"Flash"
By Kate Morris, Directed by David Lawrence
One Act Play.
"Flash by Kate Morris examines the negative way that social media can be used, and the very true statement that sometimes a photo is more than a photo.
What would you do if a revealing photo of you was released to your friends and colleagues? How would you argue your innocence when being faced with suspension or expulsion? Flash features some young and passionate up and coming actresses as the five girls who are sent to the principal's office to plead their innocence in front of their recently graduated media studies teacher whose well-intentioned school project has gone awry."
Reviews:
Dominion Post
Theatreview.org.nz
Capital Times
Sketch Fortune Theatre Studio (2011)
Reading of Sketch was held by Stage South in the Fortune Theatre Studio Dunedin in September 2011.
Sketch BATS THEATRE (2011)
International debut of play Sketch at BATS Theatre Wellington in September 2011 under production company Page Left.
Dominion Post Review of Sketch by Kate Morris:Sketch
by Kate Morris
directed by Eleanor Bishop
Page Left
at BATS, Wellington
From 6 Sep 2011 to 17 Sep 2011
[1hr 15mins]
Reviewed by Laurie Atkinson, 8 Sep 2011
originally published in The Dominion PostSketch is an admirably ambitious play and it has been given a well-mounted production by Eleanor Bishop and her designer, Alice Hill, and her sound and lighting designer, Thomas Press. Her eight actors all give strong, straightforward performances of familiar stereotypes of the fashionable art world.
The play takes place in the Tenzing Gallery in Wellington. A clichéd arty-farty crowd is attending an opening of a major new work by an up-and-coming artist, Sasaki (Sonia Yee), for whom the gallery owner (Ralph Johnson) and an art dealer (Paul McLaughlin) have great hopes, particularly as a wealthy American collector is said to be paying a visit because of the opening.
The new work is unveiled and it is clearly nothing like the artist's previous work. It is an installation which at first glance seems to be a collaboration between Tracey Emin and Damien Hurst. But not even these two artists have ever done anything as outrageous as Sasaki who has created a large glass enclosed, sterile room with a toilet, rows and rows of medicine bottles, and a terminally ill young woman (Alex Lodge) lying in a bed.
Just when you think that the play is going to be a discussion about What is Art? it, like Yasmina Reza's Art, morphs into a play about relationships. The playwright in the programme states her play is not abut the superficial art world and power and status but about “thosed missed connections, moments of cowardice, and our human need to be seen and heard by those we love.”
Sketch Radio Adaptation (2010/2011)
Medium: Radio Drama
Adaptation of stage play Sketch.Audio for this drama available here.
Cacophodot 1.0 (2010)
Medium: Experimental Music/Performance Art
Created for Blow Festival’s Musicircus
Cacophodot is an experimental trio which allows random elements to inform the music that is heard. Each of the trio represents a colour: red, blue or green. These colours display as dots on a flash animation. Each time a coloured dot is displayed the corresponding musician will sound a note. The animation is programmed to gradually become faster and faster until the musician can no longer physically play. It is set to a 3 minute cycle after which we will repeat the sequence.
Capital E: End Game (2010)
Medium: Stageplay
Script: Kate Morris & Rachel Callinan
Toured nationally 2010. Aimed at 8-12 year olds.
A techno-obsessed Mother and son find themselves thrown into the fictional world of the immensely popular Fablestory RPG (role playing game). The only way out is to play... but that will require working together.
Reviews here:
John Smythe
Laurie Atkinson
Otago Museum: Cosmix Project (2006)
Medium: Educational Comic Book
http://www/cosmix.co.nz/home.html
Role:
Commissioned Writer for “Broken Dawn” serial and single page cartoons “Eugenius” and “Homonid”
Challenge:
To incorporate science and technology into a narrative aimed at young to mid-teens
Award: Voted “Favourite New Writer” at the Gibson Awards ’06 (NZ Comic Book Awards)
Daddy’s Dollar (2007)
Winner of “Playright 07″ a National One Act Play Competition.
Herald Theatre, The Edge. Auckland.
Cast: 3
Tag line: “The first thing you do when you come into this world is cause somebody pain.”
Synopsis: A deceased infant describes the sequence of events leading to her death.
Review: Renee Laing from The Lumière Reader
“Daddy’s Dollar by Kate Morris, directed by Lauren Jackson, is a mysterious play which skilfully weaves in elements of suspense, surprise plot reveals and fairytale/horror as a father is called to account for his horrendous actions. Although I found the action of the heroine (played with great commitment by Hannah Banks) a little too energetic at times for the story, overall it was a strong performance from three great actors. Jonathan Hodge and Tahi Mapp-Borren manage to pull off performances of subtlety and pathos throughout, despite being rather gorgeously dressed as teddy bears. The final plot twist (which I won’t reveal) occurs in an atmosphere of almost unbearable emotional intensity. The bold staging, by designers Estelle Macdonald and Kate Burton, who had to design a set to accommodate all three plays, complements the spareness of the dialogue perfectly. A bolt of red fabric (of the sort used by circus acrobats) hangs from the ceiling in the centre of the stage, a sort of dividing line between the real world and the fairytale world – or should that be the line between hope and truth? As reality increasingly impinges on a storybook world, the fabric is twisted, knotted, swung on and split in a striking visual metaphor for the action of the play. A striking use of the theatrical medium which I couldn’t help thinking about, well after the play ended.”
http://lumiere.net.nz/reader/arts.php/item/1356
Pictozine II: NZ Comic Anthology (2007)
Medium: Comic Book
Role: Contributer
Concept & Script: K. Morris
Artwork: A. Morris
By Kate Morris, Directed by David Lawrence
One Act Play.
