Elena Vereker from Insite Arts is here for our regular South Australia catch up and she’s brought along a local guest artist for a chat – Paulo Castro from No Strings Attached Theatre of Disability.

Then we’re off to Arts Centre Melbourne for a new production of Camille Saint-Saens classic work for young people – Carnival of the Animals – but this time the animals are created by performers from the Brisbane-based, world famous acrobatic circus, Circa. We’ll meet Associate Director and Tour Director Kristen Maloney.

After that we’ll be Escaping Gravity – not literally, but through an immersive cinematic experience created by six UK artists working with City of Darebin based JOLT Arts.  The experience is based on Britain’s R101 Airship disaster in 1930. We’ll meet JOLT Artistic Director James Hullick whom will walk and talk us through the whole experience.

And finally, with RUOK Day coming up, it’s time welcome back singer/songwriter and RUOK Ambassador, Aislinn Sharp who’s released Matter, a new song in collaboration with the Choir of Hard Knocks. We’ll chat with Aislinn before hearing the song – and you’ll find out how you sing along.

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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September’s Theatre Network Australia visit is a bit of a special one with a return visit from Australian Performing Arts Forum Curator Sanja Simic who’ll be joined by APAF Associate Producer Emily Coleman. But if neither of them are the TNA Member of the Month, then who will it be?

After that, we’re off to Funky Town when we meet Pseudo Echo’s vocalist, guitarist and keyboard player Brian Canham as the iconic 80’s band continue their Ultimate Tour…

Meanwhile, at Chapel Off Chapel, the world’s first all-female-identifying cast production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum is about to premiere and Charmaine Gorman is here to tell us about it…

And then, as a prelude to this month’s Screens & Streams we’ll take a peek at the Focus on Ability Short Film Festival through the lens of Zachariah Fenn’s short doco – On The Road about artist Matt Elliot’s residency at Bundanon…

…and then Marc Gracie is here for a look at what else we’ve seen on screen this month…

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 week to catch up with Sophia Hall at Brown’s Mart in Darwin as well as meeting her local guest artist, Gail Evans – Creative Producer and Director of SPUN, a live, local, pop-up, podcast storytelling event…

Then we get a sneak peek at what happens before an exhibition gets hung on the gallery walls when we meet Jennifer Higgie, Curator of Thin Skin at Monash University Museum of Art…

Then, Jane Eckett is back to tell us about a significant new publication On Bunerong Country – Art and Design In Frankston an examination of the diverse artistic and cultural heritage of the Frankston region…

And finally, we’re back in Albury-Wodonga, this time for a chat with Anni Davey, Artistic Director of the Flying Fruit Fly Circus who are soon to unveil their new Borderville Theatre…

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 week to start in Perth which is why Helen Simondson from Boola Bardip WA Museum is here…  and, of course, she’ll be introducing us to a local artist…  this month it’s Ella Hetherington who, together with Renée Newman is about to perform Catastrophes at the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts…

Then we’re back out at Monash Performing Arts Centres where we welcome Executive Director Paul Grabowsky back to the show to tell us about the importance of creative expression and ideas to connectivity in Progress Festival, MPAC’s latest offering…

After that, we find out about poet, speechwriter and, in this case, novelist Joel Deane’s new novel Judas Boys which has already gone into a second printing before we even had a chance to sit down and talk about it…

And finally, we’ll chat with Luke Captain, the Artistic Director of The Boite who are heading to Ballarat to present Maiem, their glorious, massed children’s choir performance of songs from the Torres Strait…

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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We’re all over the place this week on Behind the Scenes…  we start with our Adelaide correspondent Elena Vereker who introduces us to emerging sound installation artist, Keira Simmons whose latest work Listening to the Port is an audio tour through the past, present and speculative future of Port Adelaide as part of SALA (the South Australian Living Artists Festival)…

Meanwhile, back in Melbourne, Maude Davey is about to perform a new show called My First Bike at LaMama and we’ll chat with Maude and her long-time collaborator Jane Bayly

And finally we’re in Albury-Wodonga where we catch up with Artistic Director of HotHouse Theatre, Karla Conway and playwright Campion Decent to talk about their production of Campion’s new play Unprecedented…

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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The jasmine is out so it must be August and our first show of the month always starts with a visit from Theatre Network Australia…  this time we meet Sanja Simic, TNA’s Coordinator of the Australian Performing Arts Forum…  and TNA Member of the Month, the new Executive Director of Perth’s Blue Room Theatre, Sukhjit Khalsa…

Meanwhile, at Darebin Speakeasy we meet playwright Fleur Murphy whose new play The Fence was shortlisted for the Rodney Seaborn Playwright’s Award and tells the story of what happens between neighbours when the fence comes down…

Then it’s off to Apollo Bay for this year’s Winter Wild Festival and we’ll speak with Festival Programmer Bill Frazer…

And finally, it’s Screens & Streams with Marc Gracie and this time it’s not just Barbiheimer on our big screens…  it’s also IndyMish (is that a thing?). Plus, of course, the Melbourne International Film Festival is off and running for the 71st time…

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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We start with a Vision Australia story this week, when we meet Chris Edwards who’ll introduce us to Dark Memory Lane, an exhibition and simulation experience at Federation Square’s Ian Potter Centre that invites visitors to use low vision simulation glasses to better understand the blind and low vision community.

