Small But Perfectly Formed Theatres
Intimate theatre venues in Australia’s capital cities face increasing pressure to stay open. Yet, while some have closed, others are thriving. Beth Keehn spoke to new theatre operators in Canberra and Sydney, and established venue managers in Brisbane and Melbourne, to see how smaller spaces are surviving in 2024.
Last October, the Meraki Arts Bar on Sydney’s Oxford Street – a multi-level cabaret venue –announced that it was immediately closing, leaving theatre companies scrambling to find a new venue. In May 2022, companies using the Bakehouse Theatre in Adelaide announced with ‘great sadness’ that, after 25 years, the venue had been sold and the owners wanted to use the property for their own purposes. But, despite these economic difficulties, it is inspiring to see independent theatre groups across the country take up the challenge to thrive in smaller inner-city venues. These people and places are crucial to our creative landscape – providing training, performance and backstage experience, a support network for creatives, and a talent pipeline for our larger and more commercial theatre companies.
Brisbane: Ad Astra
In Brisbane, arts philanthropists Fiona and Dan Kennedy have been saving little venues in the inner city since 2018. Their Ad Astra company refurbished a 1970s office space in a Fortitude Valley industrial estate to create an intimate 40-seat black box space, providing local creatives with a professional stage and carefully curated theatre works to showcase their talent. The company’s productions of Proof (by David Auburn) and Top Girls (by Caryl Churchill) was nominated for five Matilda Awards 2023.
Image: Ad Astra.
Executive Producer, Gregory J Wilken told me: “This year we’ll continue to build our repertoire and create more cooperative productions. In 2022, we put 74 creatives on and off stage, and more than half had not been part of Ad Astra before. The stats for 2023 are about the same. That includes new, young talent, but also local talented professional creatives who are reconnecting with their stage roots. We hold open auditions and are dedicated to finding the right talent for a wide range of roles to really show what the talent pool in Brisbane has to offer.”
Saving the Brisbane Arts Theatre
In 2023, Fiona and Dan Kennedy also saved Brisbane’s historic Arts Theatre from real estate developers.
Brisbane Arts Purchase: L-R: Dan Kennedy (Ad Astra co-owner), Fiona Kennedy (Ad Astra co-owner and Creative Director), Una Hollingsworth OAM, Blake Young (Brisbane Arts Theatre Creative Director) and Gregory Wilken (Ad Astra Executive Producer).
They bought the space at 210 Petrie Terrace which has long been the heart of community theatre in Brisbane. The aim is to refurbish the 150-seat space as the new home for Ad Astra and as a creative hub for Queensland’s theatre makers. The Fortitude Valley 40-seater will remain home for emerging artists, classic stories and new works. 2024 productions include Joe Orton’s Loot and a special revival of Michael Gow’s Toy Symphony which toured to Qtopia’s new Loading Dock Theatre in Sydney.
Find out more: www.adastracreativity.com/productions
Sydney: Qtopia
There is some positive news from Sydney – the Old Fitz Theatre is under new management, as is Flightpath in Marrickville and Kings Cross Theatre (KXT) is in its new space on Broadway. A new venue is Qtopia – a not-for-profit group dedicated to showcasing our Queer history, stories and experiences across all genres.
Backed by a mix of local government, academic and private funding (including from founding partners, the Lachlan and Sarah Murdoch Foundation), in early 2024, Qtopia opened a new creative hub with three new theatre spaces in Darlinghurst: the Bandstand (refurbished space in Green Park with space for 40 people), Taylor Square’s Substation (capacity for 50...pictured at the top of this article) and the Loading Dock, a new 60-seat theatre within Sydney’s Centre for Queer History and Culture, on Forbes Street.
The irony is not lost on the venue’s curators that this flagship theatre is in the old Darlinghurst Police Station, with past associations with the persecution of Sydney’s gay community. The Loading Dock’s premiere was Ad Astra’s successful 2022 season production of Michael Gow’s Toy Symphony.
Qtopia Sydney Curator of Culture, Carly Fisher, said: “Qtopia Sydney is proudly launching three new intimate performance spaces in 2024, to celebrate the contributions of the LGBTQIA+ community and reflect on the history of our great city. Our main stage is the Loading Dock Theatre. In programming our 2024 season, we are excited to share stories from talented artists from across Australia – from early career to seasoned artists. We are proud to be amplifying the voices of local storytellers, as well as welcoming wonderful touring productions from all over Australia. To kickstart our venues with a play by one of our greatest local Sydney playwrights is an honour. And we hope that this is the start of a beautiful long relationship with Ad Astra and with Brisbane-based artists and companies.”
