Mother Goose: The Pantomime

Mother Goose: The Pantomime

By MICHELE AMAS
Songs by PAUL JENDEN & GARETH FARR
Directed by SUSAN WILSON

A Golden Egg of a show …
Mother Goose is well worth a Gander!

The Christmas season is here again – and this year Circa has another fantastic new pantomime to entertain young and old, Mother Goose, one of the greatest all-time favourites in this marvellous festive tradition.

The New Zealand première of MOTHER GOOSE opens in CIRCA ONE, Saturday 16th November 8pm.

So get into the spirit of the season and join Mother Goose and her friends on a fabulous flight of fun and fantasy in this unmissable pantomime adventure.

Mother Goose hits the jackpot when Lucy the goose starts laying golden eggs. But it’s not enough for her to just feather her own nest - she wants youth, beauty and a total makeover as well. Meanwhile news of the goose and its golden gifts has travelled, and from far away an evil plot is hatching …. Look out behind you!!!

With an abundance of laughter, comedy, costume and songs, Mother Goose is a must-see crackin’ eggs-trava-gander of a Panto!

Gather your friends and family, and join the flock making merry magical mayhem in Wellington’s own Nurseryville - the perfect recipe for a great night out!

With a wonderful cast of highly talented actors, Mother Goose stars audience favourites and exciting new faces in:

GAVIN RUTHERFORD, KATHLEEN BURNS, JUDE GIBSON, SIMON LEARY, RICHARD OSBORNE, LYNDEE-JANE RUTHERFORD, JOHN WRAIGHT,

with Musical Direction by the irrepressible MICHELLE SCULLION.

“Pantos are about fun … full of magic and music”– Lynn Freeman

FROM THE PLAYWRIGHT:
Michele Amas - On Writing a Panto

I know from my experience as an actor that pantomime performers are extremely versatile, far more versatile than I am as an actor. They sing and dance, they clown they mimic etc as well as act. Knowing what they are capable of meant there was an unlimited scope for what I would like them to do performance wise. At times when writing the panto I would be relieved to think - well I won’t be in this show, so these quick changes of costume etc won’t be my problem. Having said that there is nothing I have written that I know the actors can’t do. Actors love challenges so it’s fun to write with that in mind.

Panto is different from other types of plays and other types of rehearsals. There is more direct input from the cast and it is fascinating to watch how they interpret and expand the roles from within the script. There seems to be more flexibility demanded of the writer. You have to be as relaxed about the process as you can. You have to allow the actors to play with what you have written, the important thing is for them to own it and keep it fresh. There’s more audience interaction demanded in panto so actors need to be good improvisers too, and if you have good improvisers in your cast it would be counterproductive for the writer to get too dogmatic about the script.

The challenge I set myself was to create a theatre piece that served both children and adults, to be playful with the physicality and comic business, and also with the words, puns, double entendre, jokes etc. To have a strong storyline with all the twists and turns and drama you’d expect to see from any play and for that to be combined with songs and catchy music. I wanted it to be contemporary and have topical references to Wellington and have political shots across the bow that our audiences enjoy while still retaining the classical aspects of pantomime such as the dame of course

MICHELE AMAS - Playwright
Michele Amas is an award winning actress and writer. Originally from Dunedin she graduated from The New Zealand Drama School, Toi Whaakari in the 80s and has been a professional actress ever since. Michele was worked throughout NZ as an actor and director in theatre and television. Most recently seen at Fortune Theatre, Dunedin in Calendar Girls, Circa Theatre in Wellington in Peninsula and August Osage County, in which she won Best Actress in the Chapman Tripp Awards. Other productions include Joyful and Triumphant, The Clean House, Blood Wedding and Tom Stoppard’s Rock ‘n’ Roll for which she won Best Supporting Actress. She also won Best Supporting Actress for Mammals and Best Actress for The Herbal Bed.

She has an MA in creative writing from Victoria University where she was awarded the Adam Prize for her portfolio 2005. Her first book of poetry After the Dance was nominated for a Montana Book Award in 2007, and was shortlisted for that years Prize in Modern Letters.

Her poems have been published in Sport 33, online in Turbine and in Best New Zealand Poems 2005, as well as Sport, Bravado, Kaupapa global issues anthology 2007, Pacific Coast Review and the Iowa Review, Landfall, The best of the best anthology 2011, 4th floor, prize winner in the Casleberg Trust poetry competition 2011 Her short film ‘Redial’ that she wrote and directed was in competition in the 2002 Venice Film festival She also writes for the theatre and has had stories played on National Radio.

Performance times:
16 NOVEMBER – 22 DECEMBER 2013
Tuesday Wednesday & Thursday - 6.30pm
Friday & Saturday - 8pm
Sunday - 4pm

2 - 11 JANUARY 2014
Tuesday , Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday - 6.30pm
Sunday - 4pm

Ticket Prices: Adults - $46
Concessions - $38
Children - $15
Family Tickets (2 adults + 2 children) - $107
Under 25s - $25
Groups - (6+) $39; (20+) $36

BOOKINGS
Circa Theatre
1 Taranaki Street, Wellington
Phone 801 7992
www.circa.co.nz

ENDS

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