Today in New Zealand International Arts Festival history: Aarero Stone (2006), The Winter's Tale & Beautiful Burnout (2012)
A mix of boxing, Shakespeare and dance, today - first a 2006 show, Aarero Stone, featuring Carol Brown and Charles Koroneho at Soundings Theatre in Te Papa. I actually photographed this one over a couple of days' rehearsals as it came together towards opening night - which often happens - but it still stands out in my head for the images that came out of it, this many years later.
Propeller company came over from the UK with two all-male Shakespeare productions in 2012, Henry V and this, The Winter's Tale - really great shows both, and interesting how the casting became normal very quickly in watching them. (Okay, maybe Catherine got some giggles towards the end of Henry V...)
Beautiful Burnout was the second National Theatre of Scotland show to come to the Festival during my tenure, after Black Watch four years earlier; and as with the earlier show, it was marked by a depth of research into the subject. Where Black Watch had us convinced we were watching a platoon of soldiers on duty, this time it turned a group of actors into a gym of boxers, each there for their own reasons.
Both Winter's Tale & Beautiful Burnout were interesting to photograph, partly because (again) I was using my blimp to cover schools performances, rather than closed rehearsals - it does get a lot of use!