Dione Joseph

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Dione Joseph is a writer, director and dramaturge. She has an academic and practical background in live performance and her work has an emphasis on culturally and linguistically diverse communities.
Over the past ten years she has directed a range of productions including new dramas by contemporary writers, classics and their adaptations, experimental works, musicals, comedies and community-based theatre productions in the USA, New Zealand and Australia. She has also been active as a stage critic for both dance and theatre and has engaged with a variety of topical issues as an arts journalist.
Dione has also held various residencies and fellowships in the UK, China, Mexico, Canada and the USA and is the recipient of numerous awards for theatre including the Lorna Stirling Theatre Award (2012), a Creative Young Stars Australian government grant (2013), the Ian Potter Cultural Trust Award (2013) and has been invited twice as a guest scholar and Artist in Residence to the University of Saskatchewan (2014/15).
She is the first New Zealander to have been awarded a place at the prestigious Lincoln Centre directors’ lab in New York (2014) and was the only New Zealand critic to have been shortlisted for the Allen Wright media award at Edinburgh Fringe Festival (2014). In the past Dione has been a senior theatre critic at Australian Stage, arts editor at Melbourne City Newspaper and features writer at Aussie Theatre.
Currently based in Aotearoa New Zealand, Dione writes for Theatreview, The Big Idea, DANZ (Dance Aotearoa NZ) and her reviews can also be found on Radio NZ. 

Dione Joseph's reviews

A MIDSUMMER NIGHTS DREAM

Auckland

07/12/2017 - 27/02/2018

"Enchanting entertainment for a midsummer night..

"Bi-cultural dream full of comic energy..

SISTER ACT The Musical

Auckland

25/11/2017 - 16/12/2017

"Actors shine as Sister Act takes to stage..

"Nun better as an end-of year tonic..

MAGICIANS

Wellington, Palmerston North, New Plymouth, Auckland

19/10/2017 - 04/11/2017

"Slick acts generate entertaining show..

"An alluring challenge to sceptics..

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TE PUHI

Auckland

13/06/2017 - 17/06/2017

"Te Puhi definitely a beauty..

"Chuckles and tears for a different time..

TIKI TAANE MAHUTA 2017

Dunedin, Tauranga, Wellington, Napier, Hamilton, Auckland

22/05/2017 - 16/06/2017

"Immensely powerful..

"A rich evocation..

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IN TRANSIT

Auckland

04/05/2017 - 13/05/2017

"Moving drama shows we are all in transit..

"Entertainingly revealing..

AWA: When Two Rivers Collide

Auckland

25/03/2017 - 25/03/2017

"Journey across an extraordinary bilingual aural landscape..

"Cross-fertilisation of cultural forms in multi-layered storytelling..

CARMEN with L'ARLESIENNE

Christchurch, Dunedin, Palmerston North, Wellington, Auckland

16/02/2017 - 22/03/2017

"Carmen and L'Arlésienne shouldn't be missed..

"Power of Petit..

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HORROR

Auckland

21/03/2017 - 26/03/2017

"Stage frights a little too stock horror..

"Here’s Johnny (and other references)..

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iD - CIRQUE ÉLOIZE (CANADA)

Auckland

08/03/2017 - 12/03/2017

"Circus arts light up concrete jungle..

"A playful, surprising, exciting spectacle..

HENRY V (Pop-Up Globe 2017)

Auckland

28/02/2017 - 07/05/2017

"The fullest theatre experience of a lifetime..

"Janitor opens door to high drama Henry..

deVine

Whangarei, Auckland, Kerikeri

07/02/2017 - 18/02/2017

"Twisted Sisters..

"Characters scarily accurate and human..

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Sau E Siva Company presents Lalelei

Auckland

08/12/2016 - 15/12/2016

"An aesthetic that defies conventional categories..

FRESH 2016

Auckland

05/10/2016 - 07/10/2016

"Creative thinking and a strong narrative evident in all five pieces..

"Emerging works in a diversity of genres..

SONGS FOR THE FALLEN

Auckland, Nelson, Havelock North, Dunedin

28/09/2016 - 13/10/2016

"Formidable team keeps up incredible pace..

"Helter-skelter spiral from abandonment..

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SHOT BRO – Confessions of a Depressed Bullet

Auckland, Wellington, Tauranga, Kaikohe, Wairarapa, Dunedin, Invercargill

09/06/2016 - 09/05/2019

"Confronting and hard but also a safe space in which to explore the ugly realities of mental health..

"Funny, powerful, demanding..

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BOYS WILL BE BOYS

Auckland

08/09/2016 - 24/09/2016

"Swimming with the Sharks..

"A searing interrogation of value systems..

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THE ABSURDITY OF HUMANITY

New Plymouth, Auckland, Christchurch, Wellington

24/08/2016 - 20/09/2017

"From the jocular to the jugular and beyond.....

"Poignant moments of tenderness..

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VENUS IN FUR

Auckland

20/08/2016 - 18/09/2016

"Theatrically Stimulating..

"Kinky costumes steam up stage..

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HIPPOLYTUS VEILED

Auckland

16/08/2016 - 20/08/2016

"Highly stylised melodrama..

"Accessible, contemporary and relevant..

HEALR

Auckland

09/08/2016 - 06/10/2018

"Self-healing resolves in graceful provocation and sensuous unconcern..

"An intriguing exploration of the concept of wellbeing..

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THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME

Auckland

23/07/2016 - 14/08/2016

"Killed the Cat..

"A Star is Born..

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