“It was a little bit chaotic,” said Peek. “The room was so small you had to make sure people went to the front first, and you had to be a shepherd really. “And then it was very difficult at the end getting people out. “The audience was very cramped. There were no toilets, so that was really hard too.”
ALDEN WILLIAMS/Stuff
Court Theatre veterans, Gay Peek, left, and Doris Barnard have ushered in 50 years at the Court Theatre. The Court Theatre moved to three venues before settling at the Arts Centre in 1976. After the 2011 Canterbury earthquakes damaged their Arts Centre home, the Court Theatre built a new space in a former grain silo in Addington and reopened in December 2011.
Source: Auckland Council
Auckland Arts Festival/Te Ahurei Toi o Tāmaki (AAF) 2021 features everything from dance to theatre, live music to comedy, visual and digital art, talks and debate, community participation projects and more, with a wide-ranging series of free and ticketed shows, installations and exhibitions designed to unify, uplift and inspire.
The Festival has commissioned world premieres of several new works, resuscitated some that were cancelled in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and will provide employment for over 1,000 artists and 150 production and administration staff.
All 2021 activity falls into three strands related to the overarching theme of Aroha: aroha ki ngā kōrero – the respect we hold for our stories; aroha ki te tangata – kindness, compassion and goodwill toward people; and aroha ki te taiao – our love and care for our natural environment – air, land and water.
Simon Wilson: The amazing return of the Auckland Arts Festival
25 Feb, 2021 04:00 PM
7 minutes to read
OPINION:
What an astonishing thing, that we are about to welcome the return of the Auckland Arts Festival. Covid struck right in the middle of the 2020 festival, cancelling shows, stranding performers, forcing audiences home. Most famously, American singer Amanda Palmer had to cancel, and then holed up for the duration in Hawke s Bay with her daughter and her husband, writer Neil Gaiman. Until Gaiman couldn t cope any longer and found a way to flee to Scotland.
It was dramatic, in its own way, but it wasn t the same as having an actual arts festival.