Standing Room Only for Sunday 14 August 2022

12:16    TV and movie drama are booming in New Zealand

Here's a question.  How many major film dramas - including top-end TV series - are currently being shot here at the moment?    Eight?  Twelve?  

Not even close!   By our reckoning there are over 30 - from overseas productions like James Cameron's Avatar sequels and Taika's Time Bandits, to TV hits like Brokenwood, Creamerie and Panthers.   

There's never been a better time, it seems, to be a New Zealand actor, or film crew member.   There's a boom going on - new films from Lee Tamahori and Christine Jeffs, international shoots like Power Rangers and Minecraft - and above all TV shows, reflecting the fact that many of these are being snapped up overseas.

Producer Phil Smith of Great Southern is part of that boom, coming off the hit series One Lane Bridge, and with a new series Dry Creek about to shoot in Kaikoura.  He talks to Simon Morris about the boom - and how we can keep it going.
 

12:32   Simon Lewis-Wards and his unique candy sculptures

What were your favourite sweets growing up?  Chewy milk bottles?  Jaffas?  Gobstoppers and chocolate fish?

Sculptor Simon Lewis-Wards has made a name for himself casting large and small glass candies, combining his interest in Kiwiana and the nostalgia that accompanies it.

You might have seen his dozens of suspended giant glass jet plane lollies at Auckland's Sylvia Park.

He credits that commission with allowing him to branch out to try new techniques, to refine the art he produces not only in glass but also ceramics and brass.

Simon's self taught, coming to sculpture after working in various trades, and tells Lynn Freeman why his glass sweets caught on to quickly.

Simon Lewis-Wards will be talking about his sculptures at the Ramp Festival at Wintec in Waikato, that starts on Tuesday. 
 

12:45  The art of copying art - it's not all forgery

A new book argues that art copyists get a bad rap.  They're not always forgers out to scam the unwary.  In fact, there's an art to copying art that deserves its own place in art history.

Former public art gallery curator and director Penelope Jackson is the chair of the New Zealand Art Crime Research Trust.

She's delved into the history and the many reasons - legitimate and nefarious - for people to copy works of art over the centuries.

Some are student artists making copies as part of their training.  Some are creating props for movies.

Penelope explains to Lynn Freeman why she thinks art copyists have a valid place in art history.

Penelope Jackson's The Art of Copying Art is out this month, published by Palgrave Macmillan.

 

1:10 At The Movies

This week Simon Morris reviews the documentary The Princess, Ruby's Choice and Bullet Train.

 

1:33  Opera singer Eliza Boom comes home 

No matter how famous they become overseas, our opera singers are often keen to come home to perform.  Munich- based Eliza Boom is no exception.   Eliza's in the lineup of in-demand young operatic talent in the upcoming Auckland Opera Studio Annual Gala.

She'll be singing arias by Verdi, Puccini, Korngold, Mozart, and one of her new favourite composers, Richard Strauss.

Since September 2020, Eliza's been working at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, taking part in their Opera Studio training programme, and performing roles on the main stage.

Eliza tells Lynn Freeman that, like so many singers before her, she honed her vocal cords singing gospel music in church, alongside her parents and five siblings.

Soprano Eliza Boom will be performing at the Auckland Opera Studio Opera Gala on the 21st of August at the Auckland Town Hall.

 

1:43  Dr Hannah August and the best-selling Elizabethan plays

The only reason any of Shakespeare's plays have survived is because canny publishers saw a market for them amongst a populace hungry for material to read.

In the 1600's the novel as a genre didn't really exist in England, so it was poetry and particularly plays that people were reading for pleasure - and titillation.

Dr. Hannah August is the Senior Lecturer in English at Massey University.   She's been researching the habits and the surviving publications owned by 16th and 17th century readers for her book Playbooks and their Readers in Early Modern England. 

She talks to Lynn Freeman about the appeal of plays in a century where printed plays were best-sellers.

Playbooks and their Readers in Early Modern England by Dr Hannah August is published by Routledge  Hannah is giving a lecture on it this Wednesday at the University of Otago's Centre for the Book.

 

2:06 The Laugh Track - Fin McLachlan and Hoani Hotene

 

Don't feel guilty that you've never heard of our guests on today's Laugh Track.  Chances are most people haven't - yet - as Hoani Hotene and Fin McLachlan get ready to take that first step on the comedy ladder.

