Behind the Scenes 8th September 2025

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.

We’re kicking of this week’s show with a walk and talk through the annual Postcards Show at Linden New Art with Curator Hamish Sawyer and Chloe Kokoris whose textile creation, Woven Abstraction I was awarded The Geoffrey Conaghan and Mathew Erbs Tertiary Award. Then, it’s our final week of Fast Fringe – our effort to cram as many Melbourne Fringe Festival artists into four weeks of shows as we can.   This week you’ll meet… Sammy J and his show Fiasco: A Burke and Wills Musical – Moira Finucane and students from Monash Uni with Chambers of the Heart – Lliam Amor who’s back to give us clues to Murder in the Graveyard, the latest Murder Village improvised murder mystery – Cat Sewell from Polyglot who’ve made Whirlwind, a new participatory arts experience for children – Sarah Bird Miller and Ria Soemardjo who are retelling the myths of Persephone and Demeter with What Lies Beneath – and, finally, Jo Raphael from Fusion Theatre who are performing The Weathering…   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.

Amrit Gill gets us going this week with our regular Theatre Network Australia spot and she lets us know that the TNA Member of the Month for October is Jamie Lewis whose current show Sincere Apologies makes for a nice segue into our third week of Fast Fringe… our effort to cram as many Melbourne Fringe artists into four editions of Behind the Scenes as possible… So, our other Fast Fringe friends this week include Kamarra Bell-Wykes and Carly Sheppard in The Blok! - our favourite blind comedian Jeremy Moses who claims that he’s Hard to Work With – Stephen Wakefield from Museums Victoria to talk about Nocturnal – and Rebecca Jensen who’s choreographer and lead artist for Flesh Mirror in collaboration with Weave Movement Theatre… After that, Marc Gracie is here for our usual chat about what we’ve seen on our Screens & Streams. 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 kicking off at Footscray Community Arts this week with Gideon Wilonja for a chat about the new show I Met an Angel Named Jaques, a story set in a real world that’s completely made up… Then we meet Damon Branacki who’s here to talk about the Thursday Group whose latest production Falling Heads will follow up its Melbourne debut with a tour to Denmark… After that, we catch up with Nancy Black from Black Hole Theatre who’ve been working hard on three new projects performing in regional Victoria – Journey of the Karen – Someone in the Dark - and the third – Sky Could Be Blue - provides a nice segue into our second week of Fast Fringe, our attempt to meet as many Melbourne Fringe Festival artists as possible in a short space of time… After Nancy, the Fast Fringe chat just keep on rolling with first time playwright of A Guide to Being Immortal, Shane Woon - producer of The Cabinet of Dr Caligari with a live score, Johannes Luebbers – choreographer of The Break, Zoe Bastin – Creator (with FUZEensemble) of Beneath, Fleur Dean and young performer Mitchell Gee – and QiQi from Elysian Blues II   Whew! That’s a lot… and 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 up north for the start of this week’s show with Darwin correspondent Yvette Walker, Artistic Director at Brown’s Mart, who’s joined by their Honorary Elder in Residence, Dr Richard Fejo Snr better known as Uncle Richard. Then it’s a chat with author Rhonda McCoy about her new novel Crow… …before we launch into this year’s Fast Fringe – quick chats with as many Melbourne Fringe artists as we can fit into the three weeks of the festival... Melbourne Fringe CEO and Creative Director, Simon Abrahams, along with Deadly Fringe Programming Coordinator Peta Duncan are here to kick us off with our annual overview of the festival… …before we get into it all with Alex Walker from House of Muchness and their Fed Square event – The Square… …followed by a bit of unscripted mayhem with friends of the show, Sam Lohs and Rosie Burgess, better known as The Tuck Shop Ladies… 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.

Helen Simondson from Boola Bardip WA Museum gets us going this week with her regular Perth round up and, of course, a local guest artist… this time it’s flash fiction specialist, Gillian O’Shaughnessy who’s part of Freemantle’s Totally Lit Festival… Then, we stick with literature for most of the rest of the show, catching up with Alison Booth whose eighth novel is Death at Booroomba, her first venture into historical crime fiction… and then much loved multi-award winning author Kate Grenville whose new book Unsettled takes her on a road journey into her own past and the often denied past of our own country post colonisation. And finally, we’ll wrap up the show with a couple of the filmmakers - Sally Newman and Violeta Abarzua - whose short films are finalists in this year’s Focus On Ability festival again celebrating ability in all forms through the works of a diverse group of international filmmakers. 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 gets us going this week with her Adelaide round up… …and then introduces us to Ben Francis who’s part of the retro vocal group The 60-Four who are celebrating their tenth birthday with a gig in Shepparton… Meanwhile, back in Melbourne at Arts Centre Melbourne’s Fairfax Studio, playwright Daniel Keene, director Matt Sholten and actor Noni Hazelhurst have reunited after the success of Mother, to present The Lark, and we’ll catch up with the entire cast of the show, which is to say, with Noni herself… Then it’s time for the Arts Projects Australia open day again, so we’ll drop in on their studio to meet artist Mark Smith and Jo Salt who’s Curator of their current exhibition Embodied, showing at their Collingwood Yards gallery… And finally, it’s RUOK Day this Thursday, which means it’s time to catch up with RUOK Day Ambassador Aislinn Sharp and to listen to Replacing Feelings the new song she’s released for this year’s event… 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.