Arts Market 2025 Programme
Over 65 different performance works were pitched, presented and showcased at the Arts Market 2025. There were more than 10 break-out session and industry updates for delegates to dive into and hear about, and throughout the Market attendees had plenty of formal and informal networking opportunities.
14 Malone Road
Dance Theatre | Q Loft | 5 Mar, 6:30pm - 7:30pm
(Le Moana)
14 Malone Road, is an ode to the old neighbourhoods of Aotearoa, which are slowly starting to disappear with property development throughout the country. As children of the Pacific Islands migration, these neighbourhood’s were our foundation, the first layer of cultural and social education informing how we would dream and navigate the rest of the world.
Taking Our Music To The World:
An Aotearoa Showcase
Music | Q Rangatira | 5 Mar, 8:30pm - 10pm
(New Zealand Music Commission | Te Reo Reka o Aotearoa)
A dynamic celebration of the rich musical landscape of Aotearoa featuring highly acclaimed artists Marlon Williams, Moana & the Tribe , CHAII and Delaney Davidson.
Speed is Emotional
Theatre | Herald Theatre | 6 Mar, 5pm - 6pm
(Barbarian Productions)
Featuring Barbarian Productions' Jo Randerson - a truly original playwright, devisor, director, author, and film-maker. In Speed is Emotional, Jo returns to the stage with a fresh mix of karaoke, clown, performance poetry, and stand-up. Why can't she stick to one genre? Because she has ADHD – as she discovered in her 40s shortly after her son received the same diagnosis.
BELLE: A Performance of Air
Circus / Dance | Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre | 6 Mar, 7.30pm - 8.30pm
(Movement Of The Human as part of
Te Ahurei Toi o Tāmaki Auckland Arts Festival)
This monumental collision of theatre and aerial transforms the theatre into a whole other world. An all-female cast exhibits spectacular strength and skill, emerging and vanishing from portals of light and shadow, all of it enveloped in a gorgeous soundscape. Belle is a visual and atmospheric wonder.
a mix tape for maladies
Theatre | ASB Waterfront Theatre | 6 & 7 Mar, 7pm - 9pm
(Agaram Productions with Auckland Theatre Company as part of
Te Ahurei Toi o Tāmaki Auckland Arts Festival)
The songs we connect to our memories just hit differently. Theatre-maker Ahi Karunaharan has picked 17 nostalgic pop tracks to chart the deeply moving journey of Sangeetha and her family in 1950s Sri Lanka. Taking us from innocent times through to decades of civil war, to a new life in modern-day Aotearoa, this unforgettable saga with an all-South Asian cast is a testament to the storytelling power of good music.
Suitcase Show
Theatre | Q Loft | 6 & 7 Mar, 8pm - 9pm
(Trick of the Light Theatre as part of
Te Ahurei Toi o Tāmaki Auckland Arts Festival)
A traveller arrives at a border with a stack of battered cases.
From within them, whole worlds will emerge…Suitcase Show is an eclectic box set of short stories. Dark, spiky, and comic, each one is told out of a suitcase. The staging is inventive, from lo-fi shadowplay to wireless projection, from dancing disembodied hands to narratives that crackle from a 70s stereo suitcase. Tiny in scale, but expansive in story, each case is a self-contained world.
THE TROJAN WAR
Interactive Theatre | Herald Theatre | 7 Mar, 7.30pm - 8.30pm
(A Slightly Isolated Dog)
Following the success of DON JUAN & JEKYLL & HYDE, A Slightly isolated Dog brings you the third piece in the trilogy. Theatrical magic, wicked pop songs & explosive wit is combined to create a delightful romp through a twisted classic tale, where the audience plays along.
THE TROJAN WAR tells the story of Troy and its tragic fall. It is an explosive & joyous celebration of our ridiculous lives.
