First up this week we’re going to check out the HUGE programme on offer at the Art Gallery of Ballarat when we welcome the gallery’s Director Louise Taggart back to the show to tease us with a few highlights.

Then, before we know it, Midsumma Festival will be here again and Artist Development Manager Harriet Devlin is back with her guest Community Ambassador Karan Nagrani to give us just a taste of what to expect in January and February.

Meanwhile, at Arts Centre Melbourne, this year’s recipient of the Frank van Straten Fellowship, Amaara Raheem, is already hard at work on her project and she invites me into the archives of the Performing Arts Museum to see what we can find.

And finally, something quite special has happened at Foodbank, the remarkable charity that feeds so many hungry families throughout out the year and especially around Christmas time – in fact, it would need to be something extra special to stand out in such a special place and Chief Communications Officer Matt Tilley is just the person to tell us what that is.

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 complete version of my chat with Amaara Raheem, check us out on Facebook or just put Vision Australia Radio Behind the Scenes into your favourite podcast search engine… and if you subscribe, you’ll never have to search for an episode or our bonus material again…

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Contemporary dance performance maker and arts educator Amaara Raheem is the current recipient of the Frank van Straten Fellowship at Arts Centre Melbourne where she is delving into the Performing Arts Museum archives to investigate the birth and ongoing practice of contemporary dance company Chunky Move…  but our conversation doesn’t touch there…  Amaara also talks about her beginnings as an actor at St Martins Youth Arts Centre (despite her mother’s wish for her to be a layer)… issues of race in casting during the early to mid-nineties for a Sri Lankan artist being constantly offered indigenous roles… and the way older bodies can still pursue work in dance…  we cover all this and more in this conversation for Behind the Scenes with me Chris Thompson.

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Over the past couple of months, we’ve spoken with Sally Chance and Stephanie Lake, both luminaries in the dance sector, about the importance they each place on the roles of mentor to a new generation. But that’s just one side of the story. For the other side, we catch up with Stephanie Lake’s most recent mentee, Zoe Brown.

Since 1990 the Linden New Art Postcard Show has been a much anticipated exhibition that both ends the old year and begins the new.  And, yes, it’s back but not exactly the way it’s been in the past. Linden Director Vincent Alessi is here to tell us what’s changed.

Then, it may be about to be 2024 but at Arts Centre Melbourne, it’s about to be 1903 all over again and the best person to explain why is Arts Centre Programming Manager Stephen Armstrong.

Also at Arts Centre Melbourne in January is an exciting collaboration between Australia’s eclectic string quartet, FourPlay, and best-selling British author Neil Gaiman who are soon to perform their joint project Signs of Life and we’ll find out whether FourPlay’s Lara Goodridge is as excited about it as the audience will be.

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 last Theatre Network Australia spot for 2023 which means it’s also our last TNA Member of the Month for the year… and whilst we’re very happy that this month it’s TNA’s very own Executive Director Nicole Beyer, we’re also a bit sad because it’s the last time we’ll chat with her in this role as she’s leaving TNA at the end of the year…

He played the Isle of Wight Festival on the same bill as Jimi Hendrix, Joan Baez and Leonard Cohen. His latest album is named after a line from the film Casablanca and features a tribute to the famous photograph on the album cover for Bob Dylan’s classic Freewheelin’ His hit song Streets of London has been recorded by 212 different artists – and as homage to that his 2024 Australian tour is called Streets of Oz – but before he gets on the plane to visit our shores in February and March, Ralph McTell is on the line for a bit of up close and personal…

And finally, it’s Screens & Streams with Marc Gracie and we’ll chat about a new John Woo, a new Ridley Scott a new Ken Loach, a doco about Nick Cave and the Birthday Party and yet another movie from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

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

And if you’d like to hear the complete version of the Ralph McTell, chat PLUS a pretty nice selection of his songs, then make sure you’re listening to the second of our Summer Specials at 9pm on Monday January 15 – and if you miss that, you can always check us out on Facebook or just put Vision Australia Radio Behind the Scenes into your favourite podcast search engine… and if you subscribe, you’ll never have to search for an episode or our bonus material again…

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Well, we’ve got one more visit from Sophia Hall at Brown’s Mart for the year…  and this month she’s flying solo…  but that just means we’ll have more time to catch up with what’s been happening in Darwin…

Then we’re at St Martins Youth Arts Centre where they’ve had some pretty special work undertaken beneath the historic peppercorn tree out the back of the theatres…  but that’s not all that lies beneath that tree and we catch up with Artistic Director Nadja Kostich who’ll fill us in…

Tracey Corbin-Matchett is the CEO of Bus Stop Films and she’s here to tell us about a very special project that involves 180 filmmakers each with a mild intellectual disability or autism and Tracey knows where around the country you can get to see all their films…

Meanwhile, at the State Library of Victoria, there’s a project that’s helping us understand how libraries might work for those who are blind or vision impaired and we’ll welcome back Leisa Shelton-Campbell who’s one of the drivers behind (In)visible Libraries…

And finally, Courtly Arts Performers of Victoria are presenting Echoes of Pilgrimage – an afternoon of Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque music and dance and Sally Ranson is one of those dancers…

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 getting to the pointy end of the year, so that means it’s our final chat with Perth Correspondent Helen Simondson from Boola Bardip WA Museum (but she’ll be back next year) and, of course, she’s got one final local guest artist – Artistic Director of Tura New Music, Tos Mahoney.