Find out more: qtopiasydney.com.au
Canberra: Mill Theatre at Dairy Road
Mill Theatre at Dairy Road in Canberra is a new 67-seat greybox studio theatre that opened its first season in November 2022. The venue is part of a mixed commercial, government and community hub built on former industrial government storage space at Dairy Road and Jerrabomberra Wetlands, by owners the Molonglo Group.
Creative Producer Lexi Sekuless told us: "Mill Theatre is one of the first, if not the first, private enterprise venue in Canberra, supported entirely by industry. It’s unusual for property developers to include a theatre as part of their plans, but Molonglo Group, a local company established in Canberra in 1964, is interested in Canberra’s cultural offerings.”
Lexi is committed to growing the professional theatre industry in the ACT. She currently oversees programming, theatre shows and screen projects, and runs regular drop-in and mentoring programmes for Canberra’s on and off-stage creatives.
Promoting shows is a key issue, as Lexi explains: “In the ACT, we have an added challenge with some old laws that mean we cannot have billboards or promotional cards. So, we have to rely on other ways to let people know what’s happening.”
Lexi told me about her overall aims for the new space: “I want to help Canberra to grow up culturally. At the moment, people feel they have to leave Canberra to train and work. I will feel a massive sense of success when people say, ‘I hear you are doing some really interesting work in Canberra’.
“We have a lot of actors in Canberra, but I’m also interested in people who want further experience. I want to help create opportunities for Canberra practitioners to upskill and take on more leadership roles – more directors, more production managers. We don’t operate as a co-op: all our actors and creative team are paid under contract. We also offer up affordable space for co-productions.
Image: Rockspeare-1H6 - 2023. Photographer: Daniel Abroguena
“Our 2024 season offers eight shows – from adaptations to revivals, re-imaginings and immersive theatre experiences. We have definitely seen our audience build over the past year and we hope to see that continue in 2024.”
Upcoming shows at Mill Theatre include Helios, an interactive retelling of the Greek tale, and Rockspeare Henry Sixth Part Two (2H6), which enhances Shakespeare’s Wars of the Roses series with music, poetry and an original soundscape.
Find out more: https://sites.google.com/lexisekuless.com/mill-theatre-at-dairy-road/home-page/stage-productions
Melbourne: fortyfivedownstairs
One of our more established, independent theatres – fortyfivedownstairs at 45 Flinders Lane in Melbourne – started its life in 2002 in a ground floor warehouse as a privately funded visual art space. It expanded in 2009 to a refurbished basement performance area – which allowed visual art exhibitions to coexist with the theatre output, rather than alternating in the same space.
Fortyfivedownstairs now operates as a not-for-profit theatre that aims to support independent and experimental works. The theatre is an open space with adaptable seating to suit a range of genres and an audience of up to 120 people.
In September 2023, Cameron Lukey was appointed as the venue’s new Artistic Director of theatre. Cameron had been a producer for the venue since his first show in 2014 – a production of Terrence McNally’s play Master Class, featuring Maria Mercedes as Maria Callas.
Cameron told me: “The best thing about our space is its flexibility. We can produce anything – from a one-person show with no set to an ensemble piece like our current production of The Inheritance by Matthew López which has a cast of 13 actors.”
Cameron is passionate about giving performers the chance to get on stage, and bringing audiences the best productions possible. “We are very fortunate to be an inner-city space. There aren’t that many independent theatre venues in Melbourne. So, our overall aim is to use our fantastic space to give Melbourne audiences an eclectic mix of productions to enjoy – the best mix of new Australian work, the latest international plays, a bit of comedy as well as drama, new and classic works, and music.”
The theatre’s 2024 season reflects all that – and more. There have been Australian premieres of The Inheritance (Matthew López) and Milked (Simon Longman), with upcoming shows including Coady Green’s programme of 14 events in the Chamber Music Festival, The Exact Dimensions of Hell, and WAY, written and performed by Sally McKenzie and directed by Sean Mee.
Find out more: https://fortyfivedownstairs.com/events/category/theatre/
