Behind the Scenes - Vision Australia Radio

Crikey! It’s almost time for Melbourne Fringe again and, as has become a bit of a tradition, we’re getting into the swing of all things Fringe by catching up with the head honcho himself, Executive Director Simon Abrahams who’ll give us the big picture of the festival ahead of our special Focus on Fringe segments over the next month focusing on as many Fringe shows and artists as we can… but let’s face, even if we were wall-to-wall fringe we’d still only manage to cover about 2% of the humongous programme…   Then, sticking with Fringe, we’ll welcome Deadly Fringe Coordinator, Peta Duncan back to the show to give us an overview of what First Nations artists and companies are presenting as part of this year’s programme and what’s happening at the newly established Blak Lodge…   After that we’ll catch up with a regular guest on this show; Yumi Umiumare who sits down with me at the Abbotsford Convent where she’s about to present Peek-a-Butoh Kooks & Spooks!, her much loved Butoh workshops for kids and families…   And finally, we’ll meet comedian, poet and blind filmmaker Jeremy Moses who promises not to try and impress us with, as the title of his show suggests, 157 Minutes of Bad Slam Poetry… he does, however, promise to bring us a healthy dose of satire and storytelling along with his sharp insights into living with a disability…   They’re all on this week’s edition of Behind the Scenes with Chris Thompson right here on Vision Australia Radio.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jeremy Moses is a slam poet, comedian, filmmaker, a wearer of silly costumes, a social commentator and disability advocate. He’s also legally blind. This conversation with Jeremy was recorded in the lead up to Melbourne Fringe 2023 and his show 157 Minutes of Bad Slam Poetry, If you’re listening to this podcast before October 15, 2023 then you’re still in time to get tickets to his show by going to www.melbournefringe.com.au  or calling the box office 03 9660 9666. If it’s after October 15, there’s still plenty to listen to about the origins of Jeremy’s show during lockdowns, his experience of living with disability, his family and his time at school, his approach to being a blind filmmaker and his efforts to make the world a more accessible place…See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Things are Awesome in Western Australia as we’ll discover when our Perth correspondent, Helen Simondson from WA Museum Boola Bardip introduces her local guest artist, Jenny Simpson, CEO of Awesome Arts and Artistic Director of the Awesome Festival.   Daniel Nellor has been a guest of the show on more than one occasion but usually as a playwright… but Daniel also has a PhD in Philosophy. What’s that all about, I hear you ask and in answer to that question, Daniel has written a book – What Are They Thinking? Conversations with Ten Australian Philosophers…  and we’ll be having our own conversation about that book.   Meanwhile, in Geelong, we’re sneaking in right at the tail end of a four-week celebration to mark the opening of the brand new Geelong Arts Centre and CEO and Creative Director Joel McGuiness is here to tell us what we’ve missed but, more importantly, what’s still to come.   And finally, say hello to founder and Director of the Snuff Puppets, Andy Freer who’s here to tell us about Snuffest, a festival of giant puppets, large scale theatre, film, workshops and installations happening right now in Footscray.   They’re all on this week’s edition of Behind the Scenes with Chris Thompson right here on Vision Australia Radio.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Elena Vereker from Insite Arts is here for our regular South Australia catch up and she’s brought along a local guest artist for a chat – Paulo Castro from No Strings Attached Theatre of Disability.   Then we’re off to Arts Centre Melbourne for a new production of Camille Saint-Saens classic work for young people – Carnival of the Animals – but this time the animals are created by performers from the Brisbane-based, world famous acrobatic circus, Circa. We’ll meet Associate Director and Tour Director Kristen Maloney.   After that we’ll be Escaping Gravity – not literally, but through an immersive cinematic experience created by six UK artists working with City of Darebin based JOLT Arts.  The experience is based on Britain’s R101 Airship disaster in 1930. We’ll meet JOLT Artistic Director James Hullick whom will walk and talk us through the whole experience.   And finally, with RUOK Day coming up, it’s time welcome back singer/songwriter and RUOK Ambassador, Aislinn Sharp who’s released Matter, a new song in collaboration with the Choir of Hard Knocks. We’ll chat with Aislinn before hearing the song – and you’ll find out how you sing along.   They’re all on this week’s edition of Behind the Scenes with Chris Thompson right here on Vision Australia Radio.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

