first stage play Oho Ake received a Highly Commended in the 2003 New Zealand Young Playwrights Competition. She is a member of Taki Rua's Writers Block.

Kathyrn Van Beek
Kathryn is a graduate of UNITEC's School of Performing and Screen Arts where she majored in writing. Kathryn is a winner several times of the New Zealand Young Playwrights' Competition and has successfully staged several of her works at the Wellington Fringe Festival at BATS Theatre and at the SILO Theatre, Auckland. In 2002 she completed an MA in Scriptwriting at Victoria University's Institute of Modern Letters. Her new play The Language of Angels opens during the conference week at the SILO Theatre as part of ATC's Final Draft programme.

Toa Fraser
Toa was born in Britain in 1975 to a British mother and a Fijian father and moved to Auckland in 1989. His first play, Bare, premiered in 1998 and has achieved much national and international success. In that same year, Fraser wrote No. 2, performed by Madeleine Sami. No.2 won a prestigious Festival First Award when it was performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2000, and continues to garner rave reviews all over the world. In 1999, he won the Bruce Mason Playwrights Award. His work continues to be informed by his Fijian/British heritage, as demonstrated by his third play, Paradise, which premiered in Wellington, in April 2001. In September 2001, Toa was the recipient of the University of South Pacific's Writer in Residence programme and is a 2003 Sargeson Fellow. He now lives in Auckland and is working on several film scripts.

Jo Randerson
Jo is a graduate of Victoria University, Wellington, and was involved as a writer, director and performer in productions for VUWSA Drama Club. After graduating she joined the theatre group Trouble. In 1995 Fold was written and presented at the Young and Hungry Festival at Bats, and later returned to Downstage and BATS again. The script was recently published by The Play Press. In 1996 Jo participated in the creative writing course at Victoria University with Bill Manhire and has had a book of short prose work The Spit Children published by Victoria University Press. With Trouble, Jo has co-written four plays. Of these Bleach was part of the 1998 Wellington Fringe and presented at the Edinburgh Fringe and Tramway Festival of Site Specific Theatre in Glasgow. The author and co-author of over 25 works for the stage, Randerson has also performed her own work throughout New Zealand and internationally. Jo was the 2001 Burns Fellow at Otago University, Dunedin, and recently travelled to Russia care of a Winston Churchill Fellowship.

Moira Warama
Moira is a storyteller, poet, playwright and teacher. She has performed throughout New Zealand specialising in bi-lingual tellings of Maori legends and in creating stories around New Zealand events, art works and life experiences. She has written for both English and Maori School Journals, and her first children's book, Alphabet Art, was released last year. Moira's stage play Questions won a 1999 Fringe Best Award, and was later adapted for television, receiving the Qantas Award for Children's/Youth Best Television programme. Most recently Moira's first radio play, Toll Calls, has been recorded for Radio New Zealand, and her one act play Te Kauta, was part of the Taki Toru performance being produced by Taki Rua, Fringe NZ and Putaanga productions for the NZ Fringe 2002. It won the Love the Fringe Theatre Award. Moira also works part time at Te Ara Whanui Kura Kaupapa Maori, where she teaches a reading support programme.

Paul Rothwell
Paul Rothwell has been writing plays for two years. His recent plays were
Cut Out, The Felinity of Wendel and Undine, all three of which were produced at this year's Wellington Fringe. A UNITEC writing graduate, he has also been writing an adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's The Cask of Amontillado for an acting
department production at UNITEC.

International Guests
Benjamin Twist
Ben is a freelance director and producer of theatre and music-theatre, with a particular interest in new plays and comedy. He toured political theatre throughout Scotland with the Merry Mac Fun Co, and as Associate Director at the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh he commissioned, developed and directed new plays. As Artistic Director of Manchester¡¦s Contact Theatre he directed classics, modern works and British premieres. As a freelance director he has directed throughout Europe. Work with young people includes writing and directing a project with young refugees for the MacRobert Arts Centre in Stirling and directing at Ignite01 in Auckland. In music theatre Ben has directed regularly for the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Psappha, the Queen Elizabeth Hall, The Hebrides Ensemble, The Seer Ensemble and Haddo House Opera.

