Fringe theatre festival

Press, 15 January 1985, Page 7

Fringe theatre festival

A festival of fringe theatre will be held at the Arts Centre, next month, featuring New Zealand and international artists. The festival will include workshops with teachers involved in playback theatre, clown, mime, psychodrama, dance, puppetry and music.

There will be lunch-time performances with the opportunity for people to try fire-eating, juggling, tightrope walking, unicycling, stilt walking and theatre make-up. The six-day festival, which will begin on February 18, has been organised

in association with several of the performers. Teachers at the workshops will include Ira Seidenstein, an Aucklandbased artist and clown; Richard von Sturma and Charlotte Wrightson, of Humanimals theatre group; Jonathon Acorn, a clown, jester and puppeteer, Martin and Marilyn Sutcliffe, of Auckland Playback Theatre; Michael Lynch of Nelson who performs as River, an itinerant fool; Shiven, a German clown of Akaroa; Godfrey Sim, actor and mime artist; and Biddy Grant, a performer, director and

teacher of Christchurch. They will be joined by Bridget Brandon, co-direc-tor of the Sydney-based Drama Action Centre and Romni Cash, of Hawaii, who began a career as a clown and storyteller when she was 50. “The teachers have some essential things in common,” said Michael Lynch, one of the organisers. “All of them have found their lives immeasurably enriched by their personal involvement with theatre and all of them have endeavoured to share the benefits and insights they have

gained from their experience on stage and in workshops.” The festival will end with two outdoor evening performances on February 22 and 23. From 7 p.m. to midnight on these nights all the teachers and invited guest performers will be on stage in the main quadrangle of the Arts Centre.

Anyone interested in attending the workshops can obtain further information from the Arts Centre. The fee for 20 hours of tuition during the festival is $lOO.