For a PDF of the Literary Festival Brochure click on front or back. Go to the News page to read about the Poetry Luncheon with Glenn Colquhoun and Kevin Ireland being hosted by Poppies Bookshop at the 2009 Wanganui Literary Festival. Go to the Events page to read the profiles of featured authors at 2009 festival or find background on the festival director, Joan Rosier-Jones. On this site you can also check out the programme from the 2007 Literary Festival.
Two for the Price of One
Wanganui Repertory is participating in the Wanganui Literary Festival with a production of two new one-act plays written by Wanganui Playwrights.
The Venetian Bride is adapted by Robert Tripe from a short story by Maurice Shadbolt. It is a love triangle in which a young, unsophisticated New Zealand girl meets a hot-blooded Italian man. 1930’s New Zealand - Rose Lightfoot, artist, spinster, breaks free from her overbearing father and sheltered life to seek artistic fulfillment in Europe. In a café in Venice she finds love, but at what cost? Rose’s intriguing story unfolds through the memories of Alice, as she helps her great nephew to understand the mysteries of his own life.
The play shifts seamlessly between the 1930’s, ‘60’s and ‘90’s, from New Zealand to that most romantic of cities, Venice. It touches on the idea of the kiwi “cultural cringe” and the search for our own artistic identity, but is first and foremost a story of love. Based on a story by one of New Zealand’s most highly regarded authors, the postscript on Shadbolt’s original text indicates that the story is based on the life of the painter Ilene Dakin (nee Stichbury) and her marriage to the Canadian poet Lawrence Dakin.
Playwright, Robert Tripe, is also an actor. After studying French and Japanese at Victoria University, Robert went on to Toi Whakaari: NZ Drama School as an actor, graduating in 1999. As well as working in theatre, he has also taught English in both Japan and Tahiti, and worked in a hotel in France before appearing in a play there in 2004. Since then he has performed extensively in theatres around New Zealand. Nominated as Supporting Actor of the Year for the last two years at the Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards, some of Robert’s more memorable roles recently have been in The Cherry Orchard, The Graduate, Death of a Salesman, Troy – The Musical, and Yours Truly. The directors Don Tooby and Dee Brough say this is a passionate, mysterious and revealing play written with great artistry.
Prelude in C# Minor is a dark comedy about a young woman who works in a music store and works part-time turning pages for a concert pianist. She aspires to become a concert pianist herself. The play traces the humorous and tragic events in her life culminating in a chance to perform on the big stage. This play is directed by Kerry Girdwood. P A (Trish) Summers, the playwright moved from Te Kauwhata to Wanganui in 1999 and joined the Wanganui Writer's Group in 2000. That same year she entered a play in the Minolta PANZ Short Play Contest and placed second equal. In 2003 her screenplay placed second equal in the Wanganui Film Festival Screenwriting contest. She is a member of the Playmarket and works as a web editor for Artmedia.
For a PDF of the Literary Festival Brochure click on front or back. Go to the News page to read about the Poetry Luncheon with Glenn Colquhoun and Kevin Ireland being hosted by Poppies Bookshop at the 2009 Wanganui Literary Festival. Go to the Events page to read the profiles of featured authors at 2009 festival or find background on the festival director, Joan Rosier-Jones. On this site you can also check out the programme from the 2007 Literary Festival.
This page was last updated 21/07/2009