About our guests
On Wednesday 17 August, 2005 playwrights Bernard Beckett, Lynda Chanwai-Earle and Hone Kouka participated in a videoconference with 4 secondary schools from around New Zealand.
Watch clips of our playwrights talking about:
- the writing process
- what inspires their writing
- staying motivated
- the rewards of theatre
- becoming a writer.
Bernard Beckett, Lynda Chanwai-Earle, and Hone Kouk
About the writers
Bernard Beckett is a high school teacher with a particular love for writing plays and teaching drama, film and outdoor education. He has published novels for young adults and has also written a book of plays.
Lynda Chanwai-Earle is a poet, multi-media performance artist, playwright and television journalist. In 1998, her play Ka-Shue (Letters Home) was New Zealand’s first contemporary theatre piece about the Chinese community. She has published a collection of her own poems as well as an anthology.
Hone Kouka Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Kahungunu, achieved early recognition with his plays on Māori themes as the youngest playwright to win the Bruce Mason Award (for Hide ‘n’ Seek, with Hori Ahipene, 1992). He is also a short fiction writer, poet, children’s writer and actor, and has worked as a theatre artistic director and in journalism, sawmilling and forestry.
Participating schools:
- Greymouth High School
- Roxburgh Area School
- Wellington High School
- Stratford High School
Web links
New Zealand Book Council
http://www.nzbookcouncil.org.nz
New Zealand Book Council – WordSpace
http://www.nzbookcouncil.org.nz/education/aboutwordspace.html
New Zealand Book Council – Bernard Beckett
http://www.nzbookcouncil.org.nz/writers/beckettbernard.html
New Zealand Book Council – Lynda Chanwai Earle
http://www.nzbookcouncil.org.nz/writers/chanwaiearlelynda.html
New Zealand Book Council – Hone Kouka
http://www.nzbookcouncil.org.nz/writers/koukahone.html
This videoconference was part of the WordSpace Series – an exciting new addition to the Writers in Schools programme, run in conjunction with CWA New Media and the New Zealand Book Council, with the support of the Todd Foundation.