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Dorita Hannah

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Dorita Hannah
a smiling person with shoulder length dark brown hair looks at the camera
Hannah at the A+W NZ 2023 Dulux Awards
Alma materUniversity of Auckland
New York University
Occupation(s)Architect
Adjunct professor
Visual artist
AwardsCostume Designer of the Year 1994, Set Designer of the Year 1996
ProjectsPhoneHome 2018, Fluid States 2015, Flood 2015, Now/Next: Performance Space at the Crossroads 2011

Dorita Hannah is a New Zealand architect, independent academic, visual artist and designer. She has had an architectural practice, taught at various institutions in New Zealand and internationally, and has published articles and book chapters including Event-Space: Theatre Architecture and the Historical Avant-Garde (2018).

Education

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Hannah trained in architecture, receiving her BArch (hons) at the University of Auckland in 1984.[1] She received two postgraduate degrees at New York University: a Master of Arts with Distinction in Performance Studies in 2000, and a PhD with Distinction from the Tisch School of the Arts in 2008.[2][1][3]

Professional life

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Hannah had an architectural practice with Felicity Wallace called Hannah Wallace Architects.[4] They designed the Watershed Theatre (1991-1996)[5] on Auckland's waterfront.[4] This happened twice: the first completed in 1991 was demolished, and was located where the New Zealand Maritime Museum currently is; the second was completed in 1993.[4]

Since 1986, Hannah has taught architecture, design and visual arts, undertaking academic research at Victoria University of Wellington and Massey University in New Zealand, and has held a positions at international universities in Australia, Serbia, the Netherlands, China, USA, and Finland.[6][7][1] She is a "self-professed nomadic professor" whose work embraces diversity and the marginalised.[8]

Hannah's practice and research focus on performance space and spatial performativity, spanning the spatial, visual, performing and culinary arts.[9] She specialises in theatre architecture and performance space, and her designs "incorporate scenography, interior, exhibition and installation design".[10]

Selected artistic works

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  • Architect for the Watershed Theatre, Auckland, 1991 and again in 1993.[4]
  • Set designer for Hone Kouka's play Nga tangata toa – the warrior people, at Auckland's Watershed Theatre in 1995.[11]
  • Exhibition curator and designer of Now/Next Performance Space at the Crossroads in 2011.[12]
  • Co-curator and director of design for Fluid States at Performance Studies International PSi #21 in 2015.[13]
  • Architecture and performance designer for Flood in 2015.[14]
  • Design director and co-curator, PhoneHome exhibition, Architecture and Urbanism Biennial in Valparaíso, Chile in 2017.[15]
  • Scenographer for Emily Perkin's play The Made, at Auckland Theatre Company in 2022.[9]

Selected academic works

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Hannah is author of the 2018 book, Event-Space: Theatre Architecture and the Historical Avant-Garde, described by scholar Jan Smitheram as "exceptionally engaging, and [offering] thoughtful speculations about the negotiation of theatre and architecture."[16] Her book is based on her PhD in Performance Studies of the same name.[17][6]

  • Dorita Hannah (2 October 2019). "NOW/NEXT: Performance Space at the Crossroads". Theatre and Performance Design. 5 (3–4): 212–232. doi:10.1080/23322551.2019.1696073. ISSN 2332-2551. Wikidata Q118501920.
  • Dorita Hannah (2018). Event-Space: Theatre Architecture and the Historical Avant-Garde. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-83217-5. Wikidata Q118501971.
  • Dorita Hannah (2014). "Alarming the heart: Costume as performative body-object-event". Scene. 2 (1–2): 15–34. ISSN 2044-3714. Wikidata Q118503027.

Awards

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Hannah won Theatre Aotearoa's Chapman Tripp Theatre Award for Costume Designer of the Year in 1994 (for the play Nga tangata toa – the warrior people) and Set Designer of the Year in 1996 (for the play, The Visit).[18] She was also nominated for the same awards in 1995 for costume design and set design, and in 1996 for costume design.[18]

Hannah was the Theatre Design Consultant for the Blyth Performing Arts Centre, designed by Stevens Lawson Architects, which received the New Zealand Architecture Medal in 2015.[19][20][10]

In 2023 and 2017, Hannah was a finalist for the A+W•NZ Dulux Awards, based on a career devoted to supporting and promoting diversity in architecture.[8] Several of her works have been chosen to be exhibited at the Prague Quadrennial (PQ), and she has also participated at PQ as core creative team member, international juror and international commissioner.[8]

References

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  1. ^ a b c "Hannah, Dorita". University of Auckland – Profiles. Retrieved 19 May 2023.
  2. ^ "Dorita Hannah". NZPQ.info. 2 March 2015. Retrieved 19 May 2023.
  3. ^ Dorita Hannah (2008), Event-space : theater architecture and the historical avant-garde, United States of America, p. 474, Wikidata Q118502305{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  4. ^ a b c d Cox, Elizabeth (2022). "The Faces of Change: Practice in the 1960s-1990s". Making Space : a history of New Zealand women in architecture. Massey University Press. p. 209. ISBN 9781991016348.
  5. ^ Derby, Mark (22 October 2014). "Theatre companies and producers - Theatre companies since the 1970s". Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Retrieved 20 May 2023.
  6. ^ a b "Dorita Hannah". doritahannah.academia.edu. Retrieved 20 May 2023.
  7. ^ "Hannah, Dorita". National Library of New Zealand. Retrieved 20 May 2023.
  8. ^ a b c "Winners: A+W•NZ Dulux Awards 2017". Architecture Now. Retrieved 18 January 2024.
  9. ^ a b "The Made, Auckland Theatre Company". www.atc.co.nz. Retrieved 19 May 2023.
  10. ^ a b Architecture + Women NZ Dulux Awards 2017. Architecture + Women NZ. 2017. ISBN 978-0-473-40916-6.
  11. ^ Guest, Bill. "Theatre design – New directions in theatre design". Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Retrieved 20 May 2023.
  12. ^ "Now/Next: Performance Space at the Crossroads | Best Awards". bestawards.co.nz. Retrieved 20 May 2023.
  13. ^ "PSi #21 2015: FLUID STATES – About the project". Drugo More. 5 August 2013. Retrieved 20 May 2023.
  14. ^ Brown, Carol; Hannah, Dorita; Scoones, R.; Erceg, L.; Nepia, M. (9 October 2018). "FLOOD (New Zealand Prague Quadrenniale 2015)". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  15. ^ Honey, Tommy (15 February 2019). "Review: PhoneHome". Architecture Now. Retrieved 20 May 2023.
  16. ^ Jan Smitheram (2 September 2019). "Event-Space: Theatre Architecture and the Historical Avant-Garde". Fabrications: the journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand. 29 (3): 436–438. doi:10.1080/10331867.2019.1661061. ISSN 1033-1867. Wikidata Q118502037.
  17. ^ Dorita Hannah (2008), Event-space : theater architecture and the historical avant-garde, United States of America, p. 474, Wikidata Q118502305{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  18. ^ a b "Winners of the Wellington-based Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards". Theatre Aotearoa. Retrieved 19 May 2023.
  19. ^ "The Blyth Performing Arts Centre / Stevens Lawson Architects". ArchDaily. 9 November 2015. Retrieved 18 January 2024.
  20. ^ Architects (www.nzia.co.nz), NZ Institute of. "New Zealand Architecture Award winners in pictures". NZ Institute of Architects (www.nzia.co.nz). Retrieved 18 January 2024.
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