Great performers, writers and directors emerge from the smallest of theatres — venues where new talent is nurtured and writers and performers are free to learn the ropes and take risks. Liz Jones AO has been making that kind of theatre happen at La Mama for over 50 years. Now she is passing the torch.

Also, Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Tony Award-winning masterpiece Into the Woods returns to the Australian stage and we learn all about the legendary French actress Sarah Bernhardt who is being portrayed on the Melbourne Theatre Company stage by Kate Mulvany in the new play Bernhardt/Hamlet directed by Anne-Louise Sarks.