Hamilton poet to compete for trip to the UK
Hamilton-based journalist Kashka Tunstall might get the chance to perform her poetry on a UK stage.
Writing earns her a living, and the poetry Kashka Tunstall creates in her spare time could win her a trip to the UK.
The Hamilton-based journalist is one of four mentees selected for an artist development programme called Page 2 Stage.
“The whole idea is it’s like a series of workshops and you communicate with all these different people. Everyone was paired with a mentor.”
The mentees will present a combined final show in October, and the winner will head to the UK to show off their spoken word stage performance.
As a half-Brit, Tunstall would love be that person.
“But just the idea that we’ve got the funding and the opportunity to do that for any of the poets that are in that programme is kind of just amazing,” she said.
“The fact [Page 2 Stage] have enough pull to be able to get free flights to England and the opportunity to perform on some of the big stages over there with some of the biggest names… It’s kind of incredible.”
Tunstall’s first inspiration for spoken word poetry was a “crazy inspiring and motivating” TED talk by Sarah Kay.
There weren’t too many opportunities for poets in Hamilton, so she created some for herself, then jumped at the Page 2 Stage opportunity.
She was delighted to be matched with performance expert Lynn Cardy from the Auckland Theatre Company.
“I’ve been writing for ages, and I mean that’s what I do for a living… but performance is like this completely foreign element to me,” said Tunstall.
“Just having spent time with Lynn and looked at the performance aspect of the whole performance poetry thing is beneficial all in itself.”
Cardy coached Tunstall through the year, helped her prepare for a solo show, and will continue in the lead-up to the final presentation.
So, what is performance poetry?
“It’s combining the ideas of theatre and poetry basically. It’s taking poetry off a page and putting it on a stage,” she said.
“The idea that I really like about it is it’s a really, really old tradition of telling oral stories, and bringing it into a modern era.”
Tunstall thinks New Zealanders might have a natural bent for it since this is the land of the mihi, but each country and each person has their own style.
“I really like simple, pared back shows. I like the idea of letting the words speak for themselves.”
The final Page 2 Stage show will be on Sunday 27 October, at The PumpHouse, in Takapuna, Auckland.
