Organisation Colleagues
Lynda Chanwai-Earle has a background in the arts and public broadcasting. Over the last three decades, Lynda’s award-winning poetry and plays have been published, produced, and toured in festivals here and abroad. Lynda’s ground-breaking one-woman play Ka-Shue (Letters Home) premiered at Circa Theatre in 1996, during the International Festival of the Arts, Wellington as the first authentically Chinese play for mainstream audiences. Ka-Shue (Letters Home) has published and toured internationally.
Lynda represented New Zealand at the inaugural Hong Kong Literary Festival in 2001, the Shanghai Literary Festival in 2005, was Writer in Residence at Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou in 2015, and has been shortlisted three times for the Bruce Mason Playwrights Award. Lynda’s play Man in a Suitcase (SHIFT, Playmarket, 2016) was an international theatre collaboration between The Court Theatre, Christchurch and China, touring to Beijing in 2012.
Lynda’s award-winning play HEAT (BATS/STAB Festival, 2008) was the first play in her Antarctic Theatre Trilogy. HEAT toured arts festivals across Aotearoa (2010-2011) as a world first eco-powered play to perform off-grid (wind/solar) in theatre venues. Touted as "Brilliant!", "Captivating!" and "A call to action!" her second play HOLE (eco-powered drama) had its successful world premiere at Circa Theatre, Wellington, 2021.
Lynda was awarded the prestigious 2019 Writer in Residence at the International Institute of Modern Letters at Victoria University of Wellington.
Organisation/Company
Name: Ice Floe Productions Tapui Ltd
My Role: Executive Producer & Playwright
Ice Floe Productions was set up in 2008 to premiere and tour HEAT, and then produce HOLE, the first and second plays in Lynda's ground-breaking, green-powered Antarctic Theatre Trilogy. Ice Floe Productions Tapui Ltd looks to tour HOLE (an eco-powered drama set in Antarctica) from 2022 onwards.
Lynda's other theatre organisation Ka-Shue Productions Ltd (1996-2008) was created to premiere and tour her ground-breaking theatre piece Ka-Shue (Letters Home). Ka-Shue was adapted to film for broadcast in1998 by Simon Raby, D.O.P., and the education resource kits were distributed to drama teachers in secondary schools across Aotearoa. Ka Shue (Letters Home) was first published by The Women's Play Press in 1998 and is now in its third print with Lynda's play Foh-Sarn (Fire Mountain). The Ka-Shue (Letters Home) publication was prescribed text with NCEA and taught at the Victoria University of Wellington, the University of Auckland, the University of Otago, Waikato University, and the University of Hawai'i at Manoa over the last two decades.
Iwi affiliation
Ngati Hinemana (Poon Yue, Canton, China) and Ngati Pakeha (England, Aotearoa)
Rohe
Both great-grandparents on my Chinese and Pakeha sides of the family arrived and settled in Aotearoa from the late 1880s onwards. Both family trees go back to the 1400s in China and in England. My mother Mayme Chanwai was born in Bak Chuen (North Village), Guandongsang (Canton) and fled to Aotearoa as a child refugee in 1941, escaping the Sino-Japanese invasion. My father Mike Earle was born in Dannevirke, Hawkes Bay. I was born in London and spent my childhood growing up in Papua New Guinea. Both my daughters were born here in Wellington and are of Te Atiawa descent. In 2019 I was the IIML Writer in Residence at Victoria University of Wellington.
How I got where I am today
I have always loved storytelling and have explored this in many different forms across the arts since I was a child. In 1985 I did a B.F.A. at Elam thinking I was going to be an artist, but that changed when I followed my heart in poetry, theatre and film. I worked as a performer, playwright and producer. I spent the last two decades juggling work as a journalist for TVNZ and then RNZ before going back to my first love, theatre. These days I am a self-employed screenwriter/playwright/performer and Executive Producer of Ice Floe Productions Tapui Ltd focusing on the tour of HOLE, and the development of the third play HEART in my eco-powered Antarctic Theatre Trilogy (renewable energy of solar and wind).
Whānau
My two awesome teenage daughters know me as "Ubermum" and are my raison d'être in life.
Something cool
I'm passionate about free-diving and the marine reserve of Taputeranga at my doorstep (I live in Owhiro Bay, Wellington). I have a wicked paua fritter recipe when I get to eco-hunt for kai moana outside of the reserves. I rediscovered my love for playing chess after watching The Queens Gambit on Netflix.
