Q&A: Charlotte Yates
What can people expect from your show? What do you want people to take away from it?
It’s an intimate concert featuring seven songwriters who have set poems by Katherine Mansfield to their music.
The show weaves through Mansfield’s life in her own words from the savage to the heartbreaking, the viciously sarcastic to the intimately beautiful. I want the audience to come away with renewed delight in the power of Katherine Mansfield’s pen.
What are you most looking forward to about the Tauranga Arts Festival?
A cracking good time in the Carrus Crystal Palace - what a very cool venue to present a show, down on Tauranga’s waterfront.
What’s an interesting fact about yourself?
A band I used to play in (When the Cat’s Been Spayed) has just been incorporated (well, the name at least) in a new stained glass window at Makara’s St Patrick’s Church, along with Phar Lap. Never ever did I expect this to occur.
What led you to where you are in your career today?
What were extracurricular interests superseded my first career choice. It was a case of meeting like minds and making stuff up together, initially for the love of it. Over time, writing, performing and recording music continues to be a multifaceted and fruitful way of life. It’s joining the circus.
What is your proudest moment when it comes to your craft?
Anytime an idea comes to fruition. There’s a lot that doesn’t.
What advice do you have for other creatives, young and old?
If you don’t have a bunch of folks around you who support whatever creative practice brings you profound pleasure, leave that room immediately. Put yourself in environments where what you do matters. Spend more time making your work than talking about it.
And in the words of Katherine Mansfield, “Risk. Risk anything. Care no more for the opinions of others, for those voices. Do the hardest thing on earth for you. Act for yourself. Face the truth.”
Mansfield: In her own words (Unplugged)
When: October 27, 8pm
Show time: 60 minutes.
Where: Carrus Crystal Palace, The Strand.
Tickets: $45-$50, available at taurangafestival.co.nz.
Festival information
There are eight free and community events throughout the festival. Bookings for ticketed events can be made at Baycourt, through the festival’s website or via Ticketek.
Live music will be at Carrus Crystal Palace; theatre and comedy will be at Baycourt; and authors and thinkers at the University of Waikato Tauranga Campus and Books-A-Plenty.
The Cargo Shed will host several free events, including Tai Timu, Tai Pari, which provide a platform for local artists, Zinefest and a hip-hop street dance workshop and battle.
Tauranga Art Gallery will present Wunderboxes — an interactive art trail for all ages — as well as The Mermaid Chronicles 2.0 exhibition at the POP UP gallery at 42 Devonport Rd.
A walkable arts precinct has also been established.
Carrus Crystal Palace is a licensed venue and some events have age recommendations.
The Bay of Plenty Times is a gold sponsor of the Tauranga Arts Festival.
Cira Olivier is a social issues and breaking news reporter for NZME Bay of Plenty. She has been a journalist since 2019.
