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Photo Albums contain publicity production/rehearsal Images of theatre shows that have been produced professionally since 1997. Reviews are also found in these folders.

FALEMALAMA NZ PREMIER SEASON MARCH 6 - 10th,2009

A New play Written and directed by Dianna Fuemana 


..

Corban Estate - Henderson

FOUR PERFORMANCES ONLY

MARCH 6, 8, 9 AND 10TH, 2009 8PM

Starring Fiona Collins, Ali Foa'i
 And INTRODUCING Reid Elisaia 


Original Music by Igelese Ete, Set by Filipe Tohi, Costume by Steven Ball

“A beautiful memory of life, love, and leaving…”

Fuemana has assembled a creative team that has produced breath taking music, Pacific movement and stage design for her fifth work for the professional stage, Falemalama.

Playmarket will be hosting the book launch of Falemalama and The Packer as part of the New Zealand Play series on the opening night.

Acclaimed Auckland playwright Dianna Fuemana provides a portrait of the world’s largest Pacific Island city, and draws on her mother’s story to describe one of the journeys that brought the Pacific to it. Falemalama is full of familial separations and cultural dislocations, but in finding the love, generosity and ambition of people determined to be themselves during periods of change together they offer us hope for a strong Pacific future. MARK AMERY – Director Playmarket

DESIGN TEAM: Eric Smith, Steven Ball and Filipe Tohi

2008 NZ PASIFIKA ARTS AWARDS ANNOUNCED

New Zealand’s Pacific artists were honoured at the Creative New Zealand Arts Pasifika Awards 2008 in Manukau City tonight. The awards are an opportunity for Creative New Zealand to encourage and celebrate excellence in Pacific arts in New Zealand.

Creative New Zealand’s Pacific Arts Committee Chairperson Pele Walker said the annual Arts Pasifika Awards celebrate the rich and diverse range of Pacific art in New Zealand.

“Every year we are thrilled and delighted with not only the calibre of artists nominated but the range of artistic fields that they work in. The Pacific experience in New Zealand is unique, these awards are an opportunity for Creative New Zealand to acknowledge and celebrate the contribution these artists make to the flourishing New Zealand arts landscape” Pele Walker said.

Critically acclaimed Auckland playwright, Dianna Fuemana (Niue/Amerika Samoa)

received the Pacific Innovation and Excellence Award ($5000). She is credited with being the first New Zealand Pacific playwright to merge the Niue and New Zealand born way of life through professional theatre. Mapaki, and her later work The Packer, received acclaim in New Zealand and internationally and has sealed Dianna Fuemana’s reputation as a leading light in New Zealand Pacific theatre.

Creative New Zealand’s Pacific Arts Committee hosted the awards at Genesis theatre, Manukau City on Monday 17 November 2008.

For media enquiries please contact: Katrina Smit Media and Communications Adviser, Maori Arts Creative New Zealand Tel: 04 498 0727 or 027 290 1606 katrinas@creativenz.govt.nz

Playmarket/New Zealand's Playwrights Agency and Script Advisory- PUBLISHING 2008

The NZ Play Series has announced this year’s titles Tzigane by John Vakidis, The Daylight Atheist by Tom Scott and The Packer and Falemalama by Dianna Fuemana all due out by the end of November 2008.

"With Auckland’s bustling multicultural Karangahape Road as epicentre, with these two plays Dianna Fuemana provides a portrait of the world’s largest Pacific Island city, and draws on her mother’s story to describe one of the journeys that brought the Pacific to it. Both The Packer and Falemalama are full of familial separations and cultural dislocations, but in finding the love, generosity and ambition of people determined to be themselves during periods of change together they offer us hope for a strong Pacific future".

MARK AMERY-DIRECTOR/PLAYMARKET

Playmarket is New Zealand's only playwrights' agency & script advisory service. We are at the heart of New Zealand theatre - our focus is the development and representation of New Zealand playwrights and their plays.

http://www.playmarket.org.nz/home

AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAL THEATRE INITIATIVE INC N.Y.C

New Indigenous Voices 2008

.. Reception at Club.

