We are really stoked to announce that our Company in Residence for 2020 is Tuatara Collective!
Tuatara Collective is a new company, bringing artists together to collaborate and turn our own Aotearoa stories into art. Our voice, our music, and our dance is most powerful when our hearts are entwined in the roots of the work. Tuatara Collective will produce and present art to the general public, communities and schools, locally, nationally and internationally. All projects are expected to have relevant themes that will provide the basis for community workshops to facilitate kōrero.
They have also developed Rātā, an innovative arts practice supporting mental health in the arts industry (for artists and audiences). The highly-acclaimed Māori play Over My Dead Body: LITTLE BLACK BITCH by Jason Te Mete was the first project to launch this initiative. Engaging professional health services to work alongside and collaborate with artists is a core value of Tuatara Collective, and this new practice will inform the kaupapa and work they create and present. Once artists and audiences alike have support within the spaces where they experience art, the quality of work will be elevated, improving community and audience engagement and participation.
Tuatara Collective has formed an industry partnership with Manukau Institute of Technology to teach out the remaining students of the disestablished Bachelor of Creative Arts (Performing Arts). The first two projects during their engagement as Company in Residence will showcase these vibrant, talented Pasifika rangatahi.
The collective have two works in our Basement Reunited season - FIAFIA, and a graduate show to be announced later in the year.