SmartArts

With MQFF closing on Sunday November 24th, filmmaker Alice Maio Mackay and actor Connor Pullinger join Richard to talk about the last few days of the festival. Alice’s film Carnage for Christmas screens on Sunday 24th (last day of MQFF) at 3.15pm at Cinema Nova. Connor’s film Bulldog is a contender for Australian Shorts & Awards (screening and awards are 6pm on Saturday 23rd at ACMI Fed Square).

Then, from the La Trobe Art Institute, Dr. Karen Annett (director) and Amelia Wallin (curatorial lead) talk about the new exhibition Parched. The exhibition features over 8 artists interpreting cultures of drought around regional Victoria. The exhibition runs from November 20th - February 9th at La Trobe Art Institute (121 View Street Bendigo), with an opening event on November 29th from 5pm, plus artist and curator talks from 2pm on November 30th.

Have you ever wondered what an artists interpretation of waves and bubbles might sound like? Wonder no more… local composer, sound-artist and musician Elissa Goodrich has conducted a unique cross-disciplinary collaboration with fluid dynamics researcher Professor Richard Manasseh and his team at Swinburne, who are working on an Australian Research Council project on the sounds naturally emitted by ocean bubbles. Catch their project Waves and Bubbles at Tempo Rubarto (34 Breese St, Brunswick) at 8pm on November 28th.

Author Gillian Wills on her debut novel Big Music - set in a music college, exploring sexism in arts leadership and drawing upon Wills’ lived experience as the Dean of Music at the Victorian College of the Arts, it is a tale of triumph over adversity.

Choreographer Sandra Parker and sound designer Lawrence Harvey on their production, Safehold. Safehold is a “new choreographic work drawing on themes of collaboration and unity”, performed by dancers Anika de Ruyter, Rachel Mackie and Oliver Savariego. At 7pm, on Thursday 21 until Saturday 23 November 2024 at the ETU Ballroom, Trades Hall!

Sue Healey, award-winning choreographer and filmmaker, presents ON VIEW: ICONS - six screendance portraits, where attendees will experience a moving celebration of some of Australia’s pioneering women in dance including: the late Eileen Kramer, plus Lucette Aldous AC, Elizabeth Cameron Dalman OAM, Nanette Hassall AM, Elma Kris, Shirley McKechnie AO. Showing at Dancehouse from 4-7pm, Thu 28 — Sat 30 November 2024.

Plus, Anne Marie Peard has plenty of fabulous theatre reviews!

Jeff Khan previews the 2025 Asia Topa program, Katarina Paseta discusses two Geelong Gallery exhibitions (the Noel Counihan retrospective A People’s Press which is on display until March 10th 2025 and Social Studies which is on display until February 9th), actor/psychotherapist/applied theatre practitioner Benjamin Rivers chats about The Invaders’ Fear of Memories, Glen Downey discusses the Off The Kerb exhibition You Can Be… Anything!, and actors Declan Harrison and Sophie Graham and director Steffi Gil explore Close Company’s debut production Gruesome Playground Injuries.

Richard speaks to actor Tamblyn Lord on the Australian premiere of Philip Ridley's play The Poltergeist, at La Mama Theatre.

Gertrude Studios curator, Dr Amelia Winata, introduces the 2024 exhibition.

Giovanni Adams joins Richard in studio to discuss his role as Ike Turner in Tina, The Tina Turner Musical.

Director Anna Reece gives an overview of the Perth Festival 2025 program.

Finally, the cast of Your Name Means Dream, Caroline Lee and Lucy Ansell talk about performing the show at Red Stitch.

Buckle in for another ride of the SmartArts-coaster! Richard Watts OAM, is here to guide you through all the twists, turns and thrills of this weeks episode…

Kicking off with a Melbourne Queer Film Festival (MQFF) program overview with program director Cerise Howard and CEO David Martin Harris. MQFF is screening across Melbourne from November 14-24, tickets available now.

Visual artist, Dominic Kavanagh, is in the studio to talk about his work ‘The Blooming’. It’s a Lennox award-winning artwork, on display now at The Lennox, 208 Lennox Street Richmond, until November 3rd.

Spinning Plates Co-founders, Jess Stanley and James Cerche discuss working once more with the team behind The Crocodile to create Rhinoceros at Fortyfivedownstairs.

Plus, we get a Sydney Festival 2025 program overview with Festival Director Olivia Ansell https://www.sydneyfestival.org.au/

This week on SmartArts with Richard Watts,

As we all know, Melbourne is the most Irish city in Australia, and Dr Enda Murray, the Festival Director of the 2024 Irish Film Festival is here to tell us how we can embrace our Irish-ness through cinema. Showing from 24-27 October, find something on the program for yourself here: https://irishfilmfestival.com.au/

Academy Award winning filmmaker and artist, Adam Elliot has a new exhibition showing at Beinart Gallery. Opening on October 26th, All The Lonely People is a personal collection, resonating with the same melancholy and emotional depth characterising Elliot’s film work. 