Tuesday 25, November at 7:30pm:

Staged Reading of

Frangipani Perfume/by Makerita Urale

directed by Jennifer Rice (Tuscarora) followed by Post-Show Discussion with the playwright and featured actors Nancy Brunning and Dianna Fuemana (Niue/Amerika Samoa).

Frangipani Perfume is a powerful and sensual black comedy about three Samoan sisters who have left their childhood home in the Pacific to work as cleaners in New Zealand.

Wednesday 26, November at 7:30pm:

Staged Reading of

My Name is Gary Cooper/by Victor Rodger

directed by Victor Rodger followed by Post-Show Discussion with the playwright and featured actors Robbie Magasiva (Samoa) and Dianna Fuemana. My Name is Gary Cooper is a roller-coaster ride through cultural appropriation and the impact of the American film industry on the South Pacific (and vice-versa).

Location: La MaMa E.T.C., East 4th Street between 2nd Ave. and the Bowery. New York City, U.S.A

Reservations: Email: koughtred@aol.com

FALEMALAMA

10th FESTIVAL OF PACIFIC ARTS, PAGO PAGO, AMERICA SAMOA 08, 20 JULY - 2 AUGUST.

'newayintheatre' has been selected to attend this festival as part of the Creative New Zealand Pacific delegation representing theatre.

'newwayintheatre' will present FALEMALAMA written and first performed by Dianna Fuemana.

This year introducing new actress REID ELISAIA and UNITEC graduate Ali Foa'i will take the helm under the direction of writer/director Dianna Fuemana.

Original music score composed by Igelese Ete.

Choreography by Peter Tamasese

From 20 July to 2 August 08 a Creative New Zealand-led delegation will participate in the 10th Festival of Pacific Arts in Pago Pago, American Samoa. Creative New Zealand will select a combination of accomplished and emerging artists from within the Maori and New Zealand-based Pacific communities. They will represent the best of traditional and contemporary arts from Aotearoa and ensure our distinctive voices are heard on an international stage.

The Festival of Pacific Arts was created in 1972 in response to the threat of the erosion of traditional. This remains the primary objective of the festival. The festival enables the 27 Pacific countries and territories to come together and exchange ideas, knowledge, skills and techniques. It is a celebration of our sameness and differences. The aho (strand) that weaves everything together is the art, culture, language and artists from each country.

The 2008 festival will be held in Pago Pago, situated on the island of Tutuila, the largest island of American Samoa.

Dianna Fuemana describes having her show Falemalama performed at the 10th Festival of Pacific Arts in Pago Pago as "the absolute highlight of my career as a writer and director". Her solo shows, Mapaki and The Packer have both earned critical acclaim in New Zealand and overseas and firmly placed her as a key figure in the development of Pacific theatre in New Zealand. Falemalama is a semi-autobiographical show about Dianna's late mother. A commission in 2006 from Pangea Theatre Company in Minneapolis allowed Dianna the time to spend time with her brothers in Seattle and to recapture all the stories her mother had told her about her life. "I've always known I would write something about her extraordinary life....She was born and raised in Pago Pago. I have never been there.... To have this piece produced in her home town...no words can describe what this means to me, my family, my art and where it has led me to..." http://pacartsas.com/index.htm

THE PACKER|

SYDNEY APRIL/MAY 08

After sell out seasons at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, New Zealand and Melbourne, it’s Sydney’s turn to be captivated by the critically acclaimed New Zealand play THE PACKER with its debut at the Old Fitzroy Theatre. This one-man show again features the extraordinary performance of JAY RYAN, under the skilful new direction of JEREMY LINDSAY TAYLOR.

Award-winning New Zealand playwright Dianna Fuemana’s story about Shane, a white trash westie, takes place over a dramatic 24 hours in his suburban life, the audience embarking on a roller coaster ride with 8 different characters, including his gin-addled Australian mother Joyce, wannabe wigger mate Brad, annoying ex-girlfriend Charlene and the beautiful Niue Island girl, Pina. This night will change Shane forever.