HOLE (eco-powered drama set in Antarctica)
Artform: Theatre
Development Status: HOLE will be tour ready from 2023 onwards. Recasting and remounting/rehearsing is required. HOLE is also available from Playmarket as a production ready Script for interested producers/presenters.
Pitch Video
Media Uploads
Synopsis
In 1985 the world awoke to the discovery of a huge hole in the ozone over Antarctica. One year later, 1986 and its Wild West days at McMurdo Station and Scott Base, a time of big hair, big make-up, and ice-cold wine coolers.
It’s little more than a decade since the US Navy lifted their ban on women travelling to the Ice. Meanwhile Greenpeace, rallying to create the first ‘World Park’ in Antarctica, is protesting the commercial exploitation of oil and mineral deposits under the ice by prospecting governments and companies…
Stella, a NZ scientist, Ioane, a US Navy SEAL from American Samoa, and Bonny, a Greenpeace activist, meet during the endless day of this Antarctic summer. What unfolds is as dark, funny, and monumental as the discovery of the ozone hole itself. The second play in Lynda Chanwai-Earle’s acclaimed Antarctic Theatre Trilogy, HOLE builds on the innovative use of renewable energy (solar and wind) as used in the award-winning HEAT.
Creative Team and Crew
HOLE's world premiere at Circa Theatre, 2021
DR. BONNY BEAUFORT – Stevie Hancox-Monk (They/Them)
LT. IOANE MALOSI – Sepelini Mua’au (He/Him)
DR. STELLA CLARK – Elle Wootton (She/Her)
HOLE is written by Lynda Chanwai-Earle (She/Her)
Directed by Kerryn Palmer & Sally Richards
Music Composed by Gareth Farr (ONZM)
Sound Design by Phil Brownlee
Lighting Design by Isadora Lao
Audio Visual Design by Rachel Neser
Set Design collaboration: Jason O’Hara, Sally Richards & Kerryn Palmer
Tech Operator: Bekky Boyce
Eco-Power Design & Install: Graeme Ebbett/Ebbett Automation Ltd
Produced by Lynda Chanwai-Earle & Jo Marsh
Stage Managers Tyler Clarke & Daniel Nodder
Production Managers Lynda Chanwai-Earle & Jo Marsh
Graphic Designer Poppy Serano
Photos by Philip Merry
Videography by Daniel Nodder
HOLE's Development Season with WTF! at Circa Theatre, 2020
DR. BONNY BEAUFORT – Stevie Hancox-Monk (They/Them)
LT. IOANE MALOSI – Sepelini Mua’au (He/Him)
DR. STELLA CLARK – Elle Wootton (She/Her)
Directed by David O'Donnell
Set Design by Brian King
Lighting Design by Tony Black
Music composed by Gareth Farr (ONZM)
Sound Design by Phil Brownlee
Alternative Energy Design by Marcus McShane & Graeme Ebbett
HEAT 2010 to 2011 national tour:
The Edge, Herald Theatre, Auckland
Fuel Festival, Meteor Theatre, Hamilton
Otago Festival of the Arts, Settlers Theatre
Nelson Festival of the Arts, Suiter Theatre
ACTORS: Kate Prior, Byron Cole, Simon Vincent
Directed by David O'Donnell.
Set Design by Brian King
Lighting Design by Marcus McShane
Music composed by Gareth Farr (ONZM)
Alternative Energy Design by Graeme Ebbett & Marcus McShane
HEAT's premiere season with the 2008 STAB Festival, BATS Theatre, Wellington
ACTORS: Kate Prior, Brian Hotter, Aaron Cortesi
Directed by David O'Donnell
Music composed by Gareth Farr (ONZM)
Set Design by Brian King
Lighting Design by Marty Roberts (2008 STAB Festival)
Alternative Energy Design by Graeme Ebbett
Number of People in the Touring Party
6 (3 actors, 1 Stage Manager, 1 Tech Operator, 1 Production Manager)
Previous Seasons
The Antarctic Theatre Trilogy
HOLE:
World Premiere, Circa Theatre 20 November - 18 December 2021
Development Season, Circa Theatre, September 2020
HEAT:
World Premiere, STAB Festival, BATS Theatre, 2008
National Tour: 2010 to 2011
Reviews and Quotes
“HOLE is a play that leaves you thinking - about the failed opportunities we had to take climate change action over the past three decades, and the need for urgency now.”
