Dancing drums, magic, and multi-media delight will enchant Wairarapa audiences next year as part of the 2010 International Arts Festival.
National and international artists will perform in communities in the wider Wellington region as part of the Festival Art On The Move programme early next year, festival spokeswoman Julia Hughes said.
Arriving
first to Wairarapa on the 2010 festival calendar is the French company Arcosm, who will perform their exhilarating Echoa at Kuranui College in Greytown on March 1 from 7pm.
Ms Hughes said Echoa bring to the stage "dancing drums and the sound of dancers" in a show that features drums of all descriptions mounted on a network of scaffolding.
UK theatre company 1927 are the next to visit Wairarapa on the show programme with their multi-award winning series of comic tales, Between the Devil and Deep Blue Sea, Ms Hughes said.
The regional performance unfolds from 7.30pm at the Masterton Town Hall on March 8 with stunning films, animation, live music, performance and storytelling leading the way through "a hilarious multi-media world", she said.
The enchanted travelling theatre tent of Australian storytellers Stephen Sheehan and Quentin Grant will also be pitched at the Masterton Town Hall on March 12 and 13 for performances of The Tragical Life of Cheeseboy with shows starting at 2pm and 6pm.
"Artists from Australia, the United Kingdom, Africa, India and France will take their music, theatre, dance, and visual arts to Porirua, Upper Hutt, the Kapiti coast, Masterton and the Wairarapa, making it the most extensive programme of international theatre presented by the festival in these communities," festival artistic director Lissa Twomey said.
Festival executive director Sue Paterson said the Major Events Development Fund and the New Zealand Community Trust are major supporters of the Art On The Move programme.
"The Festival's Art on the Move programme is an important part of our commitment to making art and artists accessible to the widest possible audience helped by the New Zealand Community Trust and the New Zealand Major Events Fund," she said.
Tickets are available at Ticketek from November 19 and for Echoa cost $48 for adults and $25 for children; tickets for Between the Devil and Deep Blue Sea cost $45; and tickets for The Tragical Life of Cheeseboy cost $38 for adults and $20 for children.
For more information and festival updates go online to www.nzfestival.nzpost.co.nz.
