Wakapurei 2012 - Rough, Raw Ready - Have Car Will Travel

Hekama Creative is pleased to announce the inaugural Rough, Raw and Ready showcase as part of Wakapurei 2012, running from Monday 25 June to Saturday 30 June 2012 at the Basement Theatre in Auckland.

Wakapurei is a collaboration between the Tamaki Makaurau Matariki Festival Trust, Banana Boat Charitable Trust and Hekama Creative.

Rough, Raw and Ready is a showcase of six semi-staged readings of plays by new and established Māori and Pasifika artists.

Have Car Will Travel
By Mitch Tawhi Thomas
A darkly funny and menacing road play, this is a cross between Pulp Fiction and Wild at Heart, modern Maori let loose on an unsuspecting audience. We follow Brian and Diane, drugged up and sleep deprived as they attempt to beat the sun on their way to a dance party.

Actors:
Chris Molloy
Josephine Stewart Te Whiu
Cameron Douglas

Director :
Dena Kennedy

Starts 6.30pm
Koha entry

Mitch has spent most of his life living in Wellington, and all of his plays to date – Coupling (1994), Doughboy (1996), Take it or Leave it (1998), Have Car Will Travel (2001), Jangle (2010) have been performed at BATS Theatre.

In 2010 Mitch led the Basement Programme at Centrepoint Theatre in Palmerston North where he spent the year teaching drama workshops to teenagers and wrote and directed the play Smashed. In 2002 Mitch received the Bruce Mason Playwrights Award. In 2003 Mitch was appointed writer in residence at Waikato University. Graduating as an acting student from Toi Whakaari NZ Drama School in 1997, Mitch has also had experience storylining for television and helped write the first series for a primetime MTS drama. Mitch is currently writing his next full length play for the stage, Hui.

Wakapurei 2012 - Rough, Raw & Ready programme:
Monday 25 June - Raw Men by Whiti Hereaka (Ngati Tuwharetoa, Arawa);
Tuesday 26 June - A Heart's Path by Suli Moa (Tonga);
Wednesday 27 June - Shot Bro by Rob Mokaraka;
Thursday 28 June - Daddy's Girl by Rena Owen;
Friday 29 June - My Mother Dreaming by Dianna Fuemana (Niue/Samoa);
Saturday 30 June - Have Car Will Travel by Mitch Tawhi Thomas (Ngati Maniapoto).