In this class, one is a pass mark

By MELANYA BURROWS


Go Solo is the future of New Zealand theatre, pared to the bone in a series of monologues by final-year students at Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Drama School.

The students research, devise and perform their monologues, making them creators, writers, directors and actors.

They have strict constraints - the works must be 15-20 minutes long; costumes, props and set pieces must fit into a car boot and cost no more than $50; and the work must be about a New Zealand or Pacific Rim entity. It is the biggest individual project in the students' three-year course.

"It's very rare these days for an audience to experience theatre at its bare-bones best," says Jude Gibson, the actor, director and drama tutor who is the students' mentor and sounding-board.

"This is one person, alone, telling a story, relying solely on their body, voice, imagination and acting skills. This is a really inspiring thing to be involved with. You get to see a whole range of individual ideas about what makes compelling theatre.

"You also see the emerging talent, and you get to see some great stories - there are so many to be found in New Zealand and we still don't see our own experiences and personalities on stage enough."

The monologues have been an annual event since 1989. In the 15 years the programme has been running, students have turned the spotlight on cultural icons from Richard Hadlee and Split Enz to Alison Holst, social events including the 1951 waterfront strike and the Springbok tour, and their friends and families.

Subjects this year include a personification of Mt Tarawera, Samoan tattoo artist Su'a Suluape Paulo II, drum'n'bass success story MC Tali, three generations of Chinese women from one family and Buck Shelford.

Vaughan Slinn spent a month in Sydney, sharing a one-room flat with his subject, in preparation for his monologue.

"Shane is an old university friend who went to Sydney and developed a drag act, Joyce Maynge," says Slinn, 24. "Shane is a quiet, private person and Joyce is very public and a very big character.

"Being Joyce is almost squeezing Shane out of his own life. He doesn't meet people socially, because even when he isn't dressed as Joyce, people greet him as her.

"I wanted to explore that - how does a drag queen make a serious connection with someone and start to find a life partner?"

Slinn wanted his monologue to reflect the complexity of his friend's life, and not caricature him. He found Shane had reservations about the monologue while Joyce loved the attention.

TeKohe Tuhaka's subject is no stranger to many Kiwis. Tuhaka's monologue is called Blood, Sweat and Buck.

"I come from a strong rugby background, the family watching all the games, and the Bring Back Buck campaign is one of my clearest childhood memories," says the 22-year-old.

"Buck Shelford always intrigued me as a man with a strong presence, who was a straight talker but also had a good sense of humour. I wanted to get across what made people so passionate about him."

Tuhaka read books and articles about Shelford and his family, and watched his games for the All Blacks, Auckland and North Harbour.

All the material Tuhaka has gathered has convinced him that Blood, Sweat and Buck has the potential to be a full-length play.

Some landmark works of contemporary New Zealand theatre had their beginnings as Toi Whakaari monologues. Two of the most notable are Jacob Rajan's Krishnan's Dairy and Tim Balme's solo piece, The Ballad of Jimmy Costello.

Rajan, serving as moderator for this year's series, says his student work is still recognisable in the current incarnation of Krishnan's Dairy.

"All the bones are there, much the same. All the central themes are there. This time, my job is to give the students feedback.

"This is a very naked experience, very personal and thus very potent. It is all your own, and you can't blame the script or the director or anything if it doesn't work."

Balme's class was the first to do the monologues. His father told him the story of a famous prison break in the 60s, but there was little written on it. Balme spent months trawling through microfilm in library archives.

"I got a bit carried away - it was supposed to be 20 minutes, and mine was 45. Afterwards I realised I could do more with it. It took me quite a while to resurrect it.

"My monologue was in 1989, and it wasn't until 1997 I came back to it because I was busy doing other things.

"But I knew it had a life as a full-length show. Without the monologue I would never had had the confidence to develop it.

"It's a great opportunity to develop your own material in the relatively safe environment of the drama school."

* For a full run-down of the three programmes of 15 monologues, and performance times, see Te Whaea

On stage

* What: Go Solo

* Where and when: Auckland Art Gallery, from today until Saturday