As the Artistic Director of the Slingsby Theatre Company, Andy is making an incredible contribution to the cultural life of his hometown community in Adelaide, South Australia and developing shows that will be seen in 8 countries and 40 venues around the world in 2019. While he focuses on cultivating and supporting his community at the most local level, his work is developing a loyal audience around the globe.

In this episode we discuss:

• How Andy and I shared childhoods that were similar in many ways
• How his teacher and mentor Frank Ford helped him discover what sort of theatre-maker he could be
• Andy introduces me to the idea of the shadow of success
• He shares the three things that Simon Abrahams told him to do when his company Slingsby was faced with massive funding cuts and how those things changed the fortunes and the future of the company
  1. Start a fundraiser - There’s nothing like a crisis to encourage people to be supportive
  2. Charge more for what you do 
  3. Build Community - through running workshops
• We discuss the freedom of building a relationship of trust with your audience
• What it means to create captivating theatre for a village audience
• And most of all the value of observing, embracing and reflecting your individual and our collective humanity

Follow:

Slingsby Theatre Website