The Modern Māori Quartet, Little Shop of Horrors

The Modern Māori Quartet, Little Shop of Horrors, Daffodils And the Mooncake And the Kumara.

The Performing Arts Network New Zealand launched the PANNZ Touring Agency in March this year. This initiative, funded by Creative New Zealand, is designed to support high-quality New Zealand theatre, dance and music to reach audiences nationwide. Following their successful Auckland seasons, The Modern Māori Quartet, Little Shop of Horrors, Daffodils and The Mooncake and the Kumara will be heading to a range of venues across the North and South Islands including Whanganui, Hamilton, Palmerston North, Tauranga, Wellington, Blenheim, Oamaru, Nelson and Christchurch, from August to October 2015.

Over a four year period PANNZ will support and manage tours throughout the country in collaboration with arts companies, artists, independent producers,arts festivals and venues. The new agency will complement the work of existing Creative New Zealand-funded touring organisations such as Arts on Tour and Chamber Music New Zealand.

“The PANNZ Touring Agency is an extraordinary development that will change the face of touring in New Zealand. This investment will allow artists and companies to create work that will have a life beyond its premiere, and allow audiences to experience high quality contemporary work in their own urban and regional centres.” - Drew James, Senior Producer, PANNZ Touring Agency.

The Modern Māori Quartet have come together from different corners of Aotearoa to perform their signature cabaret show, An Evening with the Modern Māori Quartet,which is full of waiata, humour and charm. The show promises a trip down memory lane into Aotearoa’s musical past and present as well as recent international hits, all with the unique Modern Māori Quartet twist and flavour.

Jumpboard Productions presents the next film ripe for the Live Live Cinema treatment: Roger Corman’s Little Shop of Horrors. The original 1960 film is screened silently on stage while a live soundtrack is created by four of New Zealand’s most prominent performers, under the direction of Oliver Driver. Re-voicing the multiple on-screen characters in perfect lip sync, just four musicians will play a new original musical score by Live Live creator Leon Radojkovic, as well as creating live Foley sound effects designed by esteemed sound and Foley artist Gareth Van Niekerk.

Bullet Heart Club presents the award-winning love story Daffodils, that captures the bittersweet nuances of a Hamilton couple's life in a 'mix tape’ of New Zealand’s greatest hits. Inspired by private letters, real interviews and family myths heard only at drunken parties, the production unfolds against a backdrop of 1960s Kodak stills, Super8 home movies and fashion photography created by one of New Zealand's leading image makers, Garth Badger (Lorde). The show features songs from the likes of Crowded House, Bic Runga, Chris Knox, The Mint Chicks, Dave Dobbyn, The Exponents, remixed by Silver Scroll winner Stephanie Brown (LIPS) and Abraham Kunin (The Means).

The Mooncake and the Kumara is a moving story about a mixed-up, Māori-Chinese love affair that sprouts among rows of potatoes and premiered during Auckland Arts Festival 2015. Nearly 90 years ago on a New Zealand market garden, two families - one Māori and the other Chinese - became part of a romance that would uproot their lives over generations. Told in a rich mixture of English, Māori and Cantonese, The Mooncake and the Kumara is the début, award-winning play by Māori-Chinese playwright Mei-Lin Te Puea Hansen.

ENDS

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