So you got the grant, what’s next?
A while back I wrote an op-ed on how to prepare a grant and work with a writer on crafting a decent application. Now let’s talk about getting the first successful grant and what to do and what NOT to do. It feels like winning the lotto 100%, but stuff has just gotten real and you’re probably totally wigging out now.
Flying Arts Alliance awards record prize pool for regional artists
The QRAA exhibitions I have seen are a strong reminder that remote and regional communities regularly produce outstanding artists. The judges, Jonathan McBurnie and Fiona Foley have, through their selection, highlighted that Queensland as a whole is home to stunning contemporary art practice.
What Will Have Been | Circa
The three acrobats are the stars of this exceptional show that features incredible hand balance by Daniel O’Brien, a fluid and moving straps solo (and acrobatic ‘dance’) by Kimberley Rossi, and quite amazing strength work by Zac Stephens. In just over 60 minutes, the performers demonstrated their mastery of circus arts to create moments of beauty, strength, power, fear, tenderness, pain, humour, wistfulness, joy, and connection.
Banging Denmark by Van Badham | PIP Theatre
PIP Theatre’s Banging Denmark advertises itself as a fun night of solid entertainment and it delivers on this in spades. It’s real, raunchy, and wriggles its feminism in underneath the laughs in a way that keeps it squarely in the land of entertainment rather than delivering a gender studies lecture.
“Post-genre means equity and inclusivity: every genre, every discipline, every community, has something valid to share.”
Looking at it this way, the most important aspects therefore weren’t just the pieces we programmed, or the particular genres involved, but how, and why, we do what we do. This realisation has given us so many more possibilities artistically, but also resulted in us curating using our values of social equity, non-hierarchical artistic collaboration, and celebrating community first.
Gaslight | Queensland Theatre
Under the insightful guidance of Director Lee Lewis, Wright and Jamieson’s adaptation of this Victorian Gothic theatre work has been elevated to new heights where doubt, misinformation and deception takes centre stage.
The Wolves | Ad Astra
Hill does an excellent job threading the metaphor of the team-mates being Wolves through use of physical theatre and individual movement sequences, creating an animalistic quality to their characters.
Full Spectrum | Anna Whitaker & Riley Towers
The manipulation of the footage felt both hallucinogenic and as if the data was being corrupted. With the electronic tones accompanying the visuals, the experience felt like a computer analysing footage, perhaps trying to understand human behaviour.
Art of Courage | Sophia Hodych & PIP Theatre
After an air-raid siren sounds, we were whisked away to the inner rooms, corridors, and outdoor deck of PIP Theatre, where the “choose-your-own-adventure” aspect of The Art of Courage really came into effect.
Pygmalion | Minola Theatre
To answer the question of ‘Why this play?’ and ‘Why now?’. Based on Dekker’s direction, I’d argue that it was to remind us all that just because we may have the opportunity or resources to change someone’s lives who we believe is lesser than us, it doesn’t mean that we should. I’ll let you simmer on that…
When The Rain Stops Falling | Brisbane Arts Theatre
When The Rain Stops Falling will bring you an experience of sorrow, love, life and death in the same heartbeat. This is a beautifully written and wonderfully performed theatre piece, you do not want to miss it.
“Join us for an immersive celebration of the indomitable human spirit.” Sophia Hodych on ‘Art of Courage'.
Ukraine has an unbelievably rich and complex history, some of it horrific and heartbreaking, some fun and heartwarming. Immersive theatre provides audiences with an opportunity to choose which scenes to see, what knowledge to gain and what emotions to experience.
NGPE Conversations #2: The Jodie Rottle Fight for Fun
“I wanted music to be enjoyable and funny instead of stressful and serious. Eventually, I found myself asking, why are we even doing this? Fortunately, I had some really, really fun colleagues.”
Observatory Theatre: ‘What does theatre do in a post-truth, post-pandemic world?’
The Observatory Theatre team launched their 2024 Season at Yeerongpilly’s Studio1. Lachlan Driscoll (Creative Producer), Lucy Rayner-Toy (Associate Producer) and colleagues certainly have much to celebrate. In developing what Driscoll describes as ‘big, bold, ambitious theatre that responds to today,’ the 2024 Season focuses on supporting and developing new works, centred on their successful Telescope new writing program.
Dangerous Goods | Polytoxic
If you want to see a subversively hot, femme-fuelled show full of hot babes smashing the patriarchy, go see Dangerous Goods at QPAC. It’s one of the best shows I have seen. Bonus is, there'll be various guest artists throughout this season so no two shows will be the same. You’ve got another three weeks to see this unmissable show.
Chicago | QPAC & Crossroads Live Australia
Chicago is the best thing I have seen, perhaps ever. Chicago is A Night At The Theatre – I can’t emphasise enough the visceral nature of the experience or the extent of its quality. Let’s just say: I was in such a state of euphoria I completely blacked out. Go and see Chicago, I don’t care who you’ve gotta screw, shoot, or shun to make it happen, just go and see it.
Twisted Christmas | GALORE! Presents
We’re guided through this seasonal smorgasbord by our elven MC, Maddy – a staunch unionist direct from the North Pole who’s (1) truly and deeply jaded by capitalism’s co-option of the holiday and (2) concerningly quick to guarantee we’re all on the naughty list this year.
Cirque Jingle | JACs Entertainment
There are a lot of great choices for a festive-themed show this season, including shows that have returned for many years. It’s great to see that JACs Entertainment has produced a show that complements those choices, offering an event that is suitable for the whole family.
The History of the Devil | Polymorphic Productions
My plus one and I were eager to see what lay ahead of us when we reached MetroArts for The History of the Devil. We were hopeful that we would see some evocative, intellectually rigorous, and emotionally poignant theatre. The show Polymorphic Productions gave us was certainly the first of these three things.
NGPE Conversations #1: Inside Helen Svoboda’s Genre-Less Cinematic Odyssey
MJ O’Neill is writing about music again, in a new monthly series. For the first of the ‘Noisy <Gender> Punk Energy’ interviews, meet Helen Svoboda, one of the most dizzyingly accomplished and prolific musicians in the country.