The Great South Road. It's almost three years ago since we talked to writer Scott Hamilton and filmmaker Paul Janman about their 200 kilometre journey down the Great South Road, which extends from Auckland down into the Waikato.

The Chills are one of the great New Zealand bands, releasing music for almost 40 years. They've been a leading light of the Flying Nun label, but also slightly apart.

Artist Jess Johnston is in New York - and Simon Ward is in Wellington - but they communicate through virtual reality, creating animation and virtual reality environments that are pretty indescribable.

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Indian theatre company Prayas' Sananda Chatterjee and Amit Ohdedar are the directors of Dara which opens at Auckland's TAPAC. It's 1659 in the imperial court in Mughal India, a place of opulence and excess, with two brothers, whose mother's death inspired the Taj Mahal, fighting ferociously for succession. Its an epic production with a large cast.

June 2018 on Standing Room Only we are featuring a series of interviews by Mark Amery with New Zealand poets with new books just out. Our first is with Wellington poet Helen Heath whose second book of poetry Are Friends Electric? is being released this week by Victoria University Press.

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Auckland Theatre Company's new production is Anton Chekov's much loved The Cherry Orchard, but its been adapted to New Zealand during the 1970s, and ther3 are four adapters, including director Colin McColl and the ATC's Literary Manager Philippa Campbell.

Last year saw a remarkable output of films during the final year at the New Zealand Film Commission of outgoing CEO Dave Gibson. But there have been questions as to the quality alongside the quantity. What can incoming boss Annabel Sheehan do to rectify this? Simon Morris talks to veteran film-maker John Barnett, formerly of South Pacific Pictures about the state of the industry. Barnett is working on a screen adaptation of the play Krishnan's Dairy, Tip Top Taj Mahal directed by Lee Tamahori. Barnett discusses new projects, and about filmmakers knowing their audience.

The shortlist exhibitions for the 2018 Walters Prize have been announced with the works to be re-staged at Auckland Art Gallery in August, and the winner to be announced in November. The Walters is New Zealand's preeminent contemporary art award highlighting some of the most vital, interesting art being exhibited right now. In a series on Standing Room Only we're focusing one each of the four exhibitions and their artists or curators. Shortlisted is Ruth Buchanan's stunning installation Bad Visual Systems, first shown at Adam Art Gallery Wellington in late 2016. Bad Visual Systems is incredibly bold and experimental in shaking up the exhibition experience, trialing new ways for us to encounter space and think about the role of artists and how things are organised.

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Bringing together the hip hop he grew up with in Otara and the contemporary dance he came to as an adult, young dynamo dancer Aloali'i Tapu has for the last three years divided his time between Auckland and Berlin working with one of Berlin's leading choreographers and with companies here.

Maggie Steber is an American multi-award winning photographer who has focused on humanitarian, cultural and social stories in 64 countries. In 2013 Steber was named as one of eleven Women of Vision by National Geographic Magazine. Steber is in New Zealand for the Auckland Festival of Photography.