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Writer and Actor Elaine Beek joins Richard ahead of the premiere of ‘Jack and Millie’, Essence Productions’ latest piece at the Saltwater Community Centre. Based on her personal experience of navigating a cancer diagnosis, this play explores the hardships of illness with equal lashings of humour and sadness.

Clare Bartholomew and Daniel Tobias, the duo behind multi-award winning ‘Die Roten Punkte’ are back with ‘The Anniversary’ a theatre piece following two baby boomers from Balwyn stuck in a joyless marriage. Described by Bartholomew as ‘mad, macabre and magical’, ‘The Anniversary’ combines elements of farce and absurd theatre into one big nonsensical romp.

Finally, Alisa Bunbury, Curator of the Grimwade Collection at the Ian Potter Museum of Art speaks about ‘Pride of Place: Exploring the Grimwade Collection’, a book exploring the variety of visual and textual artifacts found in The Russell and Mab Grimwade Bequest. Edited by Bunbury, the book features over 40 contributors and offers a unique insight into the impacts of British colonisation.

Lindy Hume, Artistic Director of Ten Days on the Island presents the festival’s 2021 program of pan-Tasmanian arts and culture. Taking place over three weekends, the festival connects regional communities and celebrates the island’s unique identity.

Wemba Wemba artist Kelly Koumalatsos’ ‘Gung | create, make, do, love’ combines screenprinting with the traditional ‘uka ngalung wooleh’ (to paint with possum) technique. Inspired by the stories of her ancestors, the exhibition features three-dimensional Victorian era garments constructed from tissue paper and is on display at the Bunjilaka Aboriginal Cultural Centre in Melbourne Museum.

Finally, Morgan Rose, co-director and creator of ‘Grand Gesture’ speaks to Richard ahead of their season at La Mama Theatre’s Love Fest. The show integrates excerpts from popular romcoms to interrogate the romantic expectations such films set and the effect they have on our understanding of love and relationships.

Dr Christian Thompson AO, a Bidjara man of the Kunja Nation and winner of the 2020 Bowness Photography Prize joins Richard to discuss his piece ‘Rule of Three’. This compelling four panel print explores the environment and Aboriginality through a contemporary lens, and is on display at the Monash Gallery of Art.

As the Women’s Circus approach their 30th anniversary, Creative Director Devon Taylor talks about their 2021 New Crew and Circus Mixtape programs, welcoming not only women, but gender diverse performers at all levels of experience. Collaborating with Arts Centre Melbourne and the Metro Tunnel Creative Project, they will also work on a commission championing artists with disabilities, premiering later this year in the city’s arts precinct.

Finally, Melbourne based filmmaker Hossein Valamanesh discusses his moving image work ‘What Goes Around’, commissioned as part of Light Source at the Buxton Contemporary. Light Source is the gallery’s program of six digital artworks developed during the 2020 lockdown.

Daniel Goldstein, Associate Director of Tony award winning musical ‘Come From Away’ chats about the show’s return to the Comedy Theatre post-lockdown. This life-affirming true story centres on the days following the September 11 tragedy, where locals in a small Canadian town were forced to take on thousands of stranded travellers.

Iain Sinclair, Director of 16th Street Actors Studio’s production of ‘Burn This’ speaks to Richard about their online rehearsal process and upcoming training opportunities at the studio. Set during the peak of the 1980’s AIDS epidemic, the play deals with poisoned romance and dangerous and irresistible desire.

Finally, Castlemaine State Festival Director Glyn Roberts gives an overview of this year’s program including many live-streamed and free events. Running over 16 days, the festival showcases the best of regional Victorian arts and culture and includes Archie Roach, Die Roten Punkte and Tim Costello.

Creator and Performer Michelle Myers talks about her solo show ‘And Then She Became a Chair’, playing at Theatre Works in St Kilda. Developed during her four years in Berlin, Myers describes the piece as “a show about death but in a tropical paradise”.

