[THE DEEPENING CRISIS] On April 13th 2022, New Zealand said goodbye to gathering restrictions. When we moved from the Red to Orange Covid-19 traffic light setting, live performance could go ahead without any capacity limits for the first time in months. Later in the year we’d say goodbye to the entire traffic light protection framework. With boosters and antivirals, we […]
Outrage over Shakespeare Globe Centre New Zealand’s (SGCNZ) unsuccessful funding application to Creative New Zealand has generated a flood of local and international headlines. Commentary has derided Creative New Zealand for defunding SGCNZ and “cancelling” Shakespeare. This fuss is distracting from the real arts funding scandal: Creative New Zealand has not been given enough money to meet the needs of […]
Universal masking and high-quality ventilation can mitigate the risk of Covid transmission in live performance venues, but Covid safety has been slipping over the past months. James Wenley audits the measures that theatre venues across the country currently have in place, and argues that the live performance sector needs to take a stronger lead in promoting public health. Let’s start […]
Yesterday I launched a new timeline feature tracking the impact of Covid-19 on Aotearoa New Zealand theatre and performance from 2020 till today. One major milestone was on 13th April 2022, when the country moved into the Orange traffic light setting. For the first time in months (and many months in Auckland’s case), live performance can go ahead without any […]
Today Theatre Scenes is launching a timeline tracking the impact of Covid-19 on Aotearoa New Zealand’s theatre and performance ecology from the beginning of 2020 till today. This is the first public feature of a two-year research project ‘Growing Aotearoa’s Theatre Ecology: Sustainability, Resilience and Opportunities in the Pandemic Environment’. This theatre ecology project seeks to understand the impact of […]
Aotearoa’s move into the Red light setting immediately and primarily impacts two intertwined sectors: hospitality and live events. While every New Zealander will be affected by a major outbreak of Omicron in the community and have to make changes under the Red restrictions, most industries (for now) are able to continue. But for hospitality and events, the public health gathering […]
[Weathering the Storm] On the 20th April, 2021, the Prime Minister, the Deputy PM and Aotearoa’s leading epidemiologist converged at BATS Theatre to watch an uncanny mirror image of our country’s 2020 Covid-19 lockdown. The play was Transmission, created by Stuart McKenzie and Miranda Harcourt, which used verbatim extracts of interviews primarily with Jacinda Ardern, Grant Robertson and Professor Michael […]
In the same week Auckland Theatre Company and Basement Theatre confirmed they were closing for the rest of the year, I attended a one night-only performance of Back to Square One? at the Tahi Festival of Solo Performance at Wellington’s BATS Theatre. Back to Square One? is a Covid show, inspired by writer/performer Anders Falstie-Jensen’s conversations with his 95-year-old grandmother […]
[James Wenley explains why targeted support for Aotearoa’s performing arts and events sector is urgently needed to help see us through the Delta outbreak.] We know that Delta is different. And so has the impact of Delta on Aotearoa’s performing arts and live events sector this year. Despite the move to level 2 outside of Auckland, our performing arts sector […]
[Still Working on our Roar] An international production of The Lion King coming to Auckland is a vote of confidence from the world that New Zealand is the ideal place to put on live performance during a global pandemic, but what are the implications for the local theatre sector? As a Musical Theatre obsessed kid in the 90s and early 2000s, […]
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