Sons of Vao (Studio 68)
Theatre | Supper Room, Town Hall | 6 Mar, 10am - 11am
The Burning House (Nightsong)
Theatre | The Classic Comedy Club | 6 Mar, 10am - 11am
Dimensions in Black (Black Creatives Aotearoa)
Theatre / Multi-media | Aotea Centre | 6 Mar, 10am - 11am
Tangihanga (Wahanui Productions)
Theatre | Supper Room, Town Hall | 7 Mar, 10am - 11am
The Tantrum (Java Dance)
Dance Theatre with Live Music | Aotea Centre | 7 Mar, 10am - 11am
Only Bones (Daniel Nodder)
Theatre / Physical Theatre | Herald Theatre | 7 Mar, 10am - 11am
Five-Minute Pitches
Various sessions throughout the Market
Artists and producers from across Aotearoa and the globe will pitch works ranging from 'in-development' to 'tour ready'. Featuring in this year's five-minute pitches are:
Ka Mua Ka Muri (Atamira Dance Company) | I Don’t Know Much About Art But I Know What I Lick (Trick of the Light) | Grief Chorus (White_mess) | Kuramanunya (Karul Projects) | Whakapapa (Jolt) | The Valentina (The Rebel Alliance) | Peter Pan (Nightsong) | He Rākau, He Ngārara (Aro) | Anthonie Tonnon Cinematographer (Anthonie Tonnon) | ARAWHATA (OVĀ Collective) | Commentary of Dreaming (Jeremy Beck) | Wrest (Red Leap Theatre) | Naatapuitea (Igelese Ete) | Ko Te Ākau (Te Toki Haruru) | Frigidton (Heartthrobs) | KUINI (Lyncia Muller) | Rivers of Wind/Nowadeus (The Grid) | White Noise & Abilitopia (Touch Compass) | Of The Land (Na Djinang Circus) | The Visitors (Moogahlin Performing Arts) | The Other Side of Me (Blakdance) | Beetle (Legs On The Wall) | Homelands (Kaha:wi Dance Theatre) | Fijian Flying Circus (VOU) | Company Update (Cluster Arts)
Throughout the Arts Market were plenty of opportunities to dive deep into the themes and priorities faced by our sector with a series of break-out sessions and updates.
THE STATE OF THE ASK: Building a community of support from individual giving
(Supported by Funding HQ) Funding HQ Founder Jenni Giblin and Fundraising Coach James Wilson ran a session that will challenge you to rethink how you build and sustain support from individual donations and regular giving.
COAST TO COAST: Highlighting Festivals and Presenter Venues
Meet and hear directly from festival directors and programmers behind some of Aotearoa's most inspiring regional events and venues. Facilitated by Laurel Devenie (One One Six, Whangarei) with Steph Walker (WORD Christchurch), Glen Pickering (Toi Toi, Hawkes Bay) and Cian Parker (Meteor Theatre, Hamilton).
TE HAU: Building an understanding of reciprocity in indigenous performing arts exchange
Led by Te Pou Theatre Director Amber Curreen, this session delves into the deep-rooted practice of giving and receiving and how we can support each other's work and aspirations across nations. This session is for Indigenous delegates.
UNLOCKING OPPORTUNITIES AT ASIAN ARTS MARKETS
(with Asia NZ Foundation) Explore the dynamic opportunities offered by arts markets in Asia. Facilitated by Craig Cooper (Asia NZ Foundation) with Kyu Choi (PAMS), Tomoyuki Arai (Y-PAM), Moss Patterson (NZDC), Anita Hunziker (Footnote)
THE TASMAN BRIDGE PROJECT:
free-flow touring of performing arts between Australia and Aotearoa
Join stakeholders from both countries in an immersive, cut-to-the-chase and lively encounter as they interrogate getting this bridge built. Ben Crowder will step in as ringmaster to keep the conversation moving.
ARTS & DISABILITY IN AOTEAROA AND AUSTRALIA: The Last Avant Garde Arts movement
A conversation with Rodney Bell (Ngāti Maniapoto) and Jodee Mundy OAM (Melbourne). Facilitated by Stace Robertson (Arts Access Aotearoa), this critical conversation explores the burgeoning movement of Disability- led creative practice and Disability-led festivals growing in the Oceania region and the world.
INDUSTRY UPDATES
During the Arts Market delegates will also hear updates from practitioners on APAM, the NZ Presenter Training Programme, Green Theatre Touring, KAMS / Asia NZ Project, and the Tri-Nations Indigenous Performing Arts Collective Strategy.