"Flash by Kate Morris examines the negative way that social media can be used, and the very true statement that sometimes a photo is more than a photo.
What would you do if a revealing photo of you was released to your friends and colleagues? How would you argue your innocence when being faced with suspension or expulsion? Flash features some young and passionate up and coming actresses as the five girls who are sent to the principal's office to plead their innocence in front of their recently graduated media studies teacher whose well-intentioned school project has gone awry."
Reviews:
Dominion Post
Theatreview.org.nz
Capital Times
Sketch Fortune Theatre Studio (2011)
Reading of Sketch was held by Stage South in the Fortune Theatre Studio Dunedin in September 2011.
Sketch BATS THEATRE (2011)
International debut of play Sketch at BATS Theatre Wellington in September 2011 under production company Page Left.
Dominion Post Review of Sketch by Kate Morris:Sketch
by Kate Morris
directed by Eleanor Bishop
Page Left
at BATS, Wellington
From 6 Sep 2011 to 17 Sep 2011
[1hr 15mins]
Reviewed by Laurie Atkinson, 8 Sep 2011
originally published in The Dominion PostSketch is an admirably ambitious play and it has been given a well-mounted production by Eleanor Bishop and her designer, Alice Hill, and her sound and lighting designer, Thomas Press. Her eight actors all give strong, straightforward performances of familiar stereotypes of the fashionable art world.
The play takes place in the Tenzing Gallery in Wellington. A clichéd arty-farty crowd is attending an opening of a major new work by an up-and-coming artist, Sasaki (Sonia Yee), for whom the gallery owner (Ralph Johnson) and an art dealer (Paul McLaughlin) have great hopes, particularly as a wealthy American collector is said to be paying a visit because of the opening.
The new work is unveiled and it is clearly nothing like the artist's previous work. It is an installation which at first glance seems to be a collaboration between Tracey Emin and Damien Hurst. But not even these two artists have ever done anything as outrageous as Sasaki who has created a large glass enclosed, sterile room with a toilet, rows and rows of medicine bottles, and a terminally ill young woman (Alex Lodge) lying in a bed.
Just when you think that the play is going to be a discussion about What is Art? it, like Yasmina Reza's Art, morphs into a play about relationships. The playwright in the programme states her play is not abut the superficial art world and power and status but about “thosed missed connections, moments of cowardice, and our human need to be seen and heard by those we love.”
Sketch Radio Adaptation (2010/2011)
Medium: Radio Drama
Adaptation of stage play Sketch.Audio for this drama available here.
Cacophodot 1.0 (2010)
Medium: Experimental Music/Performance Art
Created for Blow Festival’s Musicircus
Cacophodot is an experimental trio which allows random elements to inform the music that is heard. Each of the trio represents a colour: red, blue or green. These colours display as dots on a flash animation. Each time a coloured dot is displayed the corresponding musician will sound a note. The animation is programmed to gradually become faster and faster until the musician can no longer physically play. It is set to a 3 minute cycle after which we will repeat the sequence.
Capital E: End Game (2010)
Medium: Stageplay
Script: Kate Morris & Rachel Callinan
Toured nationally 2010. Aimed at 8-12 year olds.
A techno-obsessed Mother and son find themselves thrown into the fictional world of the immensely popular Fablestory RPG (role playing game). The only way out is to play... but that will require working together.
Reviews here:
John Smythe
Laurie Atkinson
Otago Museum: Cosmix Project (2006)
Medium: Educational Comic Book
http://www/cosmix.co.nz/home.html
Role:
Commissioned Writer for “Broken Dawn” serial and single page cartoons “Eugenius” and “Homonid”
Challenge:
To incorporate science and technology into a narrative aimed at young to mid-teens
Award: Voted “Favourite New Writer” at the Gibson Awards ’06 (NZ Comic Book Awards)
Daddy’s Dollar (2007)
Winner of “Playright 07″ a National One Act Play Competition.
Herald Theatre, The Edge. Auckland.
Cast: 3
Tag line: “The first thing you do when you come into this world is cause somebody pain.”
Synopsis: A deceased infant describes the sequence of events leading to her death.
Review: Renee Laing from The Lumière Reader
“Daddy’s Dollar by Kate Morris, directed by Lauren Jackson, is a mysterious play which skilfully weaves in elements of suspense, surprise plot reveals and fairytale/horror as a father is called to account for his horrendous actions. Although I found the action of the heroine (played with great commitment by Hannah Banks) a little too energetic at times for the story, overall it was a strong performance from three great actors. Jonathan Hodge and Tahi Mapp-Borren manage to pull off performances of subtlety and pathos throughout, despite being rather gorgeously dressed as teddy bears. The final plot twist (which I won’t reveal) occurs in an atmosphere of almost unbearable emotional intensity. The bold staging, by designers Estelle Macdonald and Kate Burton, who had to design a set to accommodate all three plays, complements the spareness of the dialogue perfectly. A bolt of red fabric (of the sort used by circus acrobats) hangs from the ceiling in the centre of the stage, a sort of dividing line between the real world and the fairytale world – or should that be the line between hope and truth? As reality increasingly impinges on a storybook world, the fabric is twisted, knotted, swung on and split in a striking visual metaphor for the action of the play. A striking use of the theatrical medium which I couldn’t help thinking about, well after the play ended.”
http://lumiere.net.nz/reader/arts.php/item/1356
Pictozine II: NZ Comic Anthology (2007)
Medium: Comic Book
Role: Contributer
Concept & Script: K. Morris
Artwork: A. Morris
