Concrete Playground

The performers of Okareka Dance Company have been busy rehearsing for their new show K'Rd Strip: A Place to Stand which premieres at Q Theatre on June 11. It's a dance / theatre piece which encompasses pole dancing, haka, contemporary dance and dramatic scenes entwined with live vocals. According to...

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Mark Albiston (left) and Louis Sutherland have been mates since primary school. In recent years they have put their film making talents together to create widely acclaimed short films based on their experiences of growing up on the Kapiti Coast. Their first feature film Shopping has taken...

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Jessica Daniell is an interpreneur, a social media-savvy saveur, a fab cook and a bloody good chick. If you haven't heard of Jess' Underground Kitchen yet, well, you have now. This internet phenomenon stemmed from a conversation between friends in Jess' kitchen one night. The lucky dinner guest said she'd...

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"Sitting on a bench in Wicks Park in Marrickville, reading a field report by The Lifted Brow's Sam Cooney, I madly looked around for a caramel door described in the text. There it was! As if the writer had put the doorway there himself! Of course, I knew he hadn't,...

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We sat down with funny man Tom Green who was visiting New Zealand for the first time to perform at The New Zealand International Comedy Festival. We brought him along some of Auckland's finest Chicken Burgers (click here to see why). One from Bird on a Wire (a delicious free range chicken...

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This afternoon I stood up and leant on a filing cabinet while waiting in anticipation for an exciting phone call. After a few minutes the phone call came through - from LA. On the phone, was a Marlon Wayans. He had called me to have a chat about his upcoming trip to New...

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As the creator and host of This American Life, one of modern radio's truly great story hours, Ira Glass needs little introduction. But now Ira is trying his hand as a film producer. Marcus Costello caught up with him ahead of the Australian release of Sleepwalk with Me, a comedy...

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"What is this kind of film?" This question is not, as one might expect, asked by a journalist following a screening of Trance, or by a member of the public curious about the billboards currently filling London. Rather, it is asked by Vincent Cassel, one of the film's leads, to...

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Electronic producers Antix (Producer brothers Hayden and Barton Strom, 1st and 2nd from left in the photo above) and Tim Richards (far right) have collaborated on a brand-new, addictive dance track that is already making a huge impression on the radio ahead of its April download release. ‘Another Day’ has just...

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Recently, Hayden McMillan, one of Auckland's top chefs, curated a 5 course degustation menu titled Amici di Peroni, that was shared with some invited guests in Oneroa, on Waiheke Island (video below). The menu includes a Tomato and Watermelon Gazpacho, Betroot Cured Salmon Gravlax, Pork Belly with Avocado and Prawns, Milk-fed Lamb with Peas,...

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“I’m a muddler freak,” laughs mixologist Tomas Vikario. He’s talking, of course, about the bartenders' tool which is used to muddle or mash ingredients together at the bottom of a cocktail glass. (Tomas has an unhealthy collection of 20 muddlers; one is even custom-made). Concrete Playground’s favourite cheeky mixologist is showing...

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University of Auckland drama students Haemia Foote (below left) and Amie Bentall (below right), along with Amanda Grace Leo and Bethney Abbey have started a theatre group called Female Company. Their debut play Agnes of God will be performed at the university drama studio next month. Haemia and Amie chatted...

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