Here we are in March already, and Steph Speirs is here with the Theatre Network Australia round up and an introduction to our TNA Member of the Month – a former TNA regular on Behind the Scenes – Tessa Leong…

After that, Susie Dee is back for a chat – this time about THREE different show’s she directed…  Rodeo Clown and I’m With Her at HotHouse Theatre… and the new Patricia Cornelius play Truth at The Malthouse…

Then we catch up with Captain Fish AKA Bill Marshall to tell us what we’ll experience at this year’s Festival of Surrealisms…

And finally, it should be Screens & Streams this week, but it’s Oscar night! So we’ve decided to hold off until next week when we can reflect on the gongs and the snubs…  but we still have a movie to talk about…  twenty-two years after David Wenham as Johnny ‘Spit’ Spitieri made his famous run down the street wearing only thongs and underpants in Gettin’ Square, he’s back in the eponymous sequel Spit – and we’ll ask screenwriter Chris Nyst why it took so long…

They’re all on this week’s edition of Behind the Scenes with Chris Thompson right here on Vision Australia Radio.

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Ahead of this year’s International Women’s Day, Behind the Scenes presenter Chris Thompson sits down with one of the country’s most respected and prolific theatre directors Susie Dee. In addition to reflecting upon the long struggle of women artists to gain equal footing with their male counterparts, particularly in areas of artistic leadership and decision making, Susie chats about three different productions that are currently either on stage or about to open – all created with remarkable women playwrights, performers and theatre makers. Two of them are soon to open at HotHouse Theatre – Rodeo Clown features the incomparable and highly physical theatre-maker and performer Nicci Wilks – and I’m With Her is written by award winning playwright, documentary filmmaker and director Victoria Midwinter Pitt and focuses on Pitt’s intimate conversations with eight prominent women in the public eye and examines “…the power of women to outlast, outwit and out-muscle the great ugly beast of sexism.” Meanwhile, at Malthouse Theatre, Susie’s production of multi-award-winning playwright Patricia Corenelius’ latest play Truth has already opened to much acclaim.

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Our first Darwin round-up for the year is also a chance to meet our new Darwin Correspondents. Yes, that’s right – not one but two correspondents who’ll be sharing the role (which makes sense considering they’re sharing the CEO role at Brown’s Mart!)…  so, say hello to Yvette Walker, new CEO and Artistic Director… and Liz Rogers, new CEO and General Manager…

Then we’re off to the Pacific Islands to talk about two works coming soon to AsiaTOPA… our first stop is New Zealand/Aotearoa where we’ll meet FAFSWAG’s Tanu Gago, Producer of Sauniga… and then we’re off to Java to meet Melati Suryodarmo, creator of Lapse…

Meanwhile, in regional Victoria and regional South Australia, three leading youth theatre companies – Arena Theatre, D’Faces of Youth and Riverland Youth Theatre - have joined forces for a unique production of HG Wells War of the Worlds, and Arena’s Artistic Director Christian Leavesley is here to tell us how that partnership works…

And finally, Morning Melodies at Arts Centre Melbourne is turning 40 and we’ll chat with one of the performers in this year’s programme, singer and storyteller Darren Coggan…

They’re all on this week’s edition of Behind the Scenes with Chris Thompson right here on Vision Australia Radio.

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Helen Simondson from WA Museum Boola Bardip is first up this week which means it must be our first catch up with what’s on in Perth for the year…  PLUS our first chance to meet a local guest artist – this month it’s the Blue Room Theatre’s Executive Director Sukhjit Kaur Khalsa…

Then, even though the Midsumma Festival is done and dusted, one of its exhibitions is still going strong and Jake Treacy, Curator at the Incinerator Gallery walks and talks us through Chthonic Chorus…

Meanwhile, at Northcote Town Hall, Darebin Arts Speakeasy is underway with Tantrum for 6 and choreographer Harrison Ritchie-Jones is here to tell us about it…

And finally, we get a bit more of AsiaTOPA when co-creator of Opera for the Dead (祭歌), Monica Lim, is here to tell us why there are no seats for this immersive performance…

They’re all on this week’s edition of Behind the Scenes with Chris Thompson right here on Vision Australia Radio.

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Technically, tonight should be our first Adelaide segment for the year…  but our Adelaide correspondent Elena Vereka from Insite Arts is in Melbourne. Why? We’ll find out when I catch up with her… in person for a change…  (ps… here’s a clue!)

Then, it’s St Kilda Festival time again and that’s a good reason to chat with City of Port Philip Mayor Louise Crawford to find out what they’ve got lined up for us this year…

Meanwhile, in the lead up to AsiaTOPA we’ll talk with celebrated photographer and visual artist William Yang who’s teamed up with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra to make Milestone, a look back at fifty years of social change and the evolution of our bohemian artist community…

Over at Theatre Works, they’re gearing up for a gothic suburban horror show in which, it seems, the Monster’s name is Jerry. Writer, Amy May Nunn is here to tell us how all that relates to having kids…

And finally, this Thursday, February 13 is World Radio Day and this year’s environmental theme matches quite nicely with Limb: Ode to the Trees, a new show about to premier as part of Flinders Fringe on the Mornington Peninsular and we’ll meet two of its creators, Sally Grage-Moore and Carole Patullo…

They’re all on this week’s edition of Behind the Scenes with Chris Thompson right here on Vision Australia Radio.

