International Mo'olelo

Time for an update - we had a mad October with Three Men, then the first reading of Mele Kanikau - thanks to all of the wonderful people who helped us out.  At the end of October MJ had the honour of presenting at the 'Aha Mo'olelo Hawaii at the University of Hawaii, Manoa. It was incredible to discover all the Kneubuhl treasures at UH Manoa and Hilo. (Bayley spent two days of this holiday in the photocopy room on the island of Hilo going through the Kneubuhl archival material, but hey - at least it was on a tropical island!)

A sincere and huge mahalo to Victoria and to Jackie who helped facilitate this - so much aloha for you ladies, and I was humbled by the generosity and wairua that was shared with me.

Mahalo a nui loa.

(FYI This picture is Bay - I didn't get to lie on the beach)







In November we worked with the fantastic students of Wesley College to produce a show for the Methodist Church conference with the theme 'Let the Children Live' - MJ wrote her first song and Saia composed the music.  The show was called 'I Am' and its themes were bullying and youth suicide and it involved music, performance and spoken word poetry.  Performed in Wellington, the show was well received and there are requests to produce another show later this year.

(I'll try and insert a video here when I learn how to do that!)

November also saw the Black Friars go international as Six Lessons and a Wedding hit the stage at the National University of Samoa in Apia. 

Lauie, Bay, Mum and MJ got to attend the South Pacific Association of Languages and Literatures conference (thanks Selina, and thanks Tuakana conference fund!).  This was incredible and MJ found it a great experience presenting on a panel with wonderful brown sugas - Dr Selina Tusitala Marsh, Grace Taylor (SAPC, Youthline, independent poet and the most perfectly named person I know) and Emma Powell (Cook Island Masters student at Auckland Uni practicing in a methodology I would love to use myself).

Bay and Lauie got to feed turtles (they were huge!) and to swim in a beautiful waterhole.

This year has kicked off with a performance of Three Men again at the Fale Pasifika at AU, and some heavy duty workshops with teachers and budding teachers - all the very best to the first cohort of participants with TeachFirstNZ who have an exciting and challenging time ahead of them.  Check out my articles in the 'Teaching Pacific Literatures' volume of SPAN and in Curriculum Matters.  This is the link:

Dusky Maiden: Noble Savage article

We've also had a few more readings of Mele Kanikau which have been very useful for MJ - rehearsals to start soon - thanks to all the Friars involved with those, and to all who will be involved in the future.

Many thanks for reading team, and please post stuff here if you feel inclined!

Mahalo.

Waiheke here we come!

Imagine every racial stereotype you’ve ever heard, combine this with a natural Polynesian playfulness and that kiwi ability to laugh at ourselves, even when we’re at our worst. Now add into the mix a couple of 100kg plus young men from South Auckland and you’ve got the recipe for Three Men in a Box. From a company made up mainly of powerful young Polynesian men comes this no-holds-barred comedy. Each of the three actors (Billy Revell, Lauie Sila and Daley Winterstein) take on a number of roles to deliver a play with fourteen characters. Our dubious hero, Fred, is your typical, swannie-clad, kiwi bloke – just come in from chucking the dog on the back of the ute – and in the pub for a quick handle of speights – nothing surprising there. But when he’s confronted with culture shock in the form of his Asian neighbour, and Hemi, the local busdriver, he’s unprepared for the truths he will have to confront in himself. First performed as part of Auckland’s inaugural Fringe Festival a few years ago, Three Men is a story for Aotearoa. The storyline is just a bit of fun to get you thinking outside of the square – very different from the company’s deeper Pasifika stories – this one is confrontational and direct. Same theme though – people don’t belong in boxes!

Our Mele - MJ's PhD project

Since there have been a lot of questions asked about Mele Kanikau and our production, and who is this John Kneubuhl that we're hearing so much about, here is the low-down...It's long, so you're in for quite the read...

Synopsis :

Mele Kanikau is a Hawaiian story about culture and the loss of culture with many themes that will resonate with Pasifika people in Aotearoa. At its heart is a triangle of lovers and a story of betrayal from the past that has come back to haunt Carl Alama, a successful Hawaiian travel agent who is staging a hula pageant for tourists.

The play opens as Carl announces to the pageant court and cast that he has appointed social recluse Noa Napo’oanaakala to the position of Kumu Hula in charge of the pageant. Noa is a figure from Carl’s past and with his arrival old wounds are re-opened and it is revealed that Noa’s haole wife Frances, was once betrothed to Carl. As these three attempt to reconcile, Noa’s new pageant tells via the hula the legendary tale of a tragic love triangle in which a young chief/hero is jilted by his lover and his best friend.

