Inviting Gods Into the Theatre
“With a stunning combination of ceremony, ritual, dance and theatre, ,” will have its US premiere this week at the downtown Los Angeles’ Million Dollar Theater. Samoan…
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
One and only Topp Twins
Lynda Topp, one half of the “one-of-a-kind” Topp Twins, talks to Susan Cole of Now Toronto about the pair’s career and how they rode the wave while keeping their values intact. “It doesn’t matter…
Focus on Food
The Gascoigne Associates-designed Japanese restaurant Cocoro in Auckland features on the World Interior Design Network site. “The interior décor features large squares of woven charcoal and chocolate carpet that resemble subtle tatami-style matting. All…
Snoop and Rico Salute Sun
Air New Zealand’s mascot Rico has teamed up with US rapper Snoop Dogg to produce a music video for the airline. Rico, whose controversial antics promoted Air New Zealand’s Skycouch, joins Snoop, who dons…
Hobbit Production Rolls
Production has now begun on Peter Jackson’s film adaptation of The Hobbit, set in Middle-earth 6 years before The Lord of the Rings. Not an earthquake, a health scare, a labour conflict, financial concerns…
Delicate Design Hangs in Berlin
New Zealand-born designer and ceramicist Jeremy Cole’s porcelain Aloe Blossom suspension lamp hangs in the living room of German writer and producer Peter Schlesselmann’s one-bedroom flat in Berlin’s Tiergarten. The lamp has…
Children Rule On Big Screen
Children’s television series, The Tribe, which was first produced in New Zealand, is being developed into a film in the United States. According to Variety, “Peter Jackson’s Weta Workshop has already agreed to tackle…
Great Voice of Stories
New Zealand scriptwriter Graeme Tetley, whose body of work included films Vigil, Ruby & Rata, Bread and Roses and the Aramoana depiction Out of the Blue, has died in Wellington, aged 69. A script…
Taking Priscilla to Broadway
New Zealand-born Simon Phillips is the director of the new Broadway version of Priscilla Queen of the Desert which opens in New York on March 2. Phillips said that his North American producers —…
Wizardry with Melody
“What Peter Jackson did for New Zealand tourism with the most expensive ad campaign ever — The Lord of the Rings — singer/songwriter Maisey Rika could possibly do for New Zealand music,” Honolulu Weekly…
Critical darlings most promising
Art-pop quintet The Naked and Famous has been named as this year’s “most promising new act” by NME; post-award ceremony the band talks to Mark Savage of BBC 6 about their recent “good fortunes”….
Me’a Kai Beats Usual Suspects
“You could call it the gastronomic upset of the night,” The Independent said. “New Zealand-born chef Robert Oliver beat out some formidable competition to land the title of best cookbook, which was announced last…
Tempest on Broadway
Auckland-based choreographer Lemi Ponifasio will perform Tempest: Without A Body on Broadway at the historical Million Dollar Theater on April 2-3. Performed by Ponifasio’s company MAU, the production is making its US premiere in…
Man in the Running
Wellington author Craig Cliff’s debut short story collection, A Man Melting is in contention for this year’s Commonwealth £5, best first book award. Cliff is up against South African writer Cynthia Jele’s Happiness is…
Spiritual Path in Pictures
Auckland-born artist Max Gimblett’s new versions of the Buddhist ‘Oxherding’ series — ten drawings which represent a parable about the conduct of Buddhist practice, most commonly attributed to a 12th-century Chinese Zen master –…
Hyde’s Bitter Strength
Robin Hyde’s “remarkable tribute, in tough and rugged language, to a Chinese peasant”, the poem “Ku Li” is the Guardian’s “Poem of the Week”. “Ku Li” was begun in China during the second Sino-Japanese…
Travel to New Zealand
“I’ve always liked Phil Keoghan as host of The Amazing Race,” Orlando Sentinel television reviewer Hal Boedeker professes. “I didn’t realize he was from New Zealand, but there he was on The Late Late…
Roman Wallflower
Lucy Lawless, New Zealand’s one and only Xena, Warrior Princess, doesn’t mind being typecast, saying, “What am I going to complain about? How many actresses work as much as me?” “Being the star of…
Rear View Girls