Then, it’s a visit to Werribee Mansion where What Was That?, the spooky but informative story of the mansion’s resident Chirnside family after the death of Mary Chirnside in 1908 is about to have its 1000th performance and we’ll meet its writer Alaine Beek.

Dr Sally Chance (in Adelaide) and Dr Sarah Austin (in Melbourne) are both pioneers in the relatively new form of theatre for babies and we’ve got the two of them together to compare notes on this fascinating part of the performing arts…

And sticking with very young people (although, a bit older than babies) we’ll head down to Wonthaggi to catch up with Dr Andrea Lemon and Iris Gaillard to talk about the innovative and highly successful programme, Kids Thrive.

And finally, a bit of new music when we meet Composer and bassist Joseph Franklin ahead of the first performance of The Horror of the Avant Garde(s)…

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 Been a While Since Our Last Correspondence – is the new spoken word album by Not Drowning Waving and My Friend the Chocolate Cake founder David Bridie. It’s a collection of stories augmented by David’s music featuring a terrific line up of storytellers including self-described queer crip poet, Kit Kavanagh Ryan. In this extended radio chat, Behind the Scenes Presenter Chris Thompson sits down with both David and Kit to talk about the album and the way in which it offers a ‘snapshot’ of Australian culture and the diversity of the Australian community…  and, of course, to listen to a few tracks. In addition to Kit’s Thanks For Five Years which focuses on her experience of corneal transplants, there is Freedom by Farhad Bandesh, Low Expectations by Danny Dickson and David’s own contribution, Sympathetic Martin.

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It's our week to start in Darwin with Sophia Hall who introduces her local guest artist, singer/songwriter David Spry who’s soon to perform in Kingadon for the Darwin Festival…

Meanwhile, The Counts is Monash Performing Arts Centres’ music venue and Senior Music Producer Raleigh Williams can tell us just how much music is waiting for us during August…

Then, we say hello to Executive Director and Chief Curator of Open House Melbourne, Tania Davidge who can tell us which bits of Melbourne are open this year and what to do to get a sticky beak…

One place that’s open all the time is Linden New Art and Gallery Director Vincent Alessi is on the line to tell us about Everything That Came Before Makes the Present, an exhibition of remarkable works by Tiwi artist Jonathan World Peace Bush…

And finally, David Bridie has a beautiful new album – It’s Been a While Since Our Last Correspondence – a collection of stories and music featuring a terrific line up of storytellers and we’ll sit down with David and one of those storytellers, self-described queer crip poet, Kit Kavanagh Ryan…

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 Boola Bardip WA Museum gets us going this week with a round up of what she’s seen in Perth…

Then we meet James Lynch, Curator at Deakin University Art Gallery who’ll tell us about 'I brave a whirlwind of dust, while those about me close their eyes…' a new exhibition of works by Fayen d'Evie who uses sound, touch, movement, performance and other nonvisual communications to expand the limits of the visual arts. The exhibition includes works by print specialist Trent Walter, performance maker Alex Craig, deaf dancer Anna Seymour, choreographer Benjamin Hancock, sculptor Aaron McPeake and paintings by the San Francisco-based artist and advocate Jennifer Justice.

After that, we’re off to theatre where Bloomshed is presenting a contemporary adaptation of George Orwell’s metaphorical novel Animal Farm… and we’ll talk to director James Jackson.

Designer Anna Tregloan has created a theatrical dreamscape for Chagall at the Jewish Museum of Australia through which we can explore the life and work of Marc Chagall and she’s here to walk and talk us through it.

Meanwhile, it’s time for the Scandinavian Film Festival and so we’ll chat with Elysia Zeccola who knows all there is to know about this collection of Nordic cinema…

Sticking with the Nordic theme (well, near enough), Terra Therma is an exhibition focusing on sounds and images created in response to the impacts of global warming witnessed during his exploration of ice caverns and glaciers in Iceland and artist Benjamin Knock walks and talks us through his work along with composer Coskun Dincel.

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.