– Sarah Catherall, The Dom Post/Stuff, 2021
★★★★★
“A powerful call to action, HOLE calls upon each and every one of us to recognise our impact and responsibility towards our climate crisis. By likening the continent to a heartbeat, Antarctica is rendered human…”
– Alessia Belsito-Reira, Regional News, Eyes on Wellington, 2021
★★★★★
“Incredible…Brilliant…A Winner!”
– The Wellingtonista, 2021
★★★★★
“A cleverly crafted allegory, HOLE personifies humanity’s fallibility, vulnerability, and flaws at personal and political levels.”
– John Smythe, Theatreview, 2021
★★★★★
“A captivating play. HOLE humanises the stories of the scientists, navy seals and Greenpeace activists down there in the 1980s.”
– Sarah Catherall, The Dom Post/Stuff, 2021
★★★★★
“Visually HOLE is gorgeous… a sumptuous production. An engaging and beautiful show with a powerful message.”
– Art Murmurs
★★★★★
“HOLE explores the relationship between art and science…describing Antarctica as the heartbeat of the world, pulsing as the ice expands with the seasons. Poetry has a way to pull at the heart strings that raw science doesn’t...leaving us in awe of the raw beauty of our planet.”
– Art Murmurs, on HOLE’s development season, 2020.
“HOLE is not only a story underscoring the climate crisis and urging us to make change; HOLE goes one step further and enacts that change. This production goes sustainably on tour across Aotearoa New Zealand (from) 2022 and everyone should see it.”
– Alessia Belsito-Reira, Regional News, Eyes on Wellington, 2021
★★★★★
“Gareth Farr’s exquisite music sets the mood...”
– John Smythe, Theatreview, 2021
Technical Rider & International Touring Info (if applicable)
Ka-Shue (Letters Home)
Artform: Solo Theatre
Development Status: Tour Ready
Media Uploads
Synopsis
Ka-Shue is an epic story of love, laughter, and loss, spanning one hundred years between China and New Zealand through the eyes of a Chinese family struggling to resettle in Aotearoa. Ka-Shue is a Cantonese phrase for 'Home Book' a poetic term covering everything about home, love, and alienation. Life is experienced through the eyes of three generations of the Leung family as they are swept across continents and time: the Second World War, the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989, and the infamous buried history of the Poll Tax in New Zealand, £100 levied against Chinese migrants only (1883 to 1944). Ka Shue encompasses a broad sweep of the political events between the two countries as a backdrop for the personal dramas of the five characters played by one actor. Jackie is Eurasian, in her early twenties, naively following her Chinese boyfriend into Beijing on the eve of the Tiananmen Square tragedy. As Jackie writes home to her mother Abbie in Wellington, Abbie recalls growing up as the only coloured child at school, her rebellion against her Chinese community, and her own naïve return to China during the Cultural Revolution, 1974. Playwright Lynda Chanwai-Earle says "I am a Poll Tax descendant; my great-grandfather Dong Chanwai arrived in Wellington in 1907. My mother was just a baby when she and my Po-po (maternal grandmother) fled the Sino-Japanese invasion to become refugees on board the MS Wanganella bound for Wellington. Close to the bone, Ka-Shue is a fictionalised account of my own family, the Dong clan of Bak-Chuen, Poon-Yue County, Canton.”
Creative Team and Crew
Ka Shue's current musician: Nikau Wi Neera is an award-winning composer based in Wellington, New Zealand. His music is daring and versatile, deftly mixing genre and idiom whilst maintaining a distinctive artistic voice. Nikau is passionate about telling stories that matter, and both his film and concert works show a drive to push boundaries and pursue beauty in both conventional and unconventional places: https://www.nikauwineera.com/
Producer/Production Manager/Stage Manager: Lynda Chanwai-Earle
Sound Designer: Phil Brownlee is our exceptional sound designer - he and I first met at RNZ and he was Ice Floe's sound designer for HOLE's development season last year: https://philbrownlee.co.nz/
Ka Shue's first director was James Littlewood (1996, Circa Theatre and Auckland Art Gallery) followed by director Jim Moriarty (1997-2000 tour) and our current director is Kathy McRae (TAHI Festival 2020 onwards).
Ka Shue's first composer and live musician was Karen Hunter (1997 Christchurch Arts Festival), followed by the late, extraordinary Mahinarangi Tocker (1997 to 2000). Mahinarangi is sorely missed.
