Tag Archives: Stacey Leilua

ARCHIVE – 23 April 2009 meeting

Boat Business, Theatre, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Autumn greetings and images of waving palm trees to you.

Welcome to a late after-match report for the 23 April Banana Boat meeting.

Present were Matene, Ole Maiava, Chetan Patel, Stacey Leilua, Jonathan P Riley, Fasitua Amosa, Jenni Heka, Michelle Johansson, Eric Smith, Albert Belz, Stan Wolfgramm, Arnette Arapai, Victoria Schmidt and David Mamea.

Apologies were received from Lee Aholima and Nina Tapu.

Guest speaker playwright Albert Belz gave an inspiring talk to the group about his career to date, including his tour of duty with “Shortland Street”, his process of writing and rewriting, and challenging being pigeonholed as ‘a Maori playwright’.

Housekeeping included:
– a BIG REMINDER that the 2009 Pasifika Playwright Development Forum takes place on Saturday, 2 May;
– the weekend 2-3 May is the deadline for the 2010 Banana Boat season;
– a gentle reminder that Massive will have Lennie James in the country, a resource that Banana Boat would be silly to ignore;
– and a gentle reminder that the Jukebox deadline is a mere three months away.

Readings were generously provided by Ole Maiava and Eric Smith.

Ole’s third draft of his Jukebox submission, “Skin Deep”, showed the group how much a script can change through drafts.

Eric’s own Jukebox submission, “Aitu”, showed how some stories and inspiration can come from the strangest of places.

We had a further two scripts available for reading, by Chetan Patel and Phoenix Seve, but we had run out of time; they now have first dibs for the next meeting.

The next meeting will be on Thursday 28 May at the Toi Ora Live Art Studio, 6 Putiki Street, Grey Lynn. Please note the new street number – Toi Ora has shifted up the road, directly (and by destiny’s hand) behind McDonalds Family Restaurant on Great North Road.

Scripts to be read at the May meeting are welcome on a first-in, first-served and time-permitting basis. If you want them printed beforehand, they must by forwarded to David by end of day Thursday 21 May. Scripts emailed after this date will need to be printed and copied at the author’s expense. Only complete act for a full-length play, or complete one-act or short plays are read by the group.

Share

ARCHIVE – 26 February 2009 meeting

Boat Business, Theatre, , , , , , , , , ,

Welcome to the 26 February after-match report.

Present at the meeting were: Lee Aholima, Ben, Jenni Heka, Stacey Leilua, David Mamea, Chetan Patel, Jonathan Riley, Phoenix Seve, Eric Smith, Misa Tupou, Stan Wolfgramm.

Apologies were received from Ali Foa’i, Michelle Johansen, Ezekiel Kennedy and Zora.

Housekeeping The group can look forward to the following guest speakers this year, schedules permitting and stars aligning: Hone Kouka, Oscar Kightley, Albert Belz, and others.

2009-2010 Banana Boat Seasons

David Mamea did an awful job of pitching the following proposals to the group (just as well he has this after-match report to make sense with).

As noted in the January 2009 meeting, Jenni, David and Michelle Johannson drew up a two-year plan for the Banana Boat:
– the 2009 Banana Boat Jukebox Season where group members will write, develop and produce 10-minute plays to premiere in a revue-style show to premiere in November as part of the Manukau Festival;
– and the 2010 Banana Boat Season where the group can showcase full-length plays, but with development starting now.

The 2009 Banana Boat Jukebox Season:
– a revue of short plays by Banana Boat writers premiering in November 2009;
– each play must be ten minutes long; have a maximum of four actors; and contain 1 x banana, 1 x boat, and 1 x “Day-o”;
– each revue night will show between four and five short plays;
– the season will be over three or four nights, in November 2009;
– any writer who has attended at least one Banana Boat meeting can enter;
– all writers who enter will be required to pull together a production crew (producer, director, actors) who will turn their script into a play.

The timeline is as follows (more specific dates will be advised soon):
– February-September – entries open
– September – deadline for all scripts
– October – deadline for crews to be in place
– November – Banana Boat Jukebox season!

The 2010 Banana Boat Season
– a possible double-bill of full-length plays to premiere in late 2010;
– this will be the platform from which any/all members can premiere their long-form plays;
– development starts now.

The 2010 season is open to all Banana Boat members. An eighteen-month development period is envisaged where plays will go from first draft, through to workshops, dramaturgy, and readings, until production and premieres in late 2010.

The timeline is as follows (proper dates will be advised soon):
– February-May 2009 – entries open
– June 2009 – candidates for official development announced
– July 2009-July 2010 – workshops and development
– November 2010 – Banana Boat season!

A document detailing both seasons will be emailed out soon.

The script reading for February was kindly provided by Eric Smith. Two snap-shots of male-bonding and -dynamics, the group forced Eric to dig deep with his writing and characterisations. Props to Eric for sharing, and we look forward to the next draft!

The whip-’round – a new feature of Banana Boat meetings – was introduced with no consultation by David. It’s essentially a ‘whatchabinupto?’ for all in attendance. And it’s great to see that most everyone is writing.

The next meeting will be on Thursday 26 March at the Toi Ora Live Art Studio, 19 Putiki Street, Grey Lynn.

Scripts to be read at the February meeting should be emailed to David by end of day Thursday 19 March. Don’t forget: only a complete act for a full-length play, or complete one-act or short plays will be read by the group.

