Pork and Poll Taxes: Sell out season gets its first reviews!

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Talia Pua’s Pork and Poll taxes opened this week at Herald Theatre to a packed house and a sold out season 2 weeks before opening. And the reviews are in!

A moving tribute to those affected by the Poll Tax, and by divisive, racist immigration policies, Pork and Poll Taxes is a resounding success. A must-see performance from some of Aotearoa’s most talented, emerging actors and practitioners.

- Theatre Scenes

I am forever grateful to my ancestors for the sacrifices they made, and their stories couldn’t be told better than through Pork and Poll Taxes.


- Theatrereview


For the full reviews, click here:

Theatreview

Theatre Scenes review

Read more about the poll tax and the unknown history behind the play here:

Spinoff article: Reclaiming New Zealand’s forgotten history on stage

Three Dots Short Film is underway

Gemma Jayde-Naidoo in Three Dots.

Gemma Jayde-Naidoo in Three Dots.

PAT has a short film brewing!

THREE DOTS, written and directed by Alyssa Medel and produced by Chye-Ling Huang with Proudly Asian Theatre is a short film and one of the Asia New Zealand Foundation’s IN TOUCH Arts Commissions for projects that reflect connections between NZ and Asia.

“Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives.” - Carl Sagan

Set on 9th August 2020, marking Singapore’s ‘National Day’ and 55th year of independence; a tropical storm brews in the Philippines, and New Zealand in stark contrast celebrates 100 days without a new Covid-19 case.

Featuring three women connected across three countries, this split-screen short delivers an emotional, energetic and ultimately hopeful portrait of our connectivity despite distance.

Stay tuned for more - release date in early May online!

Alyssa Medel directing Three Dots. Photo: Chye-Ling Huang

Alyssa Medel directing Three Dots. Photo: Chye-Ling Huang

Playwriting initiative now open for applications!

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PAT is proud to announce our new, Free initiative:

Playwriting Classes 

with Ahi Karunaharan

Proudly Asian Theatre and Agaram Productions are joining forces to provide two free writing courses for new and emerging Asian playwrights. 

We welcome NZ 2020’s Arts Laureate and Award Winning writer Ahi Karunaharan as our tutor for both courses.

Split into two strands, Grassroots and the Emerging, each course consists of 8 classes and will be held online for 3 hours once a week commencing week of May 17th  to week of June 14th this year. 

The Grassroots Writing Course is an introduction to playwriting which explores foundations and fundementals; how to write, where to start, what is a story. 

This course is open to people who are:

  • Interested in working on an idea

  • Interested in writing or story telling

  • Curious about starting a writing career

  • Segwaying from another creative strand 


The Intermediate Writing Course is a masterclass for playwrights who aims to improve their craft. Exploring topics like advanced narrative structure, developing a writer’s discipline, decolonising theatre practice as a playwright and the hustle. 

This course is open to people who: 

  • Have an existing play or an idea they wish to develop

  • Require support developing a current work

  • Have been a part of our Fresh Off the Page programme as a writer

  • Have previous writing experience


These courses are pathways to PAT’s Fresh Off the Page and Fresh Development programmes and will leave you with both skill sets and networks to further your career.  


APPLICATIONS ARE NOW OPEN!

Deadline:  April 23, 2021

To apply, go to the following link: https://forms.gle/pgrkppZcp21Ny3xm9



Fresh Crop acting course wrapped!

Photo: Ankita Singh

Photo: Ankita Singh

On Sunday, January 31st, Proudly Asian Theatre and Pan-Asian Screen Collective's Fresh Crop Acting Course wrapped!

12 new and emerging actors took on six intensive weekend acting workshops. We are immensely proud of their work, growth and dedication.

Congratulations to:

Headshots by Andi Crown.

Headshots by Andi Crown.

David Correos, Keeha Oh, Anna Lee, Mustaq Missouri, Winstan Saw, Kelvin Ta, Jo Lo, Talia Pua, Aman Bajaj, Hae Yeon Angela Seol and Nelson Lee.

PAT’s inaugural acting course is hopefully one of many more!

Special thanks to TAPAC (The Auckland Performing Arts Centre) and to our final guests on the workshop: Jennifer Te Atamira Ward-Lealand, Kathryn Rawlings, Graham Dunster, Christiana Thomson and Colin Moy.



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Photos: John Rata & Ankita Singh

Photos: John Rata & Ankita Singh

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Pork and Poll Taxes gains traction in funded development workshops

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Pork and Poll Taxes, PAT and Hand Pulled Collective’s co-production in development helmed by creator/director Talia Pua, has kicked off with a series of workshops.

Pork and Poll taxes explores family sacrifice and displacement and the ties that hold Chinese immigrants together in 1800’s New Zealand. Focussing on movement and form, the first workshop at Kete Aronui looked at moments of heightened reality that can be explored with movement and chorus.

First time playwright Talia Pua reflected on the process so far; “These last few months being in script development has been such a crazy and amazing learning experience - something I never thought was possible when we started at the beginning of the year with Natalya (Hand Pulled Producer). I’m feeling amazed at what’s been accomplished, but also immensely grateful for everyone that’s come on board - PAT have been such great mentors for us and have really taken this project beyond anything we’ve imagined - and all of the support we’ve received from the community - which has been really surprising and heartwarming to know how much people support the project, from the participants in the workshops to creatives that have contributed all their mahi to this work.”

The next round of development is supported by Asian Ink, a play market development initiative. Looking to the next phase, Talia says:

“I’m excited to see how the project will grow, and to collaborate with a whole bunch of new creatives across design and cast - daunting but nonetheless exciting! Questions I have moving forward are around characters - how do I develop them to create a full picture, a multi-faceted picture of the experience of many Chinese immigrant families? What is the message I’m trying to say, and what do I want it to do to the audience - not just in terms of playwrighting, but asking the questions with my directors hat on as we move forward, looking at production in 2021.”

Thank you to the generous support of the Chinese Poll Tax Heritage Trust and Creative New Zealand for the first phase of writing and movement workshops.

Check out these gorgeous images by John Rata below!

Participants: Yin-Chi Lee, movement director, with movement artists Josh Tan, Deliliah Lin, Jess Hong, Deborah Fletcher and Joanne Chun.

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