This month, Hoani and Fin are among the finalists in the Wellington Raw Comedy Quest, the winners of whom go on to the Auckland National Finals in October.

Will two stars be born this year?   Lynn Freeman welcomes them to the Laugh Track.

Their picks include Hannibal Burress, James Acaster, Brian Regan and Sam Campbell.

 

2:25 A Slightly Isolated Dog director,  Leo Gene Peters

After asking their fans on social media which story they'd most like to see turned into an irreverent play, Wellington's A Slightly Isolated Dog company chose the Trojan War from the dozens of suggestions.

Once they delved deeper into the story of Paris, Helen and the fall of Troy, they discovered parallels with our current chaotic times.

The Trojan War is the third in a series of reinterpreted classics - after Don Juan and Jekyll & Hyde - that were performed around the country, as well as Australia and Edinburgh.

Director Leo Gene Peters first explains to Lynn Freeman the unorthodox play selection process.

The Trojan War premieres at BATS Theatre in Wellington on Tuesday, before heading to Auckland's Basement Theatre from August the 23rd.
 

2:40  Owen Marshall returns to short story writing

He's kept us waiting for 13 years, but Owen Marshall, one of our finest short story writers, has just put out a new collection, Return to Harikoa Bay.

The characters in the 33 stories are often unnervingly familiar, wherever they live and whatever their situation.

That's part of Owen's magic touch as a writer of stories firmly planted in Aotearoa.

He's also a novelist, poet and anthologist, with his name on the title of 30 books.

Lynn Freeman talks with Owen, first welcoming him back to our book shelves!

Return to Harikoa Bay, Owen Marshall's new short story collection, is published by Random House NZ Vintage.
 

 

 

2:49  Sally Stockwell takes on motherhood

Balancing the intense demands of being a mother with desperately wanting to continue as an artist can prove overwhelming for many new mums.

Auckland performer Sally Stockwell has lived through it and now sings about the experience in her new show, We've Got So Much To Talk About.

As well as singing and playing, Sally has worked extensively on stage and screen.

She brings all these skills to a show she describes as "an experimental mashup of electronic sound, song, movement and rebellion."

Sally explains to Lynn Freeman that, like most new mothers, she wasn't prepared for what was to come.

We've Got So Much To Talk About premieres at Auckland's Basement Theatre on Tuesday.  
 

3:06 Drama at 3 - Scherzo and Evolution

This week, two Classic Dramas - first Stuart Hoar's Scherzo, set in Venice and starring Michael Wilson and Janet Fisher, and after that an environmental tale, Evolution by Louise Harness, and featuring a young Thomasin McKenzie as the 8-year-old Cat.

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Music played in this show

Artist: Bow Wow Wow
Song: I want Candy
Composer:  Berns-Feldman-Goldstein
Album: 100 hits Halloween
Label: Demon
Played at: 12.16

Artist: Roy Orbison
Song: Candy man
Composer:  Neil-Ross
Album: Black and White Night
Label:  Orbison
Played at:  12.29

Artist: Little Feat
Song: Candy Man Blues
Composer:  Hurt
Album:  Rooster Rag
Label:   Rounder
Played at: 12.58

Artist: Pete Seeger
Song: The Big Rock Candy Mountain
Composer: McClintock
Album:  American Favourite Ballads
Label: Smithsonian
Played at: 1.07

Artist: Manhattan Transfer
Song:  Candy
Composer: David-Kramer-Whitney
Album: The Best Of
Label:  Atlantic
Played at:  1.58

Artist:  Mac and Katie Kissoon
Song: Sugar candy kisses
Composer: Bickerton-Waddington
Album: Greatest hits of the Seventies 
Label:  Disky
Played at:  2.05

Artist: Candy Staton
Song:  Young hearts run free 
Composer:  Crawford
Album: The Best Singles of All Time
Label: Rajon
Played at: 2.58
 

Artist:  The Sadies
Song:  Tell her lies and feed her candy
Composer:  Patterson
Album: Precious Moments
Label: Bloodshot
Played at:  3.05

Artist: Candy Dulfer (and Dave Stewart)
Song:  Lily was here 
Composer: Stewart
Album: Moods A Contemporary Soundtrack
Label: EMI
Played at: 3.58