Peter Matheson
Peter is a freelance dramaturg and script assessor. He came to dramaturgy through playwriting, having written fourteen plays (all of them produced - his first was selected for an ANPC workshop in 1975) for companies as diverse as the Hunter Valley Theatre Company, Newcastle Repertory Company, Melbourne Theatre Company and Freewheels Theatre In Education Company. He was Melbourne Theatre Company's dramaturg for over thirteen years, where his work included literary management and dramaturgical input. He was the Company's interface with the writing community and its literary agents. He left MTC in 2001 to write. His other work includes for Sydney Theatre Company, Queensland Theatre Company, La Boite, PlayLab, Kooemba Jdarra and Legs on the Wall. He ran the 2002 National Playwrights' Conference Studio, and was involved in the 2003 Residency Program for the Australian National Playwrights Conference.

Script Developers

James Beaumont
James studied fine arts and drama at Warrnambool Institute, Victoria and received further training at NIDA, Sydney. He arrived in NZ in the late 1970s, attending Theatre Corporate. After serving as a company member at the Fortune Theatre, he moved to Wellington to work with Depot, Circa, Centrepoint, Toi Whakaari and Bats. James has worked as a director, playwright, script assessor, actor and educator. He began writing and directing his own material in 1984. In 1990, he was employed at Taki Rua as the theatre's first director-in-residence. Subsequently, he was awarded the Bruce Mason Award. Returning to Australia in 1992, James worked as an actor for the Melbourne Theatre Company and was also involved in script assessment and workshop directing for RAW at Playbox Theatre. Having returned to NZ in 1996, James directed for the ATC and the Watershed, before teaching at Waikato University's Drama Department, and now the University of Canterbury's Theatre and Film Studies department.

Philippa Campbell
Philippa graduated from Victoria University and Toi Whakaari New Zealand Drama School and worked professionally in the theatre as an actor and director, most notably as a founding member of Wellington's The Depot, the country¡¦s first theatre devoted solely to presenting New Zealand work, where she directed three premiere productions. Throughout her subsequent career in television and film as a script editor and writer and most recently as producer of features Via Satellite and the acclaimed Rain, Philippa has continued work as a dramaturg. Highlights include Savage Hearts/Manawa Taua, Waiora, Haruru Mai, Ranterstantrum, Strike, The Young Baron and the NBR National Opera¡¦s new chamber opera The Prodigal Child. She is currently working on Fond Love and Kisses by Allen O¡¦Leary for Downstage and a new chamber opera with Stuart Hoar.

Anna Marbrook
Anna trained with Philippe Gaulier in London and has directed and taught in New Zealand and Australia since 1989. Anna was Co-Artistic Director of Theatre at Large for eight years, directing and co-writing an extensive repertoire of new devised works including Manawa Taua/ Savage Hearts, Henry 8, The Butcher¡¦s Wife and adaptations of classics such as Cyrano de Bergerac (Wellington and Perth International Festivals, Adelaide World Theatre Series), King Lear with Ian Mune, Romeo and Juliet and Midsummer Nights Dream. After a two year sabbatical in Paris she formed Marbrook and Lee Films with Heather Lee and they currently have a feature and a short film in development. Anna recently completed two projects with NBR New Zealand Opera - re directing The Prodigal Child (Christchurch Festival) and a youth opera project (Ignite03) Anna is currently working with ATC on Language of Angels by Kathryn Van Beek.