As we’ve been launching the various calendars for Melbourne’s performing art scene, it is now time to launch next years Victorian Opera 2025 season with Artistic Director Stuart Maunder! Have a look at the full 2025 program here: https://www.victorianopera.com.au/victorian-opera-announces-season-2025/

Richard is joined by the world renowned, host, actor, writer, comedian, philosopher Stephen Fry to answer the big questions. What is art? How do you choose an acting role? And of course, what do we need to know about his upcoming Australian tour, An Evening with Stephen Fry? Hopefully all questions are answered but here’s the link for tickets and more info if you need it: https://premier.ticketek.com.au/shows/show.aspx?sh=STEPHENF24&v=PLN

Co-Artistic Directors Emma Valente and Kate Davis come on to discuss their project, THE RABBLE’s Wake. It is showing 25/10 and 26/10 at Burrinja Cultural Centre in Upwey, tickets available here: https://thesubstation.org.au/program/wake

Merlynn Tong, writer and co-star of Golden Blood, the story of a brother and sister left to fend for themselves in Singapore. Showing at Melbourne Theatre Company with a preview performance on the 25th and Opening Night on October 31st.

Plus, Anne Marie Peard, wraps up Melbourne Fringe for another year!

Richard starts off this week's show with a Malthouse Theatre 2025 season overview with Artistic Director Matt Lutton.

Gunai/Kurnai woman and curator Amanda Haskard talks ACMI's major exhibition The Future and Other Fictions.

And three interviews about Melbourne Fringe: performer and choreographer Alix Kuijpers tells Richard about Grim Grinning Ghosts, Mitch Jones (Oozing Future) discusses new alt-circus/theatre performance Apocrypha, and Oli Mathiesen talks about about the Aotearoa production The Butterfly Who Flew Into The Rave.

Richard Watts is joined by Director Anthea Williams and Actor Rachael Edmonds to talk about upcoming Melbourne Theatre production "The cost of Living" which won the 2018 Pulitzer prize for drama, written by Polish-Amercian Playwright Martyna Majok.

Plus, we dive into the political power of posters and street posters and poster print making. with Troppo Prints.

Simon Abrahams from Melbourne fringe pops in to talk about some of the highlights of the 2024 Melbourne Fringe Festival program, playwright Daniel Keene talks about his one-woman play "Mother" Starring Nonie Hazelhurst and Artist Rob McHaffie and curator Emma Busowsky chat about exhibition "We Are Family" on at the Bendigo Art Gallery.

Richard is joined in today's show of Smartarts by a whirlpool of talent including: artist Cindy Campbell, Sharmini Kumar & Arthur Pontonio of Around the World in 80 Days and Paul Mitchell & Theresa Borg who discuss their latest theatrical, You're the Man.

From the behind the scenes we peak into an array of art organisations hosted by guests from the likes of MAGMA gallery director Jake Taylor, executive director of Arts Project Australia Liz Nowell & CEO of Arts Access Victoria Joshua Pether.

Finally to conclude, Richard brings Anne Marie Peard to review the latest and greatest of theatre.

Richard Watts OAM has a plentiful basket of curators, directors, artists and critics for you to choose from this week.

If you’re looking for an art exhibition, and perhaps you’ve been chewed up by bureaucratic systems… look no further than Gertrude Contemporary Exhibition, And This Time the Well Is Alive. Joining Richard is Curator at Gertrude Contemporary, Amelia Winata who guides us through the works making up this thought provoking exhibit.

If you’re seeking MIFF recs, Secret Mall Apartment is a stranger-than-fiction documentary about a 2000s artist collective hiding away inside a shopping mall filming and documenting all their work at the same time. Director Jeremy Workman and artist Michael Townsend (one of the artists featured in the film), tell us about the process of creating, and living, the experience of this film.

If you’re looking for a thrill, Co-Director Nick Skubij is here to tell you about the latest adaptation of Frankenstein. Showing at the Princess Theatre by Shake & Stir for a limited run, 23 Aug - 1 Sep 2024.

For more MIFF, Simon Hunt (aka drag artist Pauline Pantsdown), producer and creative collaborator of Stephen Cummins, tells us about the Stephen Cummins Retrospective - showing on August 23rd. Cummins was an openly gay filmmaker whose works were produced during the cultural upheaval of the 1980s - and while the showing is currently sold out, get yourself on a waitlist!

If you need more theatre, French author, artistic director and performer, Clyde Chabot and Producer Tom Gutteridge, talk all about the Clyde Chabot Trilogy - three of Chabot's works in collaboration with students from Monash University’s Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music and Performance. It's showing in English on August 16th and in French on August 17th at the David Li Sound Gallery.

And if you need theatre reviews… well aren’t you glad Anne Marie Peard has stopped by to update Richard on all the recent happenings.

Richard is joined by a whole slew of guests including: Bernard Caleo to talk all things comics, Tai Snaith with the fortnightly Art Attack, Nela Trifkovic who is the vocalist behind new performance 'The Resonant Heart – The Heart Whispers and Whirls', Jeff Khan pops into the studio to chat about Asia TOPA, Rhys Graham presents a new documentary Rewards for the Tribe (2023), Andrew Gyopar, the Executive Producer and AG Theatre Founder on all things musicals!