SmartArts

Playwright Wesley Enoch discusses his Geelong Arts Centre theatre production, ‘Black Cockatoo’, the true story of Johnny Mullagh and the all-First Nations cricket team travelling to England in 1868; Artist Telia Nevile reinvents her live show ‘Little Monster’ for online and back again for Fringe Rebound; Exhibition Curator Neil Sharkey introduces the Shrine of Remembrance's ‘Lust Love Loss: Austra...

Director of the Castlemaine Documentary Film Festival Claire Jager introduces their program of online films; writer/director Emma Muir-Smith chats about the MSO’s ‘Performance of a Lifetime’ campaign addressing vaccination hesitancy in the community; and Linda Thompson, Artistic Director of the Australian Contemporary Opera talks about their latest production, ‘The Enchanted Pig’. With presenter R...

Kyran Whealey, co-owner of Comedy Republic chats about the challenges of opening a comedy venue during a pandemic; David Freyne, director of ‘Dating Amber’ discusses his romance comedy film set in 90’s Ireland; and Briony Dunn, director of Iron Lung Theatre’s production of ‘When The Rain Stops Falling’ talks about their upcoming season at Theatreworks. With presenter Richard Watts.

Tai Snaith returns for another Art Attack, reviewing the 135-hectare Point Leo Estate Sculpture Park; Elisa Armstrong, co-artistic director of Heartstring Theatre talks about ‘Still’ at fortyfivedownstairs; and Will and Garrett Huxley introduce ‘The Huxleys Places of Worship’, opening at the Centre for Contemporary Photography. With presenter Richard Watts.  

Sharmini Kumar, writer and assistant director of ‘The Regina Monologues’ chats about their upcoming performances at the Meat Market Stables; director Mike Finch and performer Emily Zoe introduce the National Institute of Circus Arts’ latest student-devised piece, ‘Cirkus Plan 47 (b)’; actor Jess Clarke talks about ‘Iphigenia in Splott’, a one woman show at Red Stitch Actors' Theatre; and Louise Kl...

Graphic artist Safdar Ahmed talks about his novel ‘Still Alive: Notes from Australia’s Immigration Detention System’ which collates almost a decade of stories involving the Villawood Immigration Detention Centre; Nat Randall, co-creator of ‘Set Piece’ for RISING festival talks about their genre bending performance exploring intergenerational desire; and playwright Michel Paul Tuomy chats about ‘Li...

Artist Rosie Weiss joins Richard Watts to talk about ‘Do You Still Love Me (asked the earth)’, a solo exhibition utilising charred plant fragments for Silver Leaf Art Box. Yumi Umiumare, Artistic Director of ButohOUT! 2021, a festival inspired by the Japanese dance theatre artform, introduces ‘Odd Hours’, part of the festival’s exploration of ‘abnormality’ at Abbotsford Convent. Finally, Back to B...

Bruce Beresford, legendary screen director, talks about directing Melbourne Opera’s production of ‘Macbeth’ which will be broadcast live using VR technology; Internationally acclaimed performer Meow Meow discusses ‘Meow Meow’s Pandemonium’, her latest collaboration with the MSO; and Roshelle Fong and Keziah Warner, co-creators of ‘Poona’ talk about their new work for Next Wave 2020, based on the c...

Richard Watts is joined by comic book lover Bernard Caleo for this month’s Drawn Out segment, discussing Declan Shelvey’s Bog Bodies and Savage Town , two Irish graphic novels transforming the crime fiction genre, and Scribe Publications’ Two-Week Wait, a sensitive portrayal of the IVF process. Curator Dr Angela Hesson talks about NGV Australia’s latest exhibition, ‘She-oak and Sunlight’, featurin...

Richard Watts is joined by Tai Snaith for their regular ‘Art Attack’ segment, discussing in depth Bus Projects’ ‘Notions of Care’, a multidisciplinary visual arts exhibition located in the newly completed Collingwood Yards space.   Actor Kristen Smyth talks about ‘The Gospel According to Jesus, Queen of Heaven’, playing at Theatre Works as part of Midsumma 2021. The solo performance reimagines the...

This week Richard Watts is joined by co-curators Amy Forbes and Caitlin Mullaly of Veils of Cirrus introduce ‘Negative Capability’, an immersive, tactile exploration based on John Keats’  Ode to a Nightingale . Award winning playwright Yve Blake chats about the Melbourne debut of ‘Fangirls’ at Arts Centre Melbourne. Inspired by interviews with teenage fangirls, this musical celebrates generations...

This week on SmartArts, Theatre-maker Mark Salvestro joins Richard to discuss ‘The Will to Be’, an award-winning solo show running at La Mama as part of Midsumma 2021. The piece blends Shakespearean language and Australian history to explore societal attitudes towards homosexuality in the 1960s. Artistic Director of Circa Yaron Lifschitz introduces the company’s latest performance, ‘Shawn the Shee...

Musicians and visual artists Kim Salmon and Stu Thomas talk about their first-ever joint surrealist exhibition at the One Star Gallery; Karen Bryant, CEO of Midsumma, talks about this year’s program of events, set to run later in the year than usual; and Jamie Bretman, co-director and founder of circus company Dummies Corp chats about ‘Dumtectives’, a film-noir inspired circus piece for Melbourne...

Boonwurrung and Wemba Wemba woman and Creative Director of Yirramboi Festival Caroline Martin discusses the festival’s 2021 program; Ukrainian-Australian Artist Stanislava Pinchuk talks about 'Terra Data', a museum survey of over 5 years of work mapping the Ukrainian civil war; and co-artistic director of RISING Hannah Fox chats about the launch of the brand new Melbourne arts festival, beginning...

Comedian and Triple R ‘Breakfasters’ regular Nat Harris joins Richard Watts to talk about her new show with co-creator Hannah Camilleri, ‘Pét-Nat + Han ah Chocolat’, playing as part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Actors Khisraw Jones-Shukoor and Keegan Joyce talk about 'Because the Night', the Malthouse Theatre’s immersive take on Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Set in the world of Elsinore...

Resident comic book artist Bernard Caleo returns to the studio for the first time since lockdown with this month’s Drawn Out, discussing Zach Snyder’s ‘Justice League’ cut, