Behind the Scenes 15th December 2025

A bit of poetry to get us going this week with award winning poet and playwright Emilie Collyer who has a new collection of works called As If I’m Really There… funny that, because she really is here… Then we’re getting in early on the 2026 Midsumma Festival with CEO Karen Bryant who’s here to give us an overview of the whole programme… followed by Karan Nagrani whose festival show From Grndr to Blindr invites us to experience storytelling through the eyes of someone who's learning to live without sight. And finally, some music to take us out from a Benson and Clem who go by the name Missing Opal and who, surprisingly write and record their music together even though Benson lives here in Naarm/Melbourne and Clem lives in London.   They’re all on this week’s edition of Behind the Scenes with Chris Thompson right here on Vision Australia Radio.   If you’d like to hear my other conversations with Emilie Collyer – we spoke about her first collection – Do You Have Anything Less Domestic - on the December 12, 2022 show and we spoke about her play Super on the June 16 show this year - you’ll find them both on our podcast page- just put Vision Australia Radio Behind the Scenes into your favourite podcast search engine and you’ll find this and all our other episodes and bonus chats… plus if you subscribe, you’ll never have to search for an episode or our bonus material again… talk with you next week… bye!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jake Lynch & Annabel McGoldrick met in 1992 when they were reporters for Yorkshire Television. They married and moved to Australia where, these days, he lectures in Social Justice at Sydney University and she’s a psychotherapist. But now, they’ve combined all those experiences in a murder mystery novel – Mind Over Murder – and we’ll find out how they manage this impressive juggling act. After that, we’ve got a bit of music when we meet Anne Frankenberg CEO of Musica Viva Australia to find out what they’ve got programmed for 2026, followed by QiQi who’s followed up a successful Fringe season with a live album – Elysian Blues – recorded at this year’s Sleepless Festival AND a solo EP both of which will be launched this weekend at Tempo Rubato in Brunswick.   Then Marc Gracie’s here for a bumper, final Screens & Streams for the year ahead of our annual movie wrap at the end of the 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 last Theatre Network Australia segment for 2026 which means Yuhui Ng Rodriguez is here for a final wrap up and to tell us who our final TNA Member of the Month is… here’s a clue – multidisciplinary artist and creative producer Teneille Clerke is hanging on the line… Then, it's our last visit to Darwin for the year and Brown’s Mart Artistic Director Yvette Walker will be talking us through their recently released programme for 2026…   Then, it’s music all the way to the end of the show… First up is young singer/songwriter and mental health advocate Harley Müller (aka Capes and Crowns) who’s just released a second single from his new album – Growing Pains… …and then, Tim Richmond of the Tim Richmond Group fame has been recording songs since the early nineties and he’s just released a new solo album – The Taste…   We’ll meet both musos and listen to some of their music…   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.

With International Day of People with a Disability only a week or so away, we get in early… first for a chat with Eliza Hull who’ll be hosting the Live Nation gig – One’s to Watch, an artists with disability showcase… …and then, to meet Co-Artistic Director of Rawcus Theatre Morgan Rose to chat about One Night Only, their new co-production with Jackson Castiglione for Darebin Arts Speakeasy…   After that, writer/director Demetra Giannakopoulos is here ahead of three return performances of her 2022 hit, Coming Out For Christmas a radio-play-style theatre performance about a young queer Australian-Greek woman who brings her Aussie girlfriend home for Christmas lunch… what could possibly go wrong… And finally, Jayne Tuttle has followed up her first two memoirs – Paris or Die and My Sweet Guillotine with a third instalment, The Sea in the Metro… so that seems like a good time to catch up for a chat…   They’re all on this week’s edition of Behind the Scenes with Chris Thompson right here on Vision Australia Radio.   If you’d like to hear the previous conversations with Jayne Tuttle – we spoke about My Sweet Guillotine in 2022 on the September 26 show and Paris or Die in 2019 on the December 16 show - you’ll find both on our podcast page- just put Vision Australia Radio Behind the Scenes into your favourite podcast search engine and you’ll find this and all our other episodes and bonus chats… plus if you subscribe, you’ll never have to search for an episode or our bonus material again.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For the last time this year, we’ll start the show in Perth with Boola Bardip WA Museum’s Helen Simondson who’s here for her regular round up AND to introduce her local guest artist – Kate Champion, recently appointed Black Swan Theatre Artistic Director and Director of the new Meow Meow production of The Red Shoes… Then, we meet author Roland Perry whose latest book Oliphant fills in the story of Australian Mark Oliphant whose work in nuclear physics was crucial to the development of the atom bomb – even if Christopher Nolan left him out of Oppenheimer… And finally, Genevieve Morris is here to chat about her terrific solo performance in the MTC production of Benjamin Law’s adaptation of Cory Taylor’s Dying: A Memoir… 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.