PANNZ touring arts market in Aotearoa:
Executive Producer/Performer/Playwright: Lynda Chanwai-Earle
Producer: Jo Marsh
Director: Kathy McRae
Musician/Composer/Performer: Nikau Wi Neera
Sound Design: Phil Brownlee
Lighting Design/Tech Operator/Production Manager: Bekky Boyce
Ka Shue (Letters Home) Creative Team and Crew for the TAHI NZ Festival of Solo Performance, October 24, 2020
Ka Shue Executive Producer/Performer/Playwright: Lynda Chanwai-Earle
TAHI Festival Producer: Sally Richards
Director: Kathy McRae
Musician/Composer/Performer: Nikau Wi Neera
Sound Design: Phil Brownlee
Lighting Design/Tech Operator/Production Manager: Bekky Boyce
Set & Costume Design: John Parker/Lynda Chanwai-Earle
Cantonese Opera Mask: John Verryt
Cantonese Opera Ghost Headpiece: Rosemary Jones
Ka Shue (Letters Home) Premiere and Touring Seasons (1996 to 2004):
Circa Theatre Premiere Season:
Director: James Littlewood
Set & Costume Design: John Parker
Lighting Design: Bolke Waters
Stage Manager: Sue Dunlop
Cantonese Opera Ghost Headpiece: Rosemary Jones
Calligraphy: Ping Ching Mabbitt
Publicity: Sarah Hunter
Poster: Andrew Foster
Christchurch Arts Festival 1997
Touring Director: Jim Moriarty
Co-Producer: Susan Battye
Musician: Karen Hunter
Auckland/Dunedin/Wellington Seasons 1998:
Director: Jim Moriarty
Musician: Mahinarangi Tocker
Lighting Design: Katrina Chandra
Adapted for broadcast video by Director Simon Raby (D.O.P.) Auckland,1998
Composer/Musician Mahinarangi Tocker
Post-Production Videography: Simon Raby/Lynda Chanwai-Earle
Hawai'i Season 2004: The Paliku Theatre with The University of Hawai'i at Mānoa.
In its third print, Ka Shue was published in by The Women's Play Press, 1998, available at Playmarket.
Number of People in the Touring Party
Three: Lynda Chanwai-Earle (Solo Performer/Producer/Playwright), Nikau Wi Neera (Live Musician), Bekky Boyce (Tech Operator/Production Manager/Stage Manager)
Previous Seasons
Ka Shue (Letters Home) Seasons:
1. World Premiere: Circa Theatre (Circa Two), Wellington, March 1996
2. The Auditorium, Auckland City Art Gallery, 1996
3. The Fourth International Women's Playwrights Conference, Galway, Ireland, 1997
4. The City Gallery, Wellington, 1997
5. The Christchurch Arts Festival, The Southern Ballet Theatre, 1997
6. The Maidment Studio Theatre, Maidment Arts Centre, Auckland, 1998
7. Dunedin City Art Gallery, Otago Arts Festival, 1998
8. Hawai'i Season 2004: The Paliku Theatre, the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa. (Playwright in Residence, University of Hawaii)
9. TAHI Festival of Solo Performance, BATS Theatre, October 2020
10. METEOR Theatre, Hamilton, Aug 2021
11. Te Tairawhiti Arts Festival, Gisborne, Oct 2021
12. Hawkes Bay Arts Festival, Oct 2021
Reviews and Quotes
"There's something cinematic about Chanwai-Earle's writing...the script is tightly constructed, packed with incident and wit...at once tragic, wry and drolly entertaining, Chanwai-Earle's nutshell epic deserves to pack them in!" - The NZ Herald, 1998
"Exceedingly satisfying theatre..." - The Press, Christchurch
"It's a shock to realise it has taken only an hour for Lynda Chanwai-Earle's Ka-Shue to traverse 100 years while sharing the stories of three generations of women in two countries...Watching the play is like studying different parts of a tapestry before stepping back to comprehend the piece as a whole... This family-focused theme resonates at a macro level, set against China's battles with neighbouring forces and its internal upheavals, from Imperial China to The People's Republic, then a new generation's demands for democratic freedoms... Ka Shue distils complex elements of epic proportions into a potent liqueur that resonates and radiates more with every sip." - John Smythe, Theatreview, 2020
Director of Maori Theatre Jim Moriarty says "Ka-Shue is a play about people, their joy and sorrow that resonates close to the heart of all of us."
Technical Rider & International Touring Info (if applicable)
The Performing Arts Network of New Zealand (PANNZ) Arts Market is New Zealand's premiere event for artists, producers, presenters and industry leaders from across the performing arts sector.
The Performing Arts Network of New Zealand (PANNZ) Arts Market is New Zealand's premiere event for artists, producers, presenters and industry leaders from across the performing arts sector.