September’s Theatre Network Australia visit is a bit of a special one with a return visit from Australian Performing Arts Forum Curator Sanja Simic who’ll be joined by APAF Associate Producer Emily Coleman. But if neither of them are the TNA Member of the Month, then who will it be?   After that, we’re off to Funky Town when we meet Pseudo Echo’s vocalist, guitarist and keyboard player Brian Canham as the iconic 80’s band continue their Ultimate Tour…   Meanwhile, at Chapel Off Chapel, the world’s first all-female-identifying cast production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum is about to premiere and Charmaine Gorman is here to tell us about it…   And then, as a prelude to this month’s Screens & Streams we’ll take a peek at the Focus on Ability Short Film Festival through the lens of Zachariah Fenn’s short doco – On The Road about artist Matt Elliot’s residency at Bundanon…   …and then Marc Gracie is here for a look at what else we’ve seen on screen this month…   They’re all on this week’s edition of Behind the Scenes with Chris Thompson right here on Vision Australia Radio.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's our week to catch up with Sophia Hall at Brown’s Mart in Darwin as well as meeting her local guest artist, Gail Evans – Creative Producer and Director of SPUN, a live, local, pop-up, podcast storytelling event…   Then we get a sneak peek at what happens before an exhibition gets hung on the gallery walls when we meet Jennifer Higgie, Curator of Thin Skin at Monash University Museum of Art…   Then, Jane Eckett is back to tell us about a significant new publication On Bunerong Country – Art and Design In Frankston an examination of the diverse artistic and cultural heritage of the Frankston region…   And finally, we’re back in Albury-Wodonga, this time for a chat with Anni Davey, Artistic Director of the Flying Fruit Fly Circus who are soon to unveil their new Borderville Theatre…   They’re all on this week’s edition of Behind the Scenes with Chris Thompson right here on Vision Australia Radio.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s our week to start in Perth which is why Helen Simondson from Boola Bardip WA Museum is here…  and, of course, she’ll be introducing us to a local artist…  this month it’s Ella Hetherington who, together with Renée Newman is about to perform Catastrophes at the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts… Then we’re back out at Monash Performing Arts Centres where we welcome Executive Director Paul Grabowsky back to the show to tell us about the importance of creative expression and ideas to connectivity in Progress Festival, MPAC’s latest offering… After that, we find out about poet, speechwriter and, in this case, novelist Joel Deane’s new novel Judas Boys which has already gone into a second printing before we even had a chance to sit down and talk about it… And finally, we’ll chat with Luke Captain, the Artistic Director of The Boite who are heading to Ballarat to present Maiem, their glorious, massed children’s choir performance of songs from the Torres Strait… They’re all on this week’s edition of Behind the Scenes with Chris Thompson right here on Vision Australia Radio.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We’re all over the place this week on Behind the Scenes…  we start with our Adelaide correspondent Elena Vereker who introduces us to emerging sound installation artist, Keira Simmons whose latest work Listening to the Port is an audio tour through the past, present and speculative future of Port Adelaide as part of SALA (the South Australian Living Artists Festival)… Meanwhile, back in Melbourne, Maude Davey is about to perform a new show called My First Bike at LaMama and we’ll chat with Maude and her long-time collaborator Jane Bayly And finally we’re in Albury-Wodonga where we catch up with Artistic Director of HotHouse Theatre, Karla Conway and playwright Campion Decent to talk about their production of Campion’s new play Unprecedented… They’re all on this week’s edition of Behind the Scenes with Chris Thompson right here on Vision Australia Radio.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The jasmine is out so it must be August and our first show of the month always starts with a visit from Theatre Network Australia…  this time we meet Sanja Simic, TNA’s Coordinator of the Australian Performing Arts Forum…  and TNA Member of the Month, the new Executive Director of Perth’s Blue Room Theatre, Sukhjit Khalsa…   Meanwhile, at Darebin Speakeasy we meet playwright Fleur Murphy whose new play The Fence was shortlisted for the Rodney Seaborn Playwright’s Award and tells the story of what happens between neighbours when the fence comes down…   Then it’s off to Apollo Bay for this year’s Winter Wild Festival and we’ll speak with Festival Programmer Bill Frazer…   And finally, it’s Screens & Streams with Marc Gracie and this time it’s not just Barbiheimer on our big screens…  it’s also IndyMish (is that a thing?). Plus, of course, the Melbourne International Film Festival is off and running for the 71st time…   They’re all on this week’s edition of Behind the Scenes with Chris Thompson right here on Vision Australia Radio.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We start with a Vision Australia story this week, when we meet Chris Edwards who’ll introduce us to Dark Memory Lane, an exhibition and simulation experience at Federation Square’s Ian Potter Centre that invites visitors to use low vision simulation glasses to better understand the blind and low vision community.   Then, it’s a visit to Werribee Mansion where What Was That?, the spooky but informative story of the mansion’s resident Chirnside family after the death of Mary Chirnside in 1908 is about to have its 1000th performance and we’ll meet its writer Alaine Beek.   Dr Sally Chance (in Adelaide) and Dr Sarah Austin (in Melbourne) are both pioneers in the relatively new form of theatre for babies and we’ve got the two of them together to compare notes on this fascinating part of the performing arts…   And sticking with very young people (although, a bit older than babies) we’ll head down to Wonthaggi to catch up with Dr Andrea Lemon and Iris Gaillard to talk about the innovative and highly successful programme, Kids Thrive.   And finally, a bit of new music when we meet Composer and bassist Joseph Franklin ahead of the first performance of The Horror of the Avant Garde(s)…   They’re all on this week’s edition of Behind the Scenes with Chris Thompson right here on Vision Australia Radio.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.