Writer and Director Dean Bryant joins Richard ahead of ‘Well, That Happened’, a one-weekend-only event in February celebrating the reopening of the Melbourne Theatre Company’s Sumner Theatre. This stripped-back verbatim performance sees MTC favourites such as Esther Hannaford, Zahra Newman and Eddie Perfect reminisce on the year that was.

Finally, Shini Pararajasingham, Founder and Director of Off the Kerb gallery tells of four new upcoming exhibitions supporting emerging visual artists in Melbourne. Simon O’Carrigan’s ‘A Shared Path’ features watercolour landscapes evoking the Merri Creek area, Nicholas Aplin’s ‘Towering’ contains brutalist yet beautiful North Melbourne housing landscapes, Kara Mandell’s ‘In The Beginning’ draws connections between the cosmos and human body, and Sara Deane’s ‘Colours of Jaipur’ is a response to the vibrant architecture of the northern Indian city.

Ireland in the mid-1800s was not a particularly happy or pleasant time as it was the period of the Great Hunger. Tom Sullivan, writer and director of the film, ARRACHT joins Richard to chat about the impact of the great hunger on Irish Culture and the way it's explored in ARRACHT.

Every year, Creative Partnerships Australia gives out awards to celebrate philanthropy in the arts sector. Richard is joined by the CEO of Creative Partnerships Australia, Fiona Menzies, to discuss the 2020 awards winners, plus provide an overview of the awards and why philanthropy is an important part of the arts sector.

Waanyi artist Judy Watson and Kokatha and Nukunu artist Yhonnie Scarce share recent and personally painful histories of the destruction, exploitation, and degradation of land and of colonisation. Curator of the TarraWarra Museum of Art, Hetti Perkins discusses with Richard Judy and Yhonnie’s latest exhibition Looking Glass. Detailing Australia’s secret and dirty war—a battle fought on many fronts from colonial massacres to Stolen Generations, from the Maralinga bomb tests to the climate emergency. Looking Glass is being exhibited at TarraWarra from November 28th to March 8th.

The Melbourne Fringe Festival is a mix of wacky and wonderful shows. Two such shows are CATS: The Movie, the Musical, The Production, The Artist & Lousical The Musical, created by Jean Tong and Lou Wall respectively. One is a mockumentary that punches down on a musical that has been “piss taken to the ends of the Earth and back,” whilst the other is a pop music comedy, part stand up, part song, and part “online meme content”. Both shows were available to stream online as part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival’s 2020 programming.

ARRACHT (Trailer) | YouTube

Ireland Picks ‘Arracht’ for Oscars’ International Feature Film Race | Variety

Meet our 2020 Creative Partnerships Award recipients | Creative Partnerships Australia

MATCH Lab | Creative Partnerships Australia

Plus1 | Creative Partnerships Australia

Looking Glass | TarraWarra Museum of Art

CATS: The Movie, the Musical, The Production, The Artist | Melbourne Fringe

Lousical The Musical | Melbourne Fringe

The 8th Amendment was one of Ireland’s most controversial pieces of legislation, heavily limiting women's reproductive rights. Filmmaker Anna Rodgers joins Richard to discuss When Women Won a documentary about the referendum to overturn the 8th Amendment and the emotional inside story of the Together for Yes campaign. When Women Won is screening as part of the Irish Film Festival of Australia’s 2020 programming.

Richard is also joined by Australian playwright, Wesley Enoch to chat about the launch of the 2021 Sydney Festival. Next year’s Sydney Festival will continue the festival’s proud 44-year history of commissioning and presenting inspiring and ground-breaking new Australian art, running from January 6th to 26th

These are probably questions you can’t answer but, What Would John Hughes Do? Is your adulthood living up to what you thought it would be? Writer and performer, Telia Neville, joins Richard to talk about her aforementioned play, a punk cabaret about pop-culture-induced expectations and the real experiences that follow. What Would John Hughes Do? Is part of Melbourne Fringe’s 2020 Digital Fringe programming.

