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Toi Whakaari staff and students participated in the second Drama School Festival and Conference in New Delhi, India in early January 2011. This biennial event brings together performing arts educators from a wide variety of theatre traditions, including Chinese Opera, Iranian puppetry and Indian dance theatre.  The Festival is a project of the UNESCO International Theatre Institute’s (ITI) Asia Pacific Bureau. 

The then Director of Toi Whakaari, Annie Ruth, and Head of Acting & Associate Director Jonathon Hendry travelled with a group of students who presented their work at the festival. Toi Whakaari acting students Leon Wadham, Hayley Sproull and Chris Parker, with Stage and Production Manager Tim Nuttall presented work in progress inspired by the core principles of the Panchtantra (a collection of originally Indian animal fables), a short work of a non-narrative interrogation of modern values where East meets West. Fellow students Te Rina Thompson and Tim Nuttall tested their interactive theatre piece on attendees at the Festival as part of their academic research.

“Toi Whakaari’s presence was really celebrated at the Festival. Our students took part in all the activities and, performing first, set a benchmark for both creating work and being articulate in talking about their process. India were marvellous hosts with such a variety of activities and great thoughtfulness in setting up the conditions for true exchange between students and staff. On the plane home one of our students commented: ‘It’s hard to see how it could have been better’. In saying this she spoke for us all. It was also important to exchange pedagogies and teaching and we were all delighted with the response to our work in this Asia-Pacific context” said Annie Ruth.

Annie Ruth presented a paper about Tikanga (Maori practices and values) Frameworks and the learning environment at Toi Whakaari at the Directors’ Conference held alongside the Festival. Both Annie Ruth and Jonathon Hendry also lead workshops exploring the principles of Viewpoints Theory as applied to short texts.

Toi Whakaari staff and students participated in the first UNESCO ITI Festival sponsored by the Asia Pacific Bureau which was held in Shanghai in 2009. The purpose of Unesco’s International Theatre Institute is to promote international exchange of knowledge and practice in theatre arts. 

Amitesh Grover, APB Expo Coordinator, said “It was a pleasure hosting your team. Annie is just a fabulous human being, who manages to inspire so many so quickly! The students were the life of the entire festival, always full of lovely energy and always ready to engage. We are so happy to have met all of them and really hope our paths cross again.”

Toi Whakaari’s attendance at the Festival was supported by a grant from the Asia NZ Foundation, which contributed generously towards the cost of air travel to India.