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UPU: Inside the Rehearsal Room
"It has a way of weaving into your soul."
Check out the UPU aiga as they breathe life into poetry from around Oceania in the rehearsal room.
Curated by award-winning poet Grace Taylor and led by powerhouse director Fasitua Amosa, UPU gives the stage to Oceania’s most electrifying poetry.
Ben Brown, Karlo Mila, Albert Wendt and more: UPU celebrates our Oceanic trailblazers, the icons and the new writers transforming Aotearoa today.
We spoke to UPU curator Grace Taylor -
Why is Pacific spoken word unique?
UPU isn't a spoken word poetry show in the way we know it in the current contemporary sense (of which i have been very involved in). Rather UPU is the performance by an established cast of published and well loved/klknown Pasifika and Maori writers.
UPU utlises all the technical elements of theatre to bring these poems to life. Knowing that the oral storytelling is not new within our ocean, and UPU provides an offering of an evolved dynamic oratory storytelling by our people.
All the poems were selected based on key theses we pulled from legadary essays by Tongan scholar Epeli Hau'ofa OUR SEA OF ISLANDS and Albert Wendt's TOWARDS A NEW OCEANIA.
Mia Blake
Ana Corbett
Nicola Kawana
Nathaniel Lees
Shadon Meredith
Jarod Rawiri
Gaby Solomona
UPU opens tomorrow night click here to buy tickets
UPU / 5–15 March / Q Theatre – Rangatira Co-produced by Silo Theatre and Auckland Arts Festival Book Now at qtheatre.co.nz