Lastly, the Artistic Director of Photo 2021, Elias Redstone talks to Richard about the launch of the festival and to provide an overview of what will be on offer. Photo 2021 will run online and in-person from February 8th to March 7th, 2021.

Irish Film Festival Australia

Sydney Festival | SydFest 2021 Launch

What Would John Hughes Do | Melbourne Fringe

Photo 2021

Back in September, an initiative and Kickstarter campaign was launched to help provide both financial assistance and industry support for BIPOC theatre performers. Tarik Frimpong, founder of the Artists of Colour Initiative joins Richard to talk about the announcement of the six finalists. Prizes include scholarships from the Patrick School of Arts, plus a share of the total money raised from the crowdfunding campaign.

The coronavirus pandemic's arrival in Australia in March 2020 caused multiple arts festivals to cancel events earlier in the year. One such event was the Melbourne Queer Film Festival which was 5 days into its programming when restrictions and lockdowns began. Program Director of MQFF, Spiro Economopoulos, joins Richard to chat about MQFF Interrupted, the online relaunch of the festival’s 2020 programming. Streaming from November 19th to 30th, the program will show the best of top-notch queer cinema.

As restrictions ease, Artistic Director of Heide Museum of Modern Art, Lesley Harding joins Richard to chat about the gallery’s 2021 programming announcements, the future plans of the gallery, and Heide Summer Festival, an outdoor event series designed to support local performing artists, live music and cultural festivals. Tickets for the Summer Festival will go on sale from December 1st with Heide reopening on November 28th.

AOC Initiative Website

Top Six Finalist Announced for AOC | Arts Review

Melbourne Queer Film Festival

Heide Re-opens November 28th

Heide Summer Festival

This week, Richard is joined by Gallery Director of the Monash Gallery of Art, Anouska Phizacklea, to discuss this year’s Bowness Photography Prize, the proposed exhibition of the shortlisted works and the changes in Australian photography over the last decade and a half.

Director of the Jewish Museum of Australia, Jess Bram, joins Richard to talk about Sukkah by Zahava Elenberg, a temporary structured set up at Birrarung Marr that invites everyone to reflect on humanity and what it means to be in a community.

The temporary structure will be situated at Birrarung Marr until December 13th with the museum reopening its doors to the public in February 2021.

Lastly, Festival Director of the Irish Film Festival of Australia, Dr. Enda Murray joins Richard to chat about how this year’s festival will run and provide an overview of the program on offer.

Streaming on-demand from November 19th to 29th, the Irish Film Festival is coming to a sofa near you!

Bowness Prize | Monash Gallery of Art

Sukkah | Jewish Museum of Australia

Irish Film Festival of Australia

Being creative during a lockdown and a global pandemic mustn’t be easy but it’s amazing just what can be created whilst under pressuring conditions.

Creative Director and CEO of Melbourne Fringe, Simon Abrahams joins Richard to discuss how the 2020 rendition of the Melbourne Fringe festival will look and just what will be on offer, running from November 12th to 29th.

Back in March, a new play, Single Ladies was in its first week of previews but Covid-19 forced it to close. Since then a new set of audio plays were developed in its place. Actor, Caroline Lee joins Richard to discuss Single Ladies Now a prequel to the aforementioned play. Set in Collingwood, the audio works were written as companions to the original piece.

How well do you know your bushrangers? Can you name just one (most likely Ned Kelly) or many? A lesser-known bushranger, Captain Moonlite is the subject of author Garry Linnell’s latest book aptly titled Moonlite. Garry joined Richard to discuss the writing of Moonlite & also about why he feels Australian history should be retold so it’s more accessible and entertaining to both students and history lovers alike. Moonlite is out now via Penguin Books Australia.

Welcome to the 2020 Festival | Melbourne Fringe

Single Ladies Now | Red Stitch Actors' Theatre

Red Stitch - Single Ladies Now | Aussie Theatre

Moonlite - Garry Linnell | Penguin Books Australia