Arts Exciting 2010 lineup at Maidment In spite of the recession and the scramble for Horseplay, a literary clash between two of New Improv Bandits; productions by Stage 2 the entertainment dollar, the Maidment Theatre Zealand’s most eccentric men of letters, James K. Productions, the campus drama club; a Winter enjoyed a boom year in 2009. Baxter and Ronald Hugh Morrison. Lecture Series; and cutting-edge satire in revues More than 61,000 people flocked to the And a contemporary take on Shakespeare’s by engineering, medical and law students. Maidment to see a grand total of 332 events and enduring Romeo and Juliet promises to be one to More than 350 performances are scheduled performances last year. remember (see photo bottom right). for this year. “We face 2010 with optimism, The most popular productions included The ATC season concludes with a savagely knowing that for many the theatre is a gateway Auckland Theatre Company’s The Thirty Nine funny and compelling indictment of where the to The University of Auckland campus,” says Paul. Steps and The Pohutukawa Tree. Peach Theatre American dream went wrong: August: Osage For more information and bookings visit Company’s The History Boys also enjoyed a County, hailed an instant classic since its www.maidment.auckland.ac.nz sold-out season – with an astonishing 60 percent sensational Broadway season. of the play’s audiences attending the Maidment In June and July, Peach Theatre Company will for the first time. present the large-scale musical, Sweeney Todd. This year heralds yet another exciting This powerful Stephen Sondheim work is rarely programme, enthuses Maidment Director Paul performed and should not be missed. Minifie. “Auckland Theatre Company anchors the Auckland writer Thomas Sainsbury directs his 2010 programme with five great works,” says two most recent plays in the Musgrove Studio. Paul. “The main stage theatre opens the year with Dance Troupe Supreme, featuring Jaquie Brown a wickedly revisionist satire, Le Sud, the latest and Madeliene Sami, and Bruise promise all the work from Dave Armstrong.” bite and originality audiences have come to An exceptional cast, led by Elizabeth expect from Sainsbury. Hawthorne as Lady Bracknell, relishes the Black Grace performs a Musgrove Studio irreverence of The Importance of Being Earnest. season; there is Hip Hop by TriPLe8FuNk and the A forgotten gem of kiwi comedy is offered in University Dancers; improvisation from the From the Collection violently whirl and crash, Roundhead is one of She agreed, replacing it with a $2.98 ring from Lye’s most delicate pieces, comprising four Woolworths. Their wedding ring remains at the concentric circles that spin in space. It embodies heart of the Roundhead prototype to this day. big ideas of both massive and minute Fortunately, subsequent versions, including the one proportions. Initially named Rings, then purchased for the University Collection last year, do temporarily titled Orrery, it became Roundhead not require a wedding band. in reference to the “Y” chromosome it resembled. After 45 years away from New Zealand, Lye It is driven like a torsion pendulum with the outer visited in 1968, and again in 1977 for an ring connected to a motor and the subsequent exhibition at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery. By inner rings connected by nylon, swinging in then diagnosed with leukaemia, he established alternate directions as they wind and unwind – a the Len Lye Foundation so his work could remain combination of engineering ingenuity and cosmic in New Zealand. Meanwhile, Wystan Curnow and forces that typify Lye’s work. Roger Horrocks had begun compiling a collection Accompanying Roundhead’s syncopated of Lye’s writings. Horrocks, after meeting Lye in motion is a modified music box that adds a New York in 1980, soon found himself working as sparse, ambient soundtrack due to pins being his full-time assistant. removed from the cylinder in a standard box. Lye Horrocks and Curnow’s collection, Figures of had always intended Roundhead to be produced Motion, was published by Auckland University in an edition, even getting as far as numbering a Press in 1984, with subsequent collections of the Len Lye (1901-1980), Roundhead, 1961 set of bases. But when it came to recreating the artist’s writings edited by Horrocks and published Kinetic sculpture: Steel, nylon and gold-plated copper music box, the Len Lye Foundation was faced with by Holloway Press in 2002 and 2009. Horrocks, ring on motorised base with music box a mystery and needed to identify the original founder of the Department of Film Television and tune in the hope of locating additional boxes. Media Studies, also wrote Len Lye: A Biography, The University of Auckland Art Collection, image Foundation Director Evan Webb mapped the which remains a benchmark and reference point courtesy Len Lye Foundation remaining and missing pins along a chart, much for all Lye scholarship. like dots of music along a stave. In consultation Lye was an innovator who continues to Artist Len Lye may have never visited The with a musical colleague, he established that the fascinate researchers, as evidenced by last University of Auckland in his lifetime, but his original piece of music (Silent Night) was not December’s International Symposium on dynamic presence now leaves a powerful exactly obscure so further music boxes would not Performance Science, which was entertained by impression on our campus. be hard to source. Art That Moves: The work of Len Lye currently at A pioneer of experimental cinema techniques The final component of Roundhead is the gold the Gus Fisher Gallery until 13 February, and by and kinetic sculpture, with a life-long interest in ring at the centre of the sculpture. Lye’s wife Ann the Business School’s enthusiastic sponsorship of movement, Lye was born in Christchurch in 1901 recalls leaving their home to go shopping when Lye that exhibition in recognition that Lye is an and lived most of his life in London and New York. yelled from the window that he needed something exemplar of Kiwi ingenuity. Compared to his large steel sculptures that of hers for a work and asked for her wedding ring. Andrew Clifford

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