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This Reading Life With Gregory Hill
French horn player Gregory Hill enjoyed a successful career in orchestras in both Australia and New Zealand, including three decades as a Principal player in the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. Throughout this time he secretly nurtured a passion for long-distance train travel, which he finally indulged in after his retirement.
His adventures on an epic railway journey from New Zealand to Spain has now been chronicled in his book, The Antipodean Express, which celebrates the enduring romance of traveling by train across 89 days of travel, on 33 trains, through 19 countries. It begins in New Zealand’s North Island, to the red centre of Australia, weaves past the volcanoes of Java, through East Asia and on into Europe.
I asked Greg for a sneaky peek at his reading life.
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Meet the Makers: Belinda Landsberry
Belinda Landsberry is a Sydney-based writer and illustrator whose picture book ANZAC Ted has just been re-released as a special 10th anniversary edition. With ANZAC Day just around the corner, I caught up with Belinda to ask a few questions about the book, her process for creating it and changes she's seen in the book world over the past 10 years.
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Interview with Michael Hurst
Arts Laureate Michael Hurst ONZM is one of New Zealand’s most celebrated and successful stage and screen actors. His extensive career spanning more than four decades includes No Holds Bard, An Iliad, Hamlet, Macbeth, Chicago, The Life of Galileo, and most recently ATC’s King Lear. He will soon grace the stage at Wellington's Circa Theatre, starring in The Golden Ass, a one-man show he has written with Fiona Samuel and directed with John Gibson.
I caught up with Michael, mid-house move and deep in rehearsals, to find out what we can expect from the play, why he thinks a story written over 2,000 years ago is still relevant to audiences and how the heck he manages to juggle his multiple roles.
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This Theatrical Life with Carrie Green
Carrie Green is an award-winning actor, writer and director who has worked with likes of Auckland Theatre Company, Taki Rua, Tawata Productions and World of Wearable Arts. Carrie’s acting credits include Silo Theatre’s Mr Burns and Cellfish, Bless the Child, Public Service Announcements and TV's Under the Vines. She was awarded Actor of the Year in 2019 and Outstanding New Playwright in 2016 at the Wellington Theatre Awards.
Carrie is the director of Two Guitars which is at Circa Theatre 23 March - 13 April. Two Guitars is a musical journey that follows the winners of a kaupapa Māori music competition who are about to play their showcase gig. But an hour before the show, tension and cultural aspirations come to a head, forcing them to decide whether they should go through with the show or not.
Carrie took time out from her busy schedule to answer some questions about her theatrical life.
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My Top Five Writers Picks: Tracey Slaughter
Tracey Slaughter is an award-winning poet, fiction writer and essayist, whose latest works include Devil’s Trumpet and Conventional Weapons (both from Te Herenga Waka Press). She is the editor Poetry Aotearoa, New Zealand’s longest-running poetry journal, and she teaches Creative Writing at the University of Waikato.
I asked Tracey to let me know what she's most looking forward to in the 2024 Aotearoa New Zealand Festival of the Arts Writers Programme (23-25 February).
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GET TO KNOW AUTHOR SANDRA CISNEROS (MEXICO/US)
We are beyond delighted to be welcoming internationally acclaimed writer Sandra Cisneros to our shores for the first time for the 2024 WRITERS programme. An author of poetry, short stories, novels and personal essays, Cisneros is best known for her seminal 1984 novel “The House on Mango Street”. We are thrilled to be a part of the 40th anniversary celebrations for this critically acclaimed book.
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My Festival Picks: Angela Green
Angela Green is the Executive Director of Tāwhiri, the creative force behind the Aotearoa New Zealand Festival of the Arts, Wellington Jazz Festival, Te Hui Ahurei Reo Māori and Lexus Song Quest.
With the Festival less than three weeks away, I sat down with Angela to try and narrow down what should be on my must-see list by asking her what her top picks are and why.
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Get to know the Wellingtonians of Aotearoa New Zealand Festival of the Arts
Let’s hear it for the locals - and boy do we have a few at the Aotearoa New Zealand Festival of the Arts. It’s a showcase of home-grown talent and honorary Wellingtonians, from artists, performers and all-round contemporary art powerhouses who wave the flag for Te Whanganui-a-Tara. So, on this Wellington Anniversary Day let’s take a deep dive into some of the Wellingtonians of the Festival.
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Interview with Lucy Campagnolo
Lucy Campagnolo is the co-author (with Richard Fairgray) of graphic novels Cardboardia 1: The Other Side of the Box and Cardboardia 2: This Side Up. She lives in London where she works in film and television but was home in Aotearoa for a few weeks over the holidays. I was lucky enough to get an hour of her time to chat about the books and the collaborative writing process across time zones that got them written.
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