Auckland's Art Festival is filling the streets, parks and theatres for the next two weeks with light, colour and music. Find out what's on this week and our don't miss pics.

"Hold on," says the woman on the end of the line. "He is in rehearsal right now. I'll just go and grab him."

When actor-singer Robbie Tripe lost his long-running battle with depression last November, grieving family and friends wanted to ensure the death of the 41-year-old would not be in vain.

Pip Hall, the daughter of playwright Roger Hall, is a playwright herself, as well as a scriptwriter, actor and producer. Eight years ago she started synchronised swimming troupe Wet Hot Beauties.

The first evening concert of Te Uru Waitakere's Black Rainbow festival augured well for the gallery's enterprising cultural mix.

Italy's leading tourist attractions including the Colosseum could soon be in foreign hands as the country seeks new directors from around the world to make its museums more profitable.

Starship nurses dressed up as cats and a doctor wrapped himself in green bandages to look like a leprechaun in their efforts to settle a young leukaemia patient.

Jenna Searle has never let the loss of most of her left lung at birth hold her back from her love of singing.

Being young can often mean a lot of people will disregard what you have to say.

The World of WearbleArt is underway in Wellington. The gallery features a selection of images from this years event.

From the start, New Zealand Opera's Don Giovanni presented the mix of tragedy and comedy stipulated in the opera's description as "dramma giocoso" (playful drama).

Michael Hurst, ONZM — actor, director, stage and screen veteran — is starring in Trees Beneath the Lake at Auckland’s Maidment Theatre.

Auckland opera audiences have become accustomed to having Verdi and Puccini presented through the eyes of female directors from across the Tasman.

After the disappointment of the NZ Symphony Orchestra's last visit, its Friday concert was a welcome return to form, writes William Dart.

Stars of stage and screen will fly in to pay tribute to the modest Kiwi vocal coach and mentor who helped put them on the map.

With a cast of 25, a live band, dancers and video projections, The Tautai of Digital Winds presents a truly epic piece of community-based theatre.

Johan Kobborg's Les Lutins, still in classical mode, cavorts and struts its sweetly saucy stuff to the live virtuoso violin of Benjamin Baker and Michael Pansters on piano.

Rising Kiwi piano star Sylvia Jiang will soon be the toast of New York - but not before she wows Kerikeri.