Student Stage & Screen Designers Hit the World Stage

For the first time in history, a group of student designers from New Zealand has been selected to exhibit their work at the prestigious Prague Quadrennial � the world�s foremost exhibition and conference of theatre designers and scenographers.

The young kiwis � Hermione Flynn, Caitlin le Harivel, Marina Davies, Leanne Stevenson and Meggan Frauenstein � are currently studying design for performance, based at Toi Whakaari: NZ Drama School. They were chosen from hundreds of applicants to exhibit in the Virtual Bird Exhibition at the Prague Quadrennial, which showcases design work from 60 countries around the world. The Quadrennial is held every four years, and has been in existence since 1967.

�We�re really overwhelmed because not only was our work picked to be presented and critiqued but we�re one of only three exhibitions to have video footage presented on the main stage � like a big blow up cinema of our work � in front of all the most respected performance practitioners in the world,� said Hermione Flynn.

The five students and another six of their fellows will be involved in several projects during the ten-day Prague Quadrennial. These include the Virtual Birds Exhibition, InTent: a performance-based exhibition, ExTent: a static presentation, and NE(s)T an internet-based collaboration between Christopher Ulutupu from Nelson and Danielle Casey from Carterton alongside students from Finland, England and the USA. The students will also be attending lectures, discussions and workshops during the Quadrennial, presented by pre-eminent theatre designers such as Jean-Guy Lecat (the long time design collaborator of Peter Brook).

For InTent, the designers will be pitching a tent, customised and redesigned to represent the journey through Aotearoa from coast to the interior. The tent will be surrounded by shoes, similar to the outside of the marae as a meeting place and encouraging those entering the tent to take off their own footwear to feel the textures of the floor.

The viewer will enter the tent, splashing through water and feeling the wind as red fabric walls billow around them. This room is designed by Caitlin le Harivel from the Kapiti Coast to represent the elements of a mountain environment.

The middle space, designed by Yu San Kang from Christchurch will be carpeted in real grass with windows of light illustrating the movement of the sun and encouraging the viewer to see at a different speed.  Alongside this part of the exhibit, is a collection of kettles all boiling and squealing at different pitches, referencing a caf� soundscape and the boiling hot springs of Rotorua. The kettles are designed by Rosemarie Kirkup of Wellington and Richard Larsen of Lower Hutt.

The third and final room of the tent has been designed to reference a 1950s suburban home and focuses on live performance. It features Private Brutalities � a series of jackets designed by Hermione Flynn and made by Emma Nannestad. The jackets are designed to protect women from domestic violence and were inspired by gang leathers. Also in this section is Claire Middleton�s Unconscious in the Alley where she escapes being zipped into the tent but remains linked umbilically to the exhibit by a feeding tube.

Hermione is also one of two New Zealanders selected for performance in the Industrial Palace section of the Prague Quadrennial. Her contribution Bird Watching is an endurance performance installation where a model in a voluptuous swan-like costume struts and poses on a grass catwalk until she can no longer continue to walk.

�This piece is a comment on the excessive beauty, glamour and superficial ideals that consume the fashion industry,� said Hermione. �I wanted to explore the model�s mental and physical limitations that occur underneath the sugar-coated surface.�

InTent and Virtual Birds can be viewed at Toi Whakaari: NZ Drama School between 4-7pm on Monday 7 May prior to the exhibitions being shipped off to Prague.

For more information about the Prague Quadrennial see http://www.pq.cz/

-end-

What:   Virtual Birds and InTent � Performance Design Students� exhibitions for the Prague Quadrennial
When:   4pm � 7pm, Monday 7 May 2007
Where:  Toi Whakaari: NZ Drama School, 11 Hutchison Road, Newtown
Cost:   Free