Share

ARCHIVE – 22 January 2009 meeting

Boat Business, Theatre, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Hot and sweaty Pasifika greetings to you all.

Our 22 January meeting saw the Banana Boat meet for the first time in 2009. Welcome to the after-match report.

Present at the meeting were: Arnette Arapai, Barbs Carpenter, Katrina Chandra, Ali Foai, Dianna Fuemana, Jenni Heka, Michelle Johanssen, Stacey Leilua, Ole Maiava, Tanya Muagututia, Jonathan P Riley, Eric Smith, Stan Wolfgramm and David Mamea.

Apologies were received from Bronwen Judd, Nina Tapu, Chetan Patel and Phoenix Seve.

Guest speaker duties were very kindly provided by Katrina Chandra, Agency Coordinator for Playmarket, who talked to the group about finding ideas, writing them into plays, and getting your plays out there to an audience – with Playmarket playing a role in representation and licensing, among other things. There followed some lively discussion around “not what [writers] can do for Playmarket, but what Playmarket can do for [writers]”.

Housekeeping this month was covered by David Mamea who reported that, besides his usual tussles with Jenni over making-a-big-splash versus taking-the-long-term-view, and (her) reality checks versus (his) I-have-a-dream, at the moment, Banana Boat ’09 comes down to:
– in order to put any production on, the group needs money;
– in order to get money from a funder like Creative New Zealand, the group needs something tangible like completed scripts to submit;
– and, as far as he was aware, the group has no completed scripts to apply for funding with.

In short, the group has a goal but, aside from a heap of talent and promise, nothing in place to achieve that goal. So. Jenni Heka, Michelle Johansson and David volunteered to meet before the February meeting to formulate a Real Plan for 2009 for the group to consider.

The script reading for January was courtesy of Ole Maiava. A short tale of preconceptions and familial love, the group enjoyed the reading, provided thorough feedback for Ole to play with, and look forward to the next draft.

The next meeting will be on Thursday 26 February at the Toi Ora Live Art Studio, 19 Putiki Street, Grey Lynn.

Scripts to be read at the February meeting should be emailed to David by end of day Thursday 19 February. Don’t forget: only a complete act for a full-length play, or complete one-act or short plays will be read by the group.

Share

ARCHIVE – 4 December 2008 meeting

Boat Business, Theatre, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Season’s greetings to you all.

Thursday 4 December saw the Pasifika Playwrights Group meet for the last time for 2008. Welcome to the after-match report.

Present at the meeting were: Arnette Arapai, Aroha Awarau, Jenni Heka, Bronwen Judd, Ezekiel Kennedy, Stacey Leilua, Ole Maiava, Tanya Muagututia, Chetan Patel, Phieng Phongsa, Jonathan Riley, Phoenix Seve, Eric Smith, Nina Tapu, Stan Wolfgramm and David Mamea.

Apologies were received from Michelle Johannson and Sandra Kailahi.

Group Name

After a few months of operating under the descriptive but mouthful of “Pasifika Playwrights Group”, a new, ideally sexier, name has been mooted since September. Despite some last-second suggestions by Jonathan – the highlight being “Shak(in)spears” replete with Pasifika-style hunting/fishing spears in its emblem – BANANA BOAT garnered the most votes.

And then on the brink of ratification, Stan rightly pointed out that maybe BANANA BOAT should mean something – at the moment, it’s just a name. With September 2009 screaming towards the group, it was agreed that BANANA BOAT be a working title of sorts, and open to change.

Next Meeting

The next meeting will be held on Thursday 22 January 2009 at the Toi Ora Live Art Studio, 19 Putiki Street, Grey Lynn.

2009

David and Jenni spoke about the challenges confronting the group, uppermost being that the inaugural BANANA BOAT SEASON is a mere ten months away. Things have to happen, like:
– scripts, if they’re not already in progress, need to start now;
– full-length plays are not the only way to go – one act plays, short pieces and anything else in between (within reason) are welcome for consideration;
– the selection process will be done by assessors who will be independent of the group and/or its participants (ie., likely to be Palagi, male and middle-aged).

(There was also some discussion of The Edge’s offer of The Basement as a venue but this has changed substantially since the 4 December meeting. Updates to follow.)

This is our tentative timeline:
– 22 JANUARY 2009 – monthly meetings resume
– MARCH – official call for submissions
– MAY – submissions close
– JUNE – selections made; teams are formed
– JULY – pre-production commences
– AUGUST – rehearsals commence
– SEPTEMBER – inaugural 2009 Banana Boat Season

‘Ka fefe! E faigofie!

Readings

Scenes were read by the group and discussed in depth. Material was generously supplied by:
– Phoenix, from his play-in-development, “Fale of Troy”;
– Eric, from his play-in-progress, “Le Va”; and
– David, from his radio-play-in-progress, “Skyblue”.

Speaking of Eric and Phoenix’s scenes – and all the other writing we’ve read at earlier meetings – the quality of writing we have amongst our group continues to astound me. The inaugural Banana Boat season is going to knock some socks (and jandals) off. I’m excited. Aren’t you excited?

Scenes to be read at the next meeting are due to David by end of day Thursday 15 January 2009. Readings will be changing up a gear: no single scenes, please – either a complete act for full-length plays or complete one-act and shorter plays.

Jenni’s busy with the Christmas spirit at the moment but I’m sure she’d like to spread the news that Arnette has been accepted onto the 2009 intake of prestigious Masters in Creative Writing Course (Scriptwriting) at Victoria University in Wellington.

Share