Pork and Poll Taxes, PAT and Hand Pulled Collective’s co-production in development helmed by creator/director Talia Pua, has kicked off with a series of workshops.
Pork and Poll taxes explores family sacrifice and displacement and the ties that hold Chinese immigrants together in 1800’s New Zealand. Focussing on movement and form, the first workshop at Kete Aronui looked at moments of heightened reality that can be explored with movement and chorus.
First time playwright Talia Pua reflected on the process so far; “These last few months being in script development has been such a crazy and amazing learning experience - something I never thought was possible when we started at the beginning of the year with Natalya (Hand Pulled Producer). I’m feeling amazed at what’s been accomplished, but also immensely grateful for everyone that’s come on board - PAT have been such great mentors for us and have really taken this project beyond anything we’ve imagined - and all of the support we’ve received from the community - which has been really surprising and heartwarming to know how much people support the project, from the participants in the workshops to creatives that have contributed all their mahi to this work.”
The next round of development is supported by Asian Ink, a play market development initiative. Looking to the next phase, Talia says:
“I’m excited to see how the project will grow, and to collaborate with a whole bunch of new creatives across design and cast - daunting but nonetheless exciting! Questions I have moving forward are around characters - how do I develop them to create a full picture, a multi-faceted picture of the experience of many Chinese immigrant families? What is the message I’m trying to say, and what do I want it to do to the audience - not just in terms of playwrighting, but asking the questions with my directors hat on as we move forward, looking at production in 2021.”
Thank you to the generous support of the Chinese Poll Tax Heritage Trust and Creative New Zealand for the first phase of writing and movement workshops.
Check out these gorgeous images by John Rata below!
Participants: Yin-Chi Lee, movement director, with movement artists Josh Tan, Deliliah Lin, Jess Hong, Deborah Fletcher and Joanne Chun.