Aspiring Auckland actresses Jessie Gurunathan and Reanin Johannink used hidden cameras fitted to the back of their jeans to film unsuspecting individuals staring at their backsides. The footage, taken in LA, was the idea…
Timelord Travels South
“We had only been in New Zealand for a weekend but already I had begun to understand how the country’s dramatic landscape — volcanoes, mud pools and geysers, pristine beaches, lush vegetation, lakes and…
Crowds Go Wild
Gisborne hosted as many as 25, spectators and 2 competitors at this year’s National Kapa Haka Festival, Te Matatini o Te Ra, held from16 through 2 February, with Rotorua-based Te Matarae i Orehu taking…
Island Spirit
Actor Martin Henderson — who stars in the latest series from Grey’s Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes, Off the Map — talks to Metro Canada about working in Hawaii, keeping his accent and arguing for…
Whitten’s Legacy
Veteran New Zealand actor, Frank Whitten, has died at age 68. Best known for his role as Ted “Grandpa” West on Outrageous Fortune, Whitten passed away in his sleep on Saturday after a battle…
Diva Loves Danny Boy
Soprano Kiri Te Kanawa is a “sucker” for sentimental Irish ballad Danny Boy. Te Kanawa is one of eight musicians asked by the Los Angeles Times to share their favourite love song in the…
All Work for TNAF
The Naked and Famous are currently on tour in the UK and with their London performance feature in the Guardian’s weekly gig guide. The publication writes: “Essentially the project of Thom Powers and Alisa…
Hobbit Cast Front-up
The cast of Peter Jackson’s two-film adaptation of The Hobbit were this month introduced to the news media at a press conference in Wellington at the Park Road Post production facility. The event featured…
Hobbit Tourism
With filming on The Hobbit confirmed to begin in March, New Zealand is preparing for another tourism boom. It is expected that Peter Jackson’s latest film creation will drive a renewed bout of Tolkien…
Stress-free Cooking
New Zealand cook Annabel Langbein’s television series Annabel Langbein: The Free Range Cook is now screening on UKTV’s Good Food Channel. The series of 13 episodes has already been sold into 73 markets. “I…
Migratory musings
Fleur Adcock’s Dragon Talk, her first poetry volume since 1997’s Looking Back — which explored “part of the poet’s wider enquiry into geographical and cultural displacement” — is reviewed by British poet Julian Stannard…
Finn Plays SXSW
Musician and songwriter Liam Finn launches his first-ever full band tour beginning with two gigs in Austin at this year’s South by Southwest (SXSW) music festival. Finn’s next album is set for a spring…
Reel treasure found
Unbeknownst to The New Zealand Film Archives, 75 early American films have been in its possession, including the sole copy known to exist of a silent film directed by cinema icon John Ford, who…
Wellington storms Berlin
Wellington-raised actress and English teacher Amy Nye, 31, appears as ‘Louise’ in playwright Duncan Sarkies’ 1992 Love Puke at Berlin’s English Theatre through July 1. Also from Wellington, Fingal Pollock, 28, directs “eight characters…
Guru in Singapore
New Zealand’s Indian Ink theatre company has been collaborating with the Singapore Repertory Theatre presenting Wellington actor Jacob Rajan’s The Guru of Chai, which was on at Singapore’s DBS Arts Centre. Not only did…
Singing Before Sleep
“Described by some of his more excitable fans as the Brad Pitt of opera, New Zealand baritone Teddy Tahu Rhodes certainly has plenty of stage presence,” Fiona Boxall writes in a lifestyle article for…
Army Band humour
New Zealand’s Army Band will perform at the 6th anniversary of the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo in August. Major Leanne Smith, director of music for the 28-piece Band said they can’t wait to perform…
Star Dancer Touring
Christchurch-born Dancing with the Stars judge Brendan Cole was recently in Scotland touring with his own theatre show Live and Unjudged. The professional dancer, known for his snake hips and equally venomous…
Spaghetti Sensibilities
Writer-director Mike Wallis’ western Good for Nothing was given its world premiere at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF) in February. Santa Barbara Independent reviewer writes that Good for Nothing “is a strange…
Berlin Screenings
