If you know anyone who thinks the arts festival isn't for blokes take them to see BLAM! - a 75-minute blast of testosterone-driven mayhem with amped-up, gaming style SFX and a heavy-metal soundtrack.

Playing the human star of the Walking With Dinosaurs live show is a dream role for Actor Andrew Blackman. He talks to Rachel Bache.

Attending one or both of these two new plays by the prolific Renee Liang would be a great way to start a Lantern Festival visit this weekend.

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 brilliantly inventive stagecraft energises a uniformly excellent cast who bring a clear sense of purpose to the smallest details of their performances.

Robert Smith talks to the 5th Doctor, still happily wandering the Whoniverse.

Stories about shocking pink taffeta ballgowns, drinking Baileys at the Open Late Café and seeing Dave Dobbyn at the Gluepot; this audio tour shamelessly mythologises Ponsonby in the 1980s.

There was only one thing that mildly irked Joyce Irving when she got her performance schedule for A Midsummer Night's Dream: she wouldn't appear every night.

As a setting for Shakespeare it would be hard to beat the café balcony of the historic Pah Homestead.

Local playwright Victor Rodger has followed up last year's revival (Sons) and premiere (At the Wake) with a new play that brings a light touch to tragedy.

Wonder of Who is as much about the music as the monsters, writes Phil Welch.

Brian Blessed has withdrawn from a production of Shakepeare's King Lear, a week after collapsing on stage.

Michael Palin gives Dominic Corry insights on Kiwis and humour.

A festival show has patrons pounding streets, finds Rebecca Barry-Hill.

Antony Sher compares him to the Bard, and he has been dubbed the greatest living playwright. John Nathan on Tom Stoppard's long-awaited comeback.

When the wild and unclassifiable genius Warwick Broadhead went to live on Waiheke Island six years ago, he liked saying that he was entering his "contemplative years".

The curtain is rising on the long-awaited Auckland Theatre Company's new Wynyard Quarter complex after ASB Bank upped its contribution.

Shakespeare's tale of teenage love is brought to life with an authentic, very contemporary infusion of teenage vitality from the Young Auckland Shakespeare Company.

The Basement's Christmas fundraising tradition is as scruffy and silly as a present wrapped by toddlers using tinsel and a gluestick.

Finding Warwick Broadhead's house on Waiheke Island is a bit of a mission. The confusion comes down to the distinction between east and west, which seems faintly ironic, since his current inspiration is of distinctly oriental origin.

Director Shane Bosher and the Silo Theatre team behind the staging of Tony Kushner's epic Angels in America last night won top prize at the annual Auckland Theatre Awards.