KIA ORA KHALID
HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO CALL A PLACE HOME?
Date and Time: Sat 14 March, 7pm / Sat 21 March, 2pm & 7pm
Venue: The Opera House
Price: $16.50 per person
Age: 8 years and up
Duration: 55mins
About the performance
Billed as one of the hottest Festival tickets of 2009, Kia Ora Khalid dazzles and surprises. This heart-warming production explores migration stories across Aotearoa, looking at what it means to be called a kiwi, through a child’s eyes and with a child’s honesty. Join us for a musical journey that crosses continents and discover that you don’t have to look far to find the refugee story in all of us.
With a score by acclaimed composer Gareth Farr, a story by award-winning playwright Dave Armstrong, and bringing together a cast that includes a children’s choir, this production is a feast for the senses.
“It’s great to see children’s theatre of this calibre…creating quality theatre for young people that celebrates New Zealand.” The Listener
Want to know more?
Kia ora Khalid was commissioned by the National Theatre for Children to explore the affect that migration to another country has on children. The company has been developing the work over a two year period collaborating with award winning composer Gareth Farr playwright Dave Armstrong, and Sara Brodie as Director.
The show takes place over a lunch hour in a New Zealand school, where we meet Tom, a pakeha boy, who has a bit of a mouth that he can't control, Trang, a first generation Cambodian New Zealander Serena a Samoan migrant and ever the diplomat, and Khalid, an Afghani that arrived in New Zealand via the Nauru island detention camp.
The work explores these children’s family stories, revealing that you don’t have to go far back in any New Zealand family tree to find the refugee story in all of us. As part of the development process for this production workshops were held with students in Wellington and Auckland, which has helped to inform the storylines.
Running alongside the work on stage has been an online living learning resource that will be housed on the following Wikispace webpage: www.refugeestories.wikispaces.com
The people behind the performance
GARETH FARR is recognised as one of New Zealand's most important composers. Gareth studied composition, orchestration and electronic music at Auckland University and was a regular player with the Auckland Philharmonia and the Karlheinz Company. Further study followed at Victoria University, Wellington, where he became known for his exciting compositions, often using the Indonesian gamelan. He played frequently as part of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra before going to the Eastman School in Rochester, New York, where he graduated Master of Music.
At 25, Gareth became Chamber Music New Zealand's youngest composer-in-residence. Since then, his works have been performed by the NZSO, the Auckland Philharmonia, the Wellington Sinfonia, the New Zealand String Quartet and a variety of other professional musicians. In addition to his music for the concert chamber, Gareth has written music for dance, theatre and television.
Find out more about Gareth Farr’s work, awards and recordings at www.sounz.org.nz .
DAVE ARMSTRONG Wellington writer Dave Armstrong has written extensively for screen and stage – he won Best New New Zealand Play in two consecutive years at the Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards for The Tutor and Niu Sila (co-written with Oscar Knightley). His musical play King and Country has been performed throughout the country and the radio adaptation was highly commended in the 2007 Media Peace Awards.
Dave's television credits include Seven Periods with Mr Gormsby, Bro’town (script editor), The Semisis, Skitz and Shortland Street. He won an AFTA television award for Best Comedy Script for Spin Doctors. Dave is the author of True Colours, about the 1996 general election, and Foodbanquet – a chapter from his upcoming novel The Speechwriter – was selected for the 2007 Six Pack of writing published for New Zealand Book Month. Dave was Writer in Residence at Victoria University of Wellington in 2007.
See Dave Armstrong’s biography at www.playmarket.org.nz .
“A seasoned writer, Armstrong… takes us on life-changing journeys that manifest whole lives, relationships and communities in our imaginations.”