Liz Puranam
Toa Fraser has written and directed some of New Zealand's most successful plays and movies, and has recently won this year’s Fulbright-Creative New Zealand Pacific Writer’s Residency at the University of Hawai‘i.
Fraser's got more to chew on these days after plotting the play
No. 2 with long-time friend Madeline Sami in the late 90s.
“First discussed it in KFC on Ponsonby Road, the time of the morning was 11 o'clock, bit early to be in a KFC - but we were young back in those days.
The 35-year-old went on to turn
No. 2 into a successful feature film.
He also directed the fantasy
Dean Spanley, a comedy about canine reincarnation which looks at the special relationships between fathers, sons and dogs.
Fraser is of British, Fijian and Samoan descent and plans to use the residency to complete the screenplay for a film adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's novella
The Beach at Falesa.
“I'm in a very perfect position to be able to take another look at Robert Louis Stevenson's original story which is set in the pacific in the 1800s,” he says.
The residency will be in Honolulu and Fraser says he is looking forward to a balance of work and play.
“I have to learn to surf. I want to do some yoga and go to a couple of restaurants, so, you know, I’ve got a lot to achieve,” says Fraser.
Fraser has won the residency fresh off having just completed his latest screenplay.
“It is without question the best thing that I’ve written. I say that, heart on my sleeve and quite objectively because I’m so proud of it. I read it back and laugh,” he says.
So with that project soon to be revealed and
The Beach at Falesa on the horizon for Fraser, his future appears to be finger licking good.