Set in West Auckland, THE PACKER transcends location and showcases the contemporary world where cultures blend, racial intolerance comes to the forefront, insecurities are exploited and the family ties that bind us often cause the greatest destruction.

Full of twists and turns, queers and queens, westies and wannabes, this show returns theatre to what it was always meant to be. Refreshing, stimulating, innovative and captivating. A dynamic script, a thrilling performance and tight direction combine to make THE PACKER one of the must-see plays of 2008.

Chester Productions presents

THE PACKER

by Dianna Fuemana Directed by Jeremy Lindsay Taylor Performed by Jay Ryan

Venue: Old Fitzroy Theatre | Cnr Cathedral and Dowling Sts, Woolloomooloo Dates: 22 April to 10 May 2008 Times: Tuesday to Saturday 8pm Sunday 5pm Bookings: www.rocksurfers.org or 1300 GET TIX

SYDNEY MORNING HERALD REVIEW

Stephen Dunne, reviewer

April 17, 2008 Shane is a packer, someone who stacks boxes for the greater glory of industry and knows exactly how many bubbles you get in every metre of bubble wrap.

He lives in Auckland with his submerged-in-gin Australian mother, Joyce. His mate Brad tries to avoid being straight out of New Zealand by pretending he's straight out of Compton.

Shane also has hip-hop ambitions, but Brad's inability to tell speed from crystal methamphetamine makes a break-out nightclub performance teeth-grindingly unlikely.

There's an ex-girlfriend called Charlene, who can't understand why they broke up, but Shane has prospects with the attractive Niue woman Pina, who's just moved next door with her father, Tale.

Minor characters include a lustful Indian taxi driver and a fabulous trannie prostitute prepared to defend her hard-won equality via chases and vandalising the car of the oppressors.

In Dianna Fuemana's play, directed by Jeremy Lindsay Taylor, Jay Ryan plays everyone. The physical and character differentiation is simple, rigorous and snappily fast, whether it's Shane with his hands stuck in his armpits, Joyce with staggering fag and glass, Tale's arms folded with shoulders back or Pina's dropped shoulder and hanging arm.

It's a beautifully skilful and enormously pleasurable performance; a bleak and satisfying comedy of ambition, hopelessness and frenetic urban culture. And Fuemana's one night out in Auckland is wonderfully written - is there a more archetypal line in contemporary New Zealand theatre than Brad's "Bro man, it's the bro's bro"?

SYDNEY ARTS JOURNO REVIEW

Tuesday, 29 April 2008 Review: The Packer The Packer by Dianna Fuemana Tamarama Rock Surfers and Chester Productions

The ‘monologue’ can be one of the most beautiful forms of theatre writing. Indeed, most of the great playwrights of the last century have tried their hand at creating a world from the mouth of a single actor.

But somewhere in the 1990’s the form fell out of fashion in Sydney’s theatres, most particularly within the edgier and more experimental independent sector.

Tragically this was for one very simple reason – when you are trying to create money, larger casts almost always equals larger box office.

So it is with absolute joy that the Old Fitzroy Theatre have programmed Dianna Fuemana’s brilliant ‘The Packer’ as part of their new ’08 season.

Set in Auckland, this monologue performed by Jay Ryan takes us to the fringe of suburbia with all its eclecticism, strangeness, drama and hilarity.

Resting on the character of Shane, a young man about town, we start the journey at his alcoholic mother’s house. We meet the new islander neighbour and his beautiful daughter, Shane’s hip-hop Maori mates and the inner city crowd on a big Saturday night.

It’s a simple enough story that would not be as affective if played by separate actors for each of the characters. In the hands of the astonishingly diverse Jay Ryan, however, this is one of the best nights in the theatre so far this year.

The story has all the colour and bright lights of a good Kings Cross tale with taxi drivers, transvestites, flirtation, sex and drugs with Ryan shifting back-and-forth between characters and scenes with pure agility

It’s fitting that this play should have its Australian premiere in Sydney’s famous red light district. The monologue may be set in Auckland but it has a universal inner city appeal that deserves standing ovations like it received on opening night.

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