Preston, Julieanna. HARK [performance], What if the City was a Theatre?/ Performance Arcade, Wellington, New Zealand, 22-28 February 2021.
HARK was a seven-night performance, 8-9pm each night as the day turned to night. It invited an audience to witness the reading of a letter, the dispatch of a message and a song-line, casting wairua to my great grandmother Stança, across the neighbourhood, the city, the harbour, the island, the oceans, the canyons, the prairie and the cemetery. In this context, ‘hark’ is a calling, a cry to listen, a going back, and an arousal, a stirring up, to cross the atmospheric distance with an utterance acknowledging that what I bring with me as a Pākehā to Aotearoa. It engages the city as a spatio-temporal theatre, life as performance and the air waves as conduits to time which is merely a condensation of water droplets sticking to things like bits of dust, ice or sea salt that have travelled as far as I have, and far, far more.
A different performance occurred each night at a different location in the Wellington region. I lived at the house in each location.
Monday 22 Feb/ 14 St Mary’s Street, Thorndon, Wellington_recording: https://vimeo.com/515496998
Tuesday 23 Feb/ 3 Lipman Street, Mt Victoria, Wellington_ recording: https://vimeo.com/515498529
Wednesday 24 Feb/ 5 Tutchen Avenue, Mt Victoria, Wellington_recording: https://vimeo.com/515499912
Thursday 25 February/ 56 Motuhara Road, Plimmerton_recording: https://vimeo.com/515501077
Friday 26 February/ 106 Pirie Street, Mt Victoria, Wellington_recording: https://vimeo.com/515503003
Saturday 27 Feb/ 9 Konini Road, Hataitai, Wellington_recording: https://vimeo.com/515503950
Sunday 28 February/ 10 Kāpiti Lane, Otaki Beach_recording: https://vimeo.com/515505520
Thank you to research assistants Fraser Walker, Ilish Thomas, Lily Joyce, Caroline Hollow, Elton Irvine, and Mia Morris.