The Star: July 16, 2020

The Star Thursday July 16 2020
18
OUR PEOPLE
FEATHER SHAW
No featherweight when it comes to
Feather Shaw recently
started a full-time
role as co-owner of
Christchurch venue
Darkroom. She has
been heavily involved
in the arts scene as a
performer and support
person. Matt Slaughter
spoke to her about her
goals to support city
musicians and artists
in this role and her
background in creative
arts
Your real name is Emma, why
do you use the name Feather?
I’m quite a little human and
I was very, very light as a baby
and a toddler and I was light as
a feather and then it became a
nickname and then when I got
older and started using it as a
stage name, when I started
doing burlesque and cabaret
and stuff, it just was natural to
use Feather.
What do you want to achieve
for the Christchurch arts
community during your time as
Darkroom co-owner?
Our venue is a really small
space and it’s quite forgiving.
It’s the kind of place where an
emerging band can play to 20
people and do those kind of
really low risk [shows]. The
space is still going to feel full
and okay if only 10 or 20 people
come to your gig. A lot of more
established artists played some
of their very early gigs here.
So, Yumi Zouma played their
first-ever gig at Darkroom under
its old management when it
first opened in 2011, people like
Marlon Williams, Nadia Reid
and Aldous Harding have played
there over the years and I think
it’s a really important stepping
stone in getting to a place of
higher success or producing
more work as a performer of
any medium, is having those
accessible, little spaces to start
out in.
We provide that space as
a small venue, but then, my
business partner and I, we’ve
worked in various event
management and venue roles
and performance and backstage
and logistics and administrative
roles within the arts, that we’re
like, wow, we’re sitting on quite
an incredible skillset here that
we want to share with others free
of charge to help them develop, I
suppose, the admin skills to back
up their creative talents.
In particular, we have a real
focus on reaching out to young
adults, so emerging artists,
people who are maybe still
students or in their late teens or
early 20s.
Also, we want to really focus
on making sure that we provide
space for diversity, so it’s not
all, kind of, straight, white men
on the stage. It’s like are we
seeing indigenous artists, people
of colour, LGBTQI+ artists?
And, for me, as a woman in
the scene, it’s really important
to have female and non-binary
representation on the stage as
well.
What is your background in
creative arts?
I’m from Ōtepoti, Dunedin.
That’s where I grew up and went
to high school and university.
I did a theatre studies degree
down there and I actually only
moved to Ōtautahi, Christchurch
about three years ago. Since
being up here, I’ve done a bunch
of different things, I’ve studied
contemporary dance at Hagley
College, I worked at the Court
Theatre as a stage manager and
follow spot operator, I worked
in some backstage roles at Isaac
Theatre Royal, I worked at Hang-
Up Entertainment in logistics for
big touring shows pushing road
cases and hanging lights and
stuff like that and then the job
at Bromley Community Centre,
which was event and community
development kind of stuff.
In terms of a performance
skillset, I do stand-up comedy,
burlesque, cabaret, lots of event
hosting, I MC quite a bit, dance,
circus, theatre, I’ve written and
directed plays, so [I’m] kind of
a performing arts all-rounder, I
guess.
What are some of the most
memorable things you’ve done
as a performer?
One of my most recent ones
that I’ve been really excited
about was my first experience
with making videos and online
content. During lockdown, I
did a social history series called
Woolston Walkies, because I
live in the suburb of Woolston.
Every day I visited a different
location and it was kind of funny
and goofy. I’m out for my daily
exercise walk and we’re going
to the old fish factory, the old
gumboot factory.
There were all these underlying
themes of, like, poverty and that
it was a low socio-economic
area and that the river’s really
polluted, but the river used
SUPPORTIVE:
Feather Shaw
co-owns
Christchurch
venue Darkroom
and is helping
more young
people
from diverse
backgrounds
become
involved in the
city’s arts scene.
PHOTO: GEOFF
SLOAN ​
to be a really important kai
gathering resource for local iwi
pre-European colonisation. We
were exploring industrialisation
and big factory layoffs and
factories closing down and stuff.
Over 25,000 people were
reached through the posts, they
were viewed between 200 and
2000 times each video, my likes
and engagement on my artist
[Facebook] page increased by,
like, double. I went from kind of
having 500 fans to, I’ve got about
1200 now and I was getting fan
mail.
Some of my other favourite
[moments] probably have been,
I did a solo show about mental
health and my dad passing away
about five years ago now and a
couple of years after his death, I
kind of wrote a one-woman play,
storytelling kind of thing and
toured that around to Dunedin,
Christchurch and Auckland and
all of the shows sold out and all
of them got standing ovations.
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