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Theatre Network Australia’s Co-Executive Director Josh Lowe is kicking off our first TNA spot for 2025 AND introducing us to the first TNA member of the Month for the year – it’s theatre maker, performer and producer Jeremy Goldstein who’s Theatre Works show Truth to Power Café is part of this year’s Midsumma Ferstival…

…and speaking of Midsumma AND Theatre Works, we’ll also be catching up with writer/performer/songwriter Ella Filar and Director Kevin Hopkins to talk about their Midsumma entry – The Butcher The Baker…

And finally, it’s our first Screens&Streams segment for the year which means Marc Gracie is here and Luka Gracie is with him to the throw in his two cents worth on what we’ve seen on our big and small screens (In fact, this month it’s Big Screens all the way!)

They’re all on this week’s edition of Behind the Scenes with Chris Thompson right here on Vision Australia Radio.

PLUS - If you’d like to hear more of the conversation with Jeremy Goldstein, you can catch it on the Behind the Scenes 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…

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On the first show of each month, Behind the Scenes welcomes the Theatre Network Australia Member of the Month. For the February 3, 2025 show, the TNA Member of the Month was theatre producer and performer Jeremy Goldstein who talks about his Midsumma Festival show Truth to Power Café which has already been performed sixty times in eight different countries welcoming eight hundred participants to join Jeremy on stage. Audiences in theatres and at festivals in England, Scotland, The Netherlands and Croatia have already flocked to it - it had an online audience of over half a million people and last year it played at the Lincoln Centre in New York and the Chutzpah! Festival in Vancouver. It also won an Adelaide Fringe Award for Best Theatre for performances in Kimba, a remote rural farming community in the Eyre Peninsula.

The Theatre Works/Midsumma Festival season is the first time Truth to Power Café has been seen in Melbourne.

In addition to speaking about the show, Jeremy also reflects on his time with ActUP in the 80s and 90s, working with Handspan Theatre and Melbourne Fringe and with Penny Arcade in London.

An edited version of that conversation went to air on the February 3 edition of Behind the Scenes, but here is the complete, unedited version. It’s a lovely conversation and well worth the listening.

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We start the year in Seattle where we catch up with Marilyn Raichle who, for those with long memories, was last on the show in 2018 speaking about an exhibition called The Art of Alzheimer’s which included works by her mother Jean. Well, now Marilyn’s written a book about her ‘care partner journey’ with Jean and others. It’s called Don’t Walk Away: A Care Partner’s Journey and it’s a pretty fascinating read, as you’ll find when we chat with Marilyn.

Meanwhile, back in Melbourne at the City Gallery, we catch up with Patrick Pound for a walk and talk through his latest curated collection, The Museum of Falling where the challenge is to find the connection between the many objects on display and the various ways we think about falling.

And then finally, we’re at Arts Centre Melbourne’s Hamer Hall for a sit down with the Australian Art Orchestra’s Artistic Director, Aaron Choulai to find out about Ane Ta Abia, their collaboration with the Tatana Village Choir from Papua New Guinea who’ll be performing as part of AsiaTOPA.

They’re all on this week’s edition of Behind the Scenes with Chris Thompson right here on Vision Australia Radio.

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It’s our final Behind the Scenes Summer Special for the start of 2025 and this week we’re trying out a bit of a different format for our usual Screens & Streams segment. Generally, in that spot on the first week of every month, Marc Gracie joins us to review current movie and streamer releases. But, because this is a ‘special’ edition, we’re changing the focus from ‘reviews’ to ‘Re-Views’ which allows us to revisit films we’ve seen some time ago and to ask ourselves the question; ‘is our response to this movie still the same on a re-viewing as it was on our first viewing? The two films we focus on here are Lost in Space (1998) and La La Land (2016). We’ll also be making some comments about the 2024 Francis Ford Coppola epic Megalopolis with a view to ‘re-viewing’ it a year or so from now…  that’s on this week’s final Summer Special edition of Behind the Scenes with Chris Thompson right here on Vision Australia Radio.

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On our second summer special for 2025, you’ll meet two fabulous Sydney based singer/songwriters – Ella Haber and Cinta - who sometimes tour together, often sing backup vocals for each other and, not surprisingly, are very good friends.

They both have new albums – Cinta’s album Worth Control came out late last year and Ella’s album Through Blood Like Kin, will be out later this year.

In November last year we caught up with them both but you only heard an edited version of our conversation. This is your chance to hear the whole thing PLUS a selection of their songs – you’ll hear Cinta sing Walls and More Than Enuff from the new album – as well as Bang Up To The Elephant, a very cool instrumental from her previous album Feel Good. You’ll also hear Ella sing Good For Me and My Father from her previous album Moments Between Dreams – but to get us started, we hear Ella with the first single from her soon to be released album – Walk On.

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