Chamber Music New Zealand supergroup Elixir served up a smorgasbord of songs yesterday at the lunchtime launch of acts at the Southern Lakes Festival of Colour.
Wanaka's Festival of Colour sparked into life on the lakefront yesterday morning with the opening of Pouwhenua - Billboards: Markers on the Land.
Aaron Blackledge
Aaron Blackledge (19) dreams of going to Toi Whakaari, New Zealand Drama School, but missed the last intake of 10 students, so he is using his first year out of school to gain more performing arts experience. He talks to Wanaka reporter Marjorie Cook.
Q: What are you doing for the Festival of Colour?
Jennifer Ward-Lealand
Actress Jennifer Ward-Lealand and pianist Michael Houstoun are tasked with bringing alive the character of painter Rita Angus and the music of her lover, composer Douglas Lilburn, in Dave Armstrong's new multi-media production.
Marjorie Cook reports.
Q: Tell me about Rita and whether you enjoy playing her?
Wanaka's culture vultures were hovering with nervous anticipation yesterday as they put the finishing touches to the 2011 Festival of Colour.
The two men tasked with pulling together the 37-event, $800,000 Festival of Colour in Wanaka this week are confident they have a recipe for ongoing success.
Sara Brodie laughs as she tells a story on her youthful self. "When I was 4 years old I was watching my father rehearse for Salad Days and on the way home I was telling him off for not following the script, the director or standing stage centre, where he was supposed to be. And I also taught him the box step, because he was hopeless at it," she said.
The Lakes District gets festive this month with the biennial Festival of Colour, a six-day region-wide celebration of the arts from April 12-17.
A red thread links the works of 13 Central Otago fibre artists who are collaborating for an exhibition in Wanaka during the Festival of Colour in April.
Queenstown and Glenorchy residents will be able to enjoy musical, dance and theatrical shows in their home towns when the Festival of Colour expands from Wanaka to the Wakatipu.
Wanaka's Festival of Colour will reach out to include Queenstown next year, as the major Central Otago arts event seeks to keep building its reputation after almost a decade of success.
Festival of Colour director Philip Tremewen says his appointment to head the troubled Christchurch Arts Festival will not clash with his duties to the growing Wanaka arts event he helped launch in 2005.
Journalist Christina Lamb, the newly appointed US editor for 'The Sunday Times', signs one of her books at the Festival of Colour in Wanaka yesterday. Photo by Marjorie Cook.
In some places in Afghanistan, women have been tortured or killed for reading books, writing poetry or attending a gathering of literary enthusiasts.
But what if the same women came together to sew? And what if they did not actually sew, but read books, wrote poems and took lessons in literature?
While Wanaka residents showed off their French flair at the Festival of Colour, yesterday, it is the response to shows taking place outside the resort which has also delighted organisers.
Wanaka proudly flew French colours yesterday to mark the premiere of Le Sud, a play by Wellington writer Dave Armstrong, at the Festival of Colour.
Festival of Colour highlight Le Sud brings its Gallic take on an alternate New Zealand reality to Wanaka tonight, with resort residents and audience members being urged to go French for the occasion.
Sometimes getting lost is the best way to find yourself, and running away to sea is one of the best ways to get lost.
One upon a time, there was an old dog who actually wanted to learn new tricks.
Dunedin musician and filmmaker Wiebke Hendry vividly recalls her first public performance at age 11. She sang the 1977 Kansas hit song, Dust In The Wind.
Glenorchy will host theatrical and musical performers of national calibre when the Festival Of Colour plays in the township for the first time next year.