Outrageous Fortune actor Tammy Davis’ directorial debut Ebony Society screens at this year’s 61st Berlin International Film Festival in the Generation 14plus section, which is aimed at a young audience. Go the Dogs by…
Liberating Spray-Tan
Star of cult HBO show True Blood, Anna Paquin tells Elle that “once you’ve been spray-tanned, bleached, and given the correct push-up bra, it’s like playing dress-up — it’s liberating.” Paquin features in a…
Anticipation Sky High
Peter Jackson’s film adaptation of JR Tolkien’s classic The Hobbit “is already one of the most talked about before shooting,” according to Christopher Wright writing for the site Film Industry Network. “Controversy surrounded the…
Colours of Aotearoa
Whanganui-born composer Douglas Lilburn’s overture ‘Aotearoa’ and ‘Symphony No. 2’ were recently performed by the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra in Charleston; the conductor was New Zealander Grant Cooper, who is also the orchestra’s artistic…
Princely Role
Wellington actor Nico Evers-Swindell will play the part of Prince William in a television movie about the royal couple, William & Kate, which is due to start production in Los Angeles in February. Evers-Swindell’s…
Young Blood Take Scroll
Auckland five-piece band Naked and Famous have won the Silver Scroll prize for their smash hit “Young Blood” at the Australasian Performing Right Association’s awards held in Auckland on 8 September. Alisa Xayalith, Thom…
Ladyhawke at Laneway
“For an artist with such a fierce-sounding moniker, award-winning New Zealand singer-songwriter Ladyhawke — whose name conjures up anything from female shaman warriors to an Academy Award-nominated fantasy film — is surprisingly shy,” Asia…
Shirtless in Character
“As Dr Ben Keeton, the head of a South American jungle clinic, actor Martin Henderson has finally found a role that not only maximizes his ruggedly handsome good looks, but also jives with the…
Manhattan Ambition
New Zealand fashion photographer Regan Cameron who is based in New York, has shot some of the world’s biggest celebrities including Brazilian model Gisele Bundchen, Madonna, Kate Moss and Cameron Diaz; this month he’s…
Dancing Success
A New Zealand dancer took out one of the top accolades in the dancing world at this year’s Critic’s Circle National Dance Awards. Following in the success of her dance company, Rambert Dance, Pieter…
Singer of the World
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa is the new patron of the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition following the death of Dame Joan Sutherland last year. Chairman of the jury John Fisher said they…
High-End Drama
Director Lee Tamahori’s new Sundance film The Devil’s Double, a violent glimpse at Saddam Hussein’s notorious son Uday and his unwilling body double, is a chance for the 60-year-old, he says, to prove once…
Song of the Day
Tim Finn’s ballad “Persuasion”, from his 1993 album Before and After, was named ‘Song of the Day’ on January 20 by the New Jersey Star-Ledger’s Tris McCall. McCall declares Before and After “one of…
Contemporary encounters
New Zealand artist Lisa Reihana is one of three New Zealand artists participating in an exhibition called Close Encounters: The Next 500 Years on at an “unprecedented number” of venues throughout Winnipeg until May…
Weighing in on the Buzz
“For the first time, probably ever, a band from is poised for huge success in the States,” The Huffington Post’s Jon Chattman predicts. “The Naked and the Famous have already taken their…
Prints out of the box
New Zealand printmakers are showcasing their work in New South Wales at Tweed River Art Gallery, in an exhibition titled Out of the Box. Out of the Box features a range of printmaking skills…
Musical Fashion
Fashion designers Trelise Cooper and Karen Walker are among a wave of labels turning their hand to costume design in 2011. Cooper has created costumes for the Victorian Opera and NBR New Zealand Opera’s…
Buzz-worthy bands
“Z is For (New) Zealand,” in NME’s New Music Glossary for 2011, “a handy guide to all the buzz-worthy jargon for the coming 12 months.” “Finally it seems there’s a new generation of bands…
Revealing the inner
“Everyone’s favourite sexy vampire-loving barmaid” New Zealand actress Anna Paquin is on the cover of the January 2011 issue of Dazed & Confused magazine. In the cover story titled ‘True Colours’, Paquin, 2008, was…
