WAKE UP TOMORROW
Te Whaea - Basement Theatre, 11 Hutchison Rd, Newtown, Wellington
26/03/2014 - 29/03/2014
Production Details
This exciting new work showcases the collective talents of new theatre makers and collaborative mentors in a unique theatre performance that examines our perceptions and expectations of young people with an intellectual impairment.
Created by Everybody Cool Lives Here in collaboration with ACTIVE (part of IDEA Services), Wake Up Tomorrow, showing at Te Whaea: Dance & Drama Centre in March, promises to be a compelling adventure that encourages audiences to embrace the potential of imagination and to take a leap of faith into the unknown.
Wake Up Tomorrow fuses narrative and surreal performance styles, juxtaposed with moments of truthful comedy. A smorgasbord of theatrical disciplines, this empowering new work inspires participants and audiences alike to explore, embrace and share their fantasy worlds and creative journeys.
On a long haul flight our minds often drift off into a space of suspended time and reality.
Wake Up Tomorrow is one man’s journey within a journey, as he travels through liminal space and learns more about himself. The Basement Theatre at Te Whaea: Dance & Drama Centre will be transformed into a world of unexpected encounters and challenges that provide the perfect platform from which to explore the themes of the play. The show blends performance languages, with each chapter crafted to showcase the passion and creativity of the young people involved. The audience will find themselves transported to a world where characters ebb and flow through their journeys, creating unexpected emotional and physical dynamics.
Expect a theatrical collage that culminates in a turbulent, welcoming exploration of possibility and what it means to be a part of this very special community in contemporary Aotearoa New Zealand.
Wake Up Tomorrow is directed by Sherilee Kahui as part of the Master of Theatre Arts (Directing) programme, co-taught by Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Drama School and Victoria University of Wellington.
WAKE UP TOMORROW
The Basement Theatre, Te Whaea: National Dance & Drama Centre
11 Hutchison Road, Newtown, Wellington
DATES: 26 – 29 March, 2014
TIME: 7:30pm (50 minutes)
TICKETS: Full: $20; Concession: $10
TO BOOK: www.toiwhakaari.ac.nz
Cast:
DUNCAN ARMSTRONG – Nathan
DAVID CREE – Chef Cookie Camsey / Car driver
JACOB DOMBROWSKI – Farmer
AXEL EVANS – Diva / Skips
TESS FRANCIS – Old Lady / Lovely Assistant / Queen Mother
ADRIAN GORDON – Pilot (voice over) / Mayor of Behave Town
STEVIE HANCOX-MONK – Air hostess
MICHAEL HEBENTON – Chicken / Diva / Shop Customer
ROSE KIRKUP – Gazza
NIC LANE – Security / Megaphone Head
CATHERINE MCBRIDE – Diva / Timaru Goat
CAITLIN PAMPLONE – Chicken / Shop Girl (Sarah)
JANIECE POLLOCK – Chicken / Autocue / Shop Customer
NICK SMITH - Fish /Amelia Thomas / Nicky Maylor
SHAFIQ SOS – Opening ceremony cameo
AIDAN WEEKES – Fish / Director/ Shop Girl / Commentator
KWAME WILLIAMS – Diva / Spy Fox / Olympian
Crew:
LUCIE CAMP – Production & Stage Manager
SHERILEE KAHUI – Director & Co-producer
ROSE KIRKUP – Production Designer & Active Coordinator
STACI KNOX – Lighting Designer & Operator
NIC LANE – Co-producer
ROWAN PIERCE – Graphic Designer / Sound Designer & Operator
JIMMY SUTCLIFFE - Costume & Props Maker
NELL WILLIAMS – Costume & Props Maker
Theatre ,
50mins
Delightful and lots of fun
Review by Jacob Brown 08th Apr 2014
When I ask director Sherilee Kahui what her show Wake Up Tomorrow is about, it takes her less than a moment to say, “Just watch it – it’s tricky to say.” I do, and I find myself with the same problem. But this is a review, so I have to try.
Devised in collaboration with Everybody Cool Lives Here and Active (an IDEA Service’s group for youths with intellectual disabilities), the show is a series of zany vignettes that explore the potential of dreams and imagination, specifically those that drift into the mind of a young man named Nathan (Duncan Armstrong) on a particularly unusual long-haul flight.
The mundane routines of the flight are the catalysts for these vignettes – things like the standard “chicken or fish?” question become a chance to see hens dolling themselves up for a night on the town and a group of fish plotting to drag a fisherman down with them.
The use of projected illustrations as backdrops and colourful, larger-than-life props create a charming storybook world and offer some brilliant surrealist imagery – a dictatorial man with a megaphone as a head is a personal highlight for me.
The cast do a fantastic job at creating characters and scenes we could have fun with, but there are occasional moments where the energy is inconsistent. This means that the parts of the show that involve audience interaction, which should be a chance to bounce the energy back-and-forth, do not completely take off (hardy har). I think this can be forgiven though since the programme tells me there are a few first-time actors here.
Wake Up Tomorrow is cute, delightful and lots of fun. It is also an example of the sorts of youth community projects I would like to see more of. It sure is a hell of a lot cooler than the lame pantomimes I acted in when I was younger.
Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer
Compelling, surreal and funny
Review by Jarrod Baker 01st Apr 2014
Before Wake Up Tomorrow begins, audience members are shepherded towards the theatre by attendants in hi-viz vests. We’re greeted at the door – or rather the boarding gate – by flight attendants, who take our tickets and usher us inside. We’re now passengers on Active Airlines.
Wake Up Tomorrow was created and devised by young people involved with Active, a service for 17-25 year olds with intellectual disabilities, in collaboration with local theatre practitioners. Produced for the Master of Theatre Arts programme co-taught by Toi Whakaari and Victoria University, the play uses the setting of a long-haul flight as a jumping-off point to creatively explore numerous fantasy worlds. [More]
Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer
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John Smythe April 8th, 2014
I have no problem perceiving the premise of the production and its title. Wake Up Tomorrow captures the half-dream state the brain can slip into when we are trapped in a plane on a long-haul flight. Moments of mundane reality morph into surreal extrapolations: a clever convention that almost justifies anything and everything that occurs in whatever way it happens. An absolutely ‘fit for purpose’ production.