Elizabeth O'Connor
Elizabeth O'Connor has spent twenty years in professional theatre in various parts of New Zealand, working as a director, playwright, dramaturg, producer, administrator and, occasionally, designer and performer. She helped establish and teach courses at the National Academy of Singing and Dramatic Art in Christchurch. With Peter Marshall she co-founded and continues to co-edit Theatre and Dance News. Currently she is teaching at the Drama Centre in Christchurch, directing and acting in independent collective productions, being dramaturg for The Clinic theatre company, facilitating (for Playmarket) craft sessions and readings for local playwrights and collaborating with the Writers Guild and Nga Aho Whakaari on Christchurch screenwriting workshops.

Hone Kouka
Ngati Porou, Ngati Kahungungu and Ngati Raukawa, Hone is a graduate of Otago University (BA) and studied at Te Kura Toi Whakaari o Aotearoa: New Zealand Drama School. Hone has worked as a sawmiller, journalist, dramaturg and director, but is best known as a playwright. He ran Taki Rua Productions in Wellington and now works as a producer at Radio New Zealand. Well known for his play Waiora, which toured the UK and NZ, he is also known for Nga Tangata Toa and Ahi Kaa - Homefires. Hone has won a string of playwriting awards and was Writer in Residency at Canterbury University (1996). Hone also writes for television, acts as a script advisor and recently finished his first novel. He edited a collection of Maori Plays for VUP. He currently facilitates Writers Block, a group for emerging Maori and PI writers at Taki Rua. Hone's new work The Prophet received a lab production in 2002. He recently returned from a programme at the Maurits Binger Institute, Amsterdam where he worked on his film adaptation of Witi Ihimaera¡¦s novel Bulibasha.

Emma Willis
Emma is a script developer, writer and director. She is a graduate of Victoria University, and is currently undertaking an MA in Theatre Studies at the University of Auckland. She has trained in theatre with Christian Penny, John Downie, Philip Mann, Min Tanaka and Enrique Pardo. Most recently she travelled to Spain to study choreographic theatre and voice with Pardo, and voice teacher Linda Wise of Pan Theatre. Emma has directed a number of new award-winning New Zealand theatre works in Auckland and Wellington, including The Swimming Lessons, Never Never, Milk, Flood, Fever and A Perfect Plan. She has worked as a script consultant for ATC and currently as a script assessor for Playmarket. She has directed workshops for Playmarket and the Silo Theatre. She was assistant director of initial ATC workshops of Stephen Sinclair's The Bellbird. For four years she was co-director of Jealous Theatre Company. Emma is currently developing a new stage work with Creative New Zealand assistance.

Andrew Foster
Andrew Foster specialsies in the development and presentation of new works. Favouring both devising (having worked with companies as diverse as Under Lilly's Balcony and recently Three Pesos on Little Che), and collaborations with new writers (in particular Jo Randerson, Oscar Kightley and Duncan Sarkies). He is perhaps best known for his work with 'Trouble' where he is the Artistic Director, Designer and a co-founder. Trouble¡¦s site specific and installation theatre projects have become a ¡¥flagship¡¦ for the new wave of theatre making in Wellington. Andrew will travel later this year to take up a residency at the Royal Court Theatre in London, to work on the development of new texts with writers from around the world. He is currently writing and directing dramas for Radio New Zealand.

Mark Amery
Mark is Script Development Manager and dramaturg at Playmarket, which runs NZ's national script development programme. He is a graduate of Auckland University (BA/LLB). Mark works closely with most emerging and established NZ playwrights to assist in taking their work from page to stage. Recent workshops have included Craig Thaine's Telling Stories, Lynda Chanwai-Earle's Heat and Monkey, Mike Hudson's Beautiful Losers and Bevin Linkhorn's Motormouth. Programme Director for APC2003 and National Playwrights Forum 2002, he has been a script advisor since 1995 and was Chair of the Playmarket Executive 2001-2002. Recently, he was a drama tutor at Interplay, an international festival for emerging playwrights and at Ignite03 in Auckland. He continues to work across the visual and performing arts, and radio and print media in a career where developing emerging voices in the arts has been a particular passion. An occasional playwright and actor, he is also known for his work as a theatre and visual arts critic and commentator and as a photographic artist.

ENDS.

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