Meanwhile, wit incorporated is about to open their production of Chinese playwright Stan Lai’s I Me She Him and Director Ren Ruidi is dropping by to tell us why this Australian premiere season is performing in not one but two venues at the same time.

Then Blacktavism is back at Arts Centre Melbourne and Artistic Director of this celebration of First Nations music and culture, Deline Briscoe, is here to remind us why, now more than ever, this is an important event on our cultural calendar.

And finally, you might know her from the pop duo GL or the indie band Dorsal Fins, but Ella Thompson is back recording under her own name with a very cool new album called Domino…

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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Elena Vereker is here with her last Adelaide round up for 2023 AND to introduce us to her guest local artist, multi-disciplinary theatre maker and choreographer Jacob Boehme whose Adelaide Festival show Guuranda has almost sold out already…

Then we’re off to the regions (or, at least, the Midsumma Festival is) with Victoria’s Pride, a showcase of thirteen events right across Victoria and Midsumma’s Community Engagement Manager Ashlee Hints is going to tell us what’s happening and where…

Then I’m out and about for a bit…  first up with Dave Houston who’ll be examining his own mental health journey with the help of many different Daves (even though it’s a solo show) when he performs Still Here at The Butterfly Club…

…and finally, we’re at Footscray Community Arts Centre artist Thomas Miller and Producer Lucy Buxton walk and talk us through Bright the new exhibition in the Roslyn Smorgon Gallery …

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 Theatre Network Australia time and TNA’s Program Producer, Safe & Sustainable Circus Rigging Christian Schooneveldt-Reid is here firstly to tell us about the Rigging Scholarships recipients, and secondly to introduce November’s Member of the Month - writer, performance maker, creative producer and community organiser Alysha Herrmann… 

After that, Yumi Umiumare is back with yet another Butoh-Out event, this time it’s the chaotic and fabulous ButohBAR – Out of Order…

Then, before Marc Gracie returns for more Screens & Streams, we’ll sneak in a preview of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival with its new Programme Director Cerise Howard…

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 not unusual for people to ‘dress up’ when they go to the theatre, but this invitation to dress up from the new production, WereDingo by Karul Projects at Arts House in North Melbourne isn’t about getting into your glad rags…  it’s about strutting your best fur, fleece or feathers for a show about how the First Nations idea of shapeshifting differs from its interpretation in Western culture… and we’ll find out about that difference when we meet Artistic Director Thomas E S Kelly…

Meanwhile, at 45 Downstairs, another new production, this time from Antipodes Theatre who are presenting Rachel Lewindon and Willow Sizer’s electro-folk musical adaptation of Virginia Woolfe’s Orlando, a character who changes gender and lives for 300 years… we’ll drop by a rehearsal where we’ll catch up with Rachel as well as Director Margot Fenley and Dramaturg Maude Davey…

A year or so ago we met Daz Chandler from The Parallel Effect who spoke about Message from Another You, an amazing project that invites you to experience from parallel reality through a message that seemingly comes from you. Now, we’re welcoming Daz back to the show to find out about I’ve Been to a Parallel World - the panel she’s hosting at The Wheeler Centre where her guests will share experiences of their own travels to other worlds…

And finally, we’re out at The Count’s again – the fabulous live music venue at Monash Performing Arts Centres where there are still a couple of gigs to go before the end of the year…  one of which is Ziimusic’s The Experience, a creative blend of art and soul with a mission to inspire and heal and we’ll meet poet, rapper, bassist and keyboard player Zii Wacho

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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If it seems like it’s been a while since we’ve said hello to Sophia Hall from Brown’s Mart then that’s because we missed out on our Darwin visit last month…  but Sophia will make up for it at the start of this week’s show and, as always, has a great local guest for us to chat with…  this month it’s multidisciplinary artist and First Nation’s advocate Rosealee Pearson…

Meanwhile, playwright and theatre critic Kate Herbert is about to have a reading of her new radio play Lung and she’s popping by to tell us how you write a bodily organ as a main character…

Then it’s our final Focus on Fringe, even though the festival is technically over, there are some shows that linger on –  first, we welcome back Tom Molyneux, who’s part of the Bloomshed ensemble for A Dodgeball named Desire at 45 Downstairs…, and then, we welcome back Thomas Gorham from Head First Acrobats who have three productions in The Vault at the Queen Victoria Market site - PreHysterical, Godz  and Crème de la Creme…

And how about a bit of music theatre to take us out. It’s almost twenty years since the 25th Annual Putnam Country Spelling Bee opened on Broadway and if you’ve never had the chance to see it in all that time, then it’s time to meet Director Russell Fletcher who’ll tell you you’ve got one more week to rectify that situation…

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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