On The Edge: On Springfield Road by Hone Kouka

Part of Breaking Ground 2026

In this intimate session, we hold space for a live, raw reading of a vital new play in development. This is your invitation to sit beside the flame of creation before the ink is fully dry.

We welcome our community, arts audiences, and potential venue and festival partners to witness this latest work, and celebrate new Indigenous scriptwriting in development.

On Springfield Road is the new work award winning writer Hone Kouka (Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Kahungunu) is a father, a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, an acclaimed Māori writer, producer and director, the youngest winner of the Bruce Mason Playwriting Award.

In 2022, Hone was named an Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi Laureate, receiving the Sir Roger Hall Theatre Award. Hone’s plays include Ngā Tangata Toa, Waiora: Te Ūkaipō, The Prophet, and Bless The Child. In 2004, Hone co-founded the production company, Tawata Productions, focusing on the development and presentation of new theatre by Māori and Pasifika artists. Hone is also the co-founder of Kia Mau Festival.

Breaking Ground returns for another year of intensive Indigenous new writing. Our festival has created space for bold and brilliant new works in Te Whanganui-a-Tara since its inception in 2010. Artists are a vital part of our communities and the current landscape presents fewer and fewer opportunities for us to gather, to wānanga, and to create. The 2026 programme responds to the growing need to hold on to spaces where writers can thrive and where the iconic stories of tomorrow can be unearthed.

Breaking Ground is produced by Te Whanganui-a-Tara based creative company, Tawata Productions, and made possible by our partners Wellington City Council and Creative New Zealand.

2pm Sunday 22 November 2026

See Ticketing T&Cs.