For the last time this year, we say welcome back to InSite Arts’ Elena Vereker for our regular Adelaide round up AND an introduction to her local guest artist – stage and screen writer, lecturer, director, and co-founder of South Australian Playwrights Theatre, Matt Hawkins. Then we’re off to Ballarat for a brand-new art experience – Sunnyside at the Ballarat Mining Exchange – and we’ll meet the first artist to exhibit there, UK based installation artist, Morag Myerscough. After that, we’re in for a bit of Shakespeare when Th’Unguarded Duncan and Theatre Works present the Prague Shakespeare Company version of Titus Andronicus. We’ll meet Co-Directors Kevin Hopkins and Claire Nichols as well as actor and Prague Shakespeare Company Associate Director, Josh Morrison. And finally, Jeremy Goldstein has been in South Africa working with Windybrow Arts Centre in Hillbrow on This Is Who I Am - an ongoing multidisciplinary, intercultural arts platform featuring live and online performances, photo portraits, exhibitions, workshops and dialogues. 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 the first show for November and so we’re swinging by the Theatre Network Australia office for a chat with Charice Rust who will also introduce us to the TNA Member of the Month, Anna Molnar, Programme Manager – Disability, Arts Access and Inclusion at Arts Centre Melbourne… Then, keeping on the topic of access, we’ll welcome Rachel Edward back to the show, this time in her capacity as Creative Producer for the Arts Access Supported Residential Services programme which is presenting Outside In/Inside Out, an exhibition of puppetry at the Schoolhouse Studios in Coburg Then it’s time for Screens & Streams but before Marc Gracie drops by to talk about what we’ve seen on our big and small screens, we’ll have a chat with Sophie Somerville about her directorial debut with the feature film Fwends. They’re all on this week’s edition of Behind the Scenes with Chris Thompson right here on Vision Australia Radio. If you’d like to hear longer conversations with Anna Molnar -Programme Manager: Disability, Arts Access and Inclusion at Arts Centre Melbourne AND Rachel Edward: Creative Producer, Arts Access Supported Residential Services Programme, you’ll find both on our podcast page- just put Vision Australia Radio Behind the Scenes into your favourite podcast search engine and you’ll find this and all our other episodes and bonus chats… plus if you subscribe, you’ll never have to search for an episode or our bonus material again…See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We start this week with Liz Rogers, General Manager of Browns Mart for a Darwin catch up before we meet Sally Crawford, Chair of Darwin Theatre Company who’ll tell us about Seventeen, their new collaboration with Corrugated Iron Youth Arts… Then we catch up with LA based Aussie comedian Monty Franklin who’s following up his highly successful Yeah, Nah tour with a new show called Is That Your Mate? After that, we’ll chat with Ross Larkin about The Last Sunday in June, Firerock Productions’ new show at Chapel off Chapel… And speaking of Chapel off Chapel, Russell Fletcher is back on the show, this time to talk about directing the upcoming spooky comedy The Haunting of Spook Mansion (by Ghosts) And finally, a bit of music to take us out when we meet David Hyams who’s currently touring the country with Human Highway, his tribute to the great songs of Neil Young… 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.

Rachel Edward is a Creative Producer with Arts Access and oversees the Supported Residential Services (SRS) Studios. Artists from the SRS Studios have been working with Golden Scissor Puppets to explore the many different ways in which they can create puppets. They have not only opened the doors to their homes, but also to their hearts, minds and imaginations creating Outside In/Inside Out an exhibition that explores the joy of releasing colour, movement and imagination often kept inside. In this work, that exploration takes us into a world of puppets, crank boxes, projections, and sound. The installation at Schoolhouse Studios Gallery in Coburg invites us to experience this world in many ways including tactile tours, audio descriptions and open captions.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Helen Simondson from Boola Bardip WA Museum gets the ball rolling this week with a jazzy Perth roundup and a new show at Yirra Yaakin… After that, even though it’s not our week for Screens&Streams, we’ll check out the Irish Film Festival with Festival Director Dr Enda Murray… Meanwhile, opera, monsters and pantomime will be taking over Theatre Works’ Explosives Factory when Bladderwrack opens there in a couple of weeks, and we’ll meet co-creator David Tredinnick… Then, we catch up with Professor Wesley Enoch who amongst his many hats wears one that says Ambassador for the first ever AusArt Day… And finally, a bit of music to take us out when we meet Nashville based singer-songwriter Imogen Clark to talk about her tour with Keziah Gill and her new album Choking on Fuel… 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.