Andrea Ariel reports on attending the Brazilian Magdalena Festival in July 2010.

On July 12th, at Auckland Airport, with ALFONSINA packed in a few bags and a team of six of us ready to embark on a 47 hour plane ride to Brazil, I could not help thinking back to the day when Pedro Ilgenfritz invited me to start a theatre company with him and two more actors, both women. Back then, VÉRTICE was only a dream goal.

The second of three one-day Gatherings for 2010 will be held on Sunday 29 August, 9am-10pm, at the Berhampore School Hall in Wellington.

The theme is "Art & Practice" and there is an exciting line-up of presenters. Lunch will be a shared pot-luck meal, and we'll go to a local cafe for dinner before reconvening for the traditional, legendary, not-to-be-missed open mic cabaret extravaganza closing concert in the evening.

The 1 day gathering went very well. I like this shorter meeting as it makes us really focussed in our interactions.
I'll write up my notes and post a summary of them here soon.
I have more photos too if anyone wants them.
Thanks to everyone for their input.
Janet 07/06/10

Watch this great documentary about Red Mole on NZ On Screen (in 6 parts of about 7 mins long each):

Issue 35 (April 2010) of the Magdalena Aotearoa newsletter is now in the letterboxes of those who subscribe to the hardcopy, and available to download as a PDF from this web site.

Payroll giving means you can make regular donations from your pay to non-profit 'donee' organisations and receive immediate tax benefit. Tax credits for payroll donations are calculated at 33.33 cents for each dollar donated which is deducted from your PAYE.

Magdalena Aotearoa Trust has Inland Revenue-approved donee status. So if your employer has taken up this option, you might like to think about making a regular donation to the trust in this way.

The National Library of New Zealand is conducting a national web harvest between 12 and 25 May. They'll
harvest every domain in the .nz country code, and some others from .com, .net and .org. If your site is outside .nz, you can apply to have your site harvested too. Read on to find out about the harvest, an awesome resource for the future...

The National Library exists to preserve New Zealand's social and cultural history, whether in the form of books, newspapers and photographs, or of websites, blogs and videos.

Those of you at the networking meeting will have heard Helen talk about this festival. The very first festival was in Cardiff and it is natural that a celebration of this coming of age again be hosted in Wales.

The Festival will be in two parts:

12th – 14th August 2011 in Aberystwyth University. This will be a conference and a chance to evaluate the legacy of the Magdalena.

15th-21st August 2011 will be a Festival of new work in Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff – the birthplace of the Project. There will be space given to all generations; both established and emerging women artists.

The latest issue 'Theatre - Women - Letters' is available through Magdalena Aotearoa.

‘Letters are personal and secret forms of communication, characteristics which enable us to hear the voices of some seemingly silent women on the past and present. The design of individual letters and of different alphabets, seen as paintings or graphic design, emerge in this issue as action, inspiration, sound, awareness, availability and rhythm to emphasise the individuality, age, tradition and cultural
circumstances of each author.’ Julia Varley

You're invited to a Magdalena Aotearoa Networking Party!
Monday 1 February 2010, from 7pm-10pm
Newtown Hall, Daniel St., Wellington

RSVP online here: http://www.magdalenaaotearoa.org.nz/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=8

The Networking Party is an evening of networking and information sharing - come and learn what the Magdalena Aotearoa Trust and the Magdalena Project are all about, and network with other theatre practitioners and artists. We'll provide some drinks & nibbles (contributions to the refreshments are welcome).