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Talia Pua is a theatre-maker, performer and designer of playful interactions.

✷ Interaction & Play Designer

I harness the power of play to design interactive experiences for community engagement, reflection and education. I’ve worked across augmented reality, desktop games and tactile interaction as a game designer, scriptwriter and project manager. Tactile interaction and play is where my heart is at.

✷ Theatre-maker

When I’m not performing on-stage, you’ll find me behind the scenes hustling as a director, playwright, and set designer. In 2020, I co-founded independent theatre-company Hand Pulled Collective, which brings stories from our communities to the stage through visionary theatre.

Résumé

Employment

Game Designer, Scriptwriter and Project Manager
GeoAR Games & InGame, 2020 – 2022

  • Project Management
  • Game Designer – Designing the game rules and mechanics, writing the game design document for developers and designers.
  • Scriptwriter – Writing all the game text e.g. instructions, facts, dialogue

Interaction and Play Developer
Brightside, Auckland University of Technology, 2020
Designing a playful and interactive facilitation tool for group discussion in a workshop context.

Curatorial Intern
L’Agence de Développement de la Culture Kanak, Nouméa, New Caledonia, 2019
This two week internship involved designing a proof of concept for a virtual visit for one of the current exhibitions at the Tjibaou Cultural Centre.

Costume Assistant
Basement Theatre, Shift Aotearoa, 2019
For ‘AKL, Babel’ (dir. Amber Liberté). 3D modelling and printing a series of white buildings as part of a wearable city-scape costume.

Other Projects

Dani and the Age of Wonder (in development) – Playwright & Deviser
Developed with:

  • Proudly Asian Theatre’s Intermediate Playwriting Class with Ahi Karunaharan, 2021
  • Capital E’s National Creative Residency, 2022
  • Oryza”s Asian Playwriting Lab, 2022

Fleurtsy and the Boys (development season) – Director
Writer: Renee Liang; Producer: Natalya Mandich-Dohnt

This Room is an Island (contemporary dance) – Writer and Dramaturge
2022; Black Box Theatre; Choreographer: Yin-Chi Lee

Achievements - Interaction and Play Designer

Best Design Awards 2020 Finalist for ‘Tangita i Tāngita‘,
Student Public Good category

Best Design Awards 2019 Gold Pin Winner for ‘Continuum‘,
Student Public Good category

Rush Digital Award for ‘Flip Matrix’,
AUT Creative Technologies Awards Night, 2019

S23M Award for trans-disciplinary practice,
AUT Creative Technologies Awards Night, 2019

Achievements - Playwright

Playmarket’s Playwrights b4 25 2022 Winner for ‘Pork and Poll Taxes’

Adam New Zealand Play Award Finalist 2021 for ‘Pork and Poll Taxes’

Playmarket’s Asian Ink, 2020, for ‘Pork and Poll Taxes’

Education

Creative Technologies from Auckland University of Technology, 2017-2019

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