Arts & Media Briefly

Cambodian Media Executives Discuss Media Coverage of HIV/AIDS

Media editors and managers from about 50 of Cambodia's
leading print, radio and TV outlets met at an executive dinner in Phnom Penh on January 31 for an unprecedented dialogue on responsible media coverage of HIV/AIDS. Full Story: http://www.internews.org/news/2005/20050204_cambodia.html.

Latest issue of Opening Stages now available

Opening Stages is a quarterly newsletter, produced by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, for people with disabilities pursuing careers in the performing arts. Issue #13 (December 2004-February 2005) includes the editor's "Reflections on Professionalism," the articles, "Professionalism in Performance" and "Beethoven's Nightmare," along with other news and information on programs and resources for performing artists with disabilities. Click here to download the latest issue. To subscribe to the free quarterly Opening Stages newsletter, e-mail your request for a subscription to Opening Stages along with your name, e-mail address and snail mail address to access@kennedy-center.org.

The Giant Leap International Disability Arts Festival in New Zealand

February 28 - March 6, 2005, The Auckland Performing Arts Centre TAPAC, Western Springs, Auckland

Giant Leap is New Zealand's first International Disability Arts Festival. It will feature the best, professional disabled talent from New Zealand alongside top overseas performers in a feast of events, from deaf theatre and mixed ability dance to storytelling, comedy and music. For something quite different in the arts, explore the diversity that Giant Leap offers.

An exciting focus will be on Deaf and Visual Theatre, with Ramesh Meyyappan from Singapore conducting a series of Master classes. He will also perform a solo show This Side Up, a lighthearted comedy about a country "innocent" arriving in the city. Ramesh Meyyappan graduated from the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts with a first class BA (Hons). A multi-faceted and deaf practitioner Ramesh has worked with a number of theatre companies including Spike Theatre and Hope St in Liverpool and Mime Unlimited and Dramaplus Arts in Singapore as a director, performer and teacher / workshop leader. Before taking up his degree at LIPA, he was Artistic Director of Hi! Theatre, Singapore's only deaf theatre. A directorial highlight included a physical adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth.

American David Roche is another of the overseas performers. Equal parts storyteller and stand-up comic, he has garnered rave reviews in Canada, the U.S. and Australia. The Church of 80% Sincerity is a hilarious and groundbreaking evening of inspirational theatre based on David's life experiences. "As a person with facial difference, I am a one-man show, both offstage and on," says David. "I use humor as a shamanic tool to dissolve fears and open windows, reframing disfigurement and disability."

Actor, poet, musician, writer and 'thalidomide ninja', Mat Fraser lists an impressive array of performance skills that anybody would be proud of. But Mat doesn't have just any body; he is phocomelic, born with shortened, "seal-like" arms. Flying in from London, England, Mat will perform his one-man spectacular Sealboy:Freak.

And Canadian Bi-Polar Princess Victoria Maxwell is yet-to-be-confirmed to present Crazy for Life, her brave, funny, and compelling look at experiencing, surviving, and coming to terms with mental illness.

Turning Mobility is a multi-genre Auckland based ensemble who will present a performance and curate the visual art exhibition. This will feature a broad range of artists and media.

The Closing Concert (Saturday 5 March) will feature a colorful spectrum of the performers at the festival as well as local musicians Caitlin Smith and Kylee Maloney alongside Billy T award-winning comedian Philip Patston and Touch Compass, renowned New Zealand mixed ability dance company.

Inspired - Informed - Involved will give you a chance to meet the international and local artists and performers involved in Giant Leap. The Global and Local Disability Arts and Culture development seminar will feature presentations and discussions about issues affecting disabled artists and performers worldwide.

The week of excellence in disability arts will end on Sunday, March 6, with the Final Jam, a participatory event where professionals and amateurs of all ages combine in the spirit of collaboration, mentorship and entertainment.

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