Framing this is the narrative of a figure called ‘The Author’ who addresses the audience directly and questions the very nature of theatre and the playwright’s creation. He recalls a woman from his own past called Georgina, whose story echoes that of Frances.

The play is striking in its presentation of loss – personal, historical, physical and cultural – and in its use of Hawaiian mele and both modern and ancient hula to tell its story. The many layers of the play are rewoven by the Author character in the final scene as he says:

“listen…and remember. For it is only in our remembering that we can make our mele, like houses of words into which our dead can move and live again and speak to us…I have made this mele kanikau , a tattered tent against the indifferent rain, so that Love might once again cry out its loss through me…listen to their voices…It is in you they grieve; it is through you they speak”.

Mele Kanikau is a charge to all Pasifika people to reconnect with their cultural past “in order to infuse a vacuous present with some sense of cultural lineage, meaning, and individual integrity” (Sinavaiana-Gabbard).

We hope that our mele is a chant that shakes people in their cultural complacency.

We hope that it inspires more Pasifika people to arm themselves with the knowledge and power of who they are, and where they come from.

John Kneubuhl was arguably the first playwright of Pasifika descent to have his works produced professionally in Aotearoa New Zealand. As the son of a Samoan mother and an American father, Kneubuhl's multicultural heritage produced a distinctive artistic vision that formed the basis of his most powerful dramatic work. Despite the fact that Kneubuhl was a prolific writer and much of his writing was produced in Hollywood, he only has one publication. This was because he believed that his work in the theatre, and his advocacy for the validation and resurrection of indigenous languages in the theatre, were publication enough. His only published work is a collection of his three later plays, entitled Think of a Garden and other plays.

Casting choices This Mele Kanikau is a lament for our indigenous Hawaiian brothers and sisters, but it is also a lament for what we lose, and stand to lose elsewhere in the Pacific, and here in Aotearoa. It is a mele for us all. There will be no fake accents! Each Pasifika person on stage is charged to embody the character he or she portrays, to represent their own cultural heritage and to do so in the medium of Western theatre. As Pasifika peoples, we are accustomed to code switching. In our mele, each actor is charged to walk tall, with great mana, in these three worlds for a time.

To finish… Having said all that, thank you so much for your interest in this project!

Welcome to our mele.

Malo ‘aupito.
Fa’afetai lava.
Mahalo.

To infinity and beyond!

Since the doco showed not once, not twice, but SEVEN TIMES over Waitangi weekend, I feel that I had better do an update. Here is a little of what we have been up to:

COMMUNITY


Billy, Vau, Saia and Olive spent some time in the last term of last year working for the Ministry of Social Development with some young people making music videos, hanging out and building relationships. This was an awesome chance for these guys to do something different and get involved with a whole bunch of cool people in a different aspect of the community.

EDUCATION:
We have been presenting workshops to teachers and to Drama educators on culturally responsive pedagogy (sounds flash, but basically it means proud to be equal but different).



We had an awesome workshop at the University of Auckland Drama Symposium in December at which Maestro made an appearance (he's a year old already would you believe!)

THEATRE


We're also super proud to announce that Lauie is on tour with Duffy Theatre this year until September. He's got an awesome team and no doubt there will be some photos of that up here soon too.




Also,quite a few of our players have now crossed the ditch and will hopefully be doing some theatre over there in Aussie. We will keep you posted on that!

In the meantime, I'm studying fulltime this year and am looking forward to putting on an awesome play by John Kneubuhl (strongly suggest you wikipedia him if you don't know who he is! Amazing man! ). Those of you in the know - keep an eye on what's happening in the Fale Pasifika at the beginning of next year!
To everyone who has sent us kind emails and supportive texts - thank you so so much.
Mahalo. Malo 'aupito. Fa'afetai lava. You are the reason.

Keep the faith.

EmJay
xxx

Uso - Your feedback!

"Dramatically structured and dynamically paced with sublime musical interludes, Uso reminds us why theatre was ever invented." - John Smythe




What an amazing time was had by all at the fabulous Downstage!
Here are some comments about Uso and the workshops from you wonderful people:

"I had to send an email to let you know what an awesome show it was on Saturday night. I was very impressed with the dynamics of this play and the TALENT!! Oka!
Nice to see the 'no holds barred' in terms of language. Mad respect for telling it like it is.
Please pass on my heart felt thanks to the company. I wish them all the best for their next production, and look forward to seeing it performed here in Wellington.

