Andrea Ariel reports on attending the Brazilian Magdalena Festival in July 2010.

On July 12th, at Auckland Airport, with ALFONSINA packed in a few bags and a team of six of us ready to embark on a 47 hour plane ride to Brazil, I could not help thinking back to the day when Pedro Ilgenfritz invited me to start a theatre company with him and two more actors, both women. Back then, VÉRTICE was only a dream goal.

The second of three one-day Gatherings for 2010 will be held on Sunday 29 August, 9am-10pm, at the Berhampore School Hall in Wellington.

The theme is "Art & Practice" and there is an exciting line-up of presenters. Lunch will be a shared pot-luck meal, and we'll go to a local cafe for dinner before reconvening for the traditional, legendary, not-to-be-missed open mic cabaret extravaganza closing concert in the evening.

Watch this great documentary about Red Mole on NZ On Screen (in 6 parts of about 7 mins long each):

Issue 35 (April 2010) of the Magdalena Aotearoa newsletter is now in the letterboxes of those who subscribe to the hardcopy, and available to download as a PDF from this web site.

You're invited to a Magdalena Aotearoa Networking Party!
Monday 1 February 2010, from 7pm-10pm
Newtown Hall, Daniel St., Wellington

RSVP online here: http://www.magdalenaaotearoa.org.nz/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=8

The Networking Party is an evening of networking and information sharing - come and learn what the Magdalena Aotearoa Trust and the Magdalena Project are all about, and network with other theatre practitioners and artists. We'll provide some drinks & nibbles (contributions to the refreshments are welcome).

Saturday began with a Randai demonstration by Megan Collins & dancers Bronwyn, Linda and Lutu. Randai is a dance form from the Minang region of West Sumatra, & involves wearing pants that are sort of like a long skirt, with a fold of material between your legs that is slapped percusively. After the demonstration, we got to put on the pants & learn one dance, which involved clapping, thigh slapping, & flap-slapping as well as lots of "hoop!" & "hos!" calls which was pretty hard to do at the same time as remembering the moves & trying not to collide with others. Good exercise & good fun!

This morning after the training we had a discussion/workshop about writing about our work. We talked about the different ways of writing (reviews, feedback, etc) & places to publish (web sites, newsletters, magazines, etc), & about writing as a means to continue the conversations & exchange that takes place at the Gathering. we talked quite a lot about reviewing - how no-one wants to do it & it is difficult to do. what makes a good review? how do you start? we then took 15 minutes to all write a short review of the last performance that we'd seen, & read them out & 'reviewed the reviews'.

Right now we are launching this brand new spunky web site, our online database and - finally! - our own domain name, magdalenaaotearoa.org.nz. here are some photos of us celebrating this auspicious event. because it is good friday and we have been too busty (for our shirts) finishing the web site to think about details such as the launch, we have had one bottle of a very fruity strawberry bubbles (that's one bottle between seven drinkers). however we are still manaaging to have quite a good time & make lots of typos : )

This evening our third Gathering got underway - Recharge: The Gathering 2009. The Gathering is a platform for showing work-in-progress, and getting constructive criticism from our colleagues, peers, friends, etc. It is about coming together through our work, sharing & exchanging, and ultimately about nurturing the development of theatre work through sharing the process. Too often we struggle away, working in relative isolation; but as theatre work is ultimately presented to an audience, there is much to be gained from presenting work-in-progress to an audience.