Ia Manuia lava

Tai Paitai
Events Producer
Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa"



Zelda Dahya Says:

May 9th, 2011 at 4:19 pm
I thoroughly enjoyed the production! the cast were amazing and were RAW!! Loved the passion and the delievery! Amazing things and the only way is up!!! Bigg ups to the ‘Black Friars’ keep it up!! xox

Kieran Meredith Says:

May 9th, 2011 at 7:34 pm
A-MA-ZING!

Thoroughly enjoyed ‘Uso’ and the many elements of the show that we as the audience were exposed to. Enjoyed the inspiration that the characters provided us with, especially as Youth and the many challenges that we face in society. The context and morality was immensely empowering as well! The Gospel Music also helped to provide a bit of variety.

Looking forward to seeing them at the top, cos that’s where they be HEADING!

Shot guyssss! x

Rochelle Nafatali Says:

May 9th, 2011 at 6:54 pm
The Black Friars are an amazingly talented group of players, who have the tenacity and passion to bring across difficult themes others are too afraid or not competent enough to express. They’re also hilarious and capture the humour of Samoan “boyz” just right! I am grateful to the Black Friars for sharing their desire for our young people to have a voice and to be successful, and would love to see them again. Thanks to my uso Florence for spreading the word and enabling us all to come! Please keep our Office in the loop when you next are down Black Friars. Ia manuia!

I just wanted to tell you how very much we enjoyed the show today, it was truly wonderful!

I hadn't realised previously that you were doing workshops at schools around Wellington, or I would have inquired as to whether or not you might be able to visit us. Is there any small chance we may be able to steal you at some time in the future? The girls would absolutely love it!

Do let me know if you will be in Wellington again and if this could go ahead, and thank you for the wonderful experience today.

All the best
Melissa

Talofa lava Michelle

Congratulations and thanks again so much for the workshop and the performance this week. The boys were all on such a high after them. The actors set up principles of acknowledgement, value and courage right from the beginning. And most importantly, they lead by example from the outset. The students felt that all their contributions were really appreciated, that they had come together as aiga and inspired to pursue the same level of heart in performance as was shared with us. I can't wait to build on that momentum with them this term in a performance of Niu Sila and devised work. Am pretty sure we can fit in a Carlton dance in every scene!

Faafetai soooo much again and soifua for the rest of the season.

Ia manuia, Jane

Jane Armstrong
HOD Drama
Wellington College

Porirua College - Student feedback(From year 13 students) "In the workshop, it made me feel free, the Blackfriars crew came down to our level. It was also cool to see the Year 11s step up and do amazing work."

Another student "I was emotionally touched" "it was different to other workshops coz they were like us, they were brown , it was like family"

Another "The comfort they had, you could share anything, from the heart, I felt like it was a place where I was comfortable"



And last, but not least, check out the link opposite to Theatreview and some great words of support and encouragement.

Watch this space for what's next!

Chur,

EmJay
x

USO in Auckland - One Night Only!

Come along and check us out this Friday before we leave for the Windy City.

The Black Friars present "USO"

Where? Ray Friedman Arts Centre
Epsom Girls Grammar School
When? Friday 29th April
8pm
How much? $10 (one time only offer!)

Book via blackfriars1844@gmail.com

Look forward to seeing you there!

EmJay

USO is coming to Wellington!

Attention all Wellingtonians!

Uso is finally making its way down the line to the one and only Downstage for a very limited season.
Vau, Lauie, Saia, Olive and Billy will be out in Wellington's surrounding schools from the 2-4 May and then we are all in theatre for two shows a day on the 5th-7th May (Thursday to Saturday).
Uso is a Glee-meets-Boys in the Hood-meets-Dangerous Minds coming-of-age type story that tracks a young Polynesian boy named Lincoln over the course of a weekend. During the weekend, a huge range of pressures converge in Lincoln's life and he has to choose between the forces that control his life - his brother Miles, his best friend Makisi, his dangerous friend Siua and his girlfriend Lani.
Meanwhile, the cast is getting ready for a choir competition, which they have to win if Lincoln is to keep living the life he loves.
If you love gospel music and powerful stage presence, then make your way over to Downstage and catch the Black Friars in action!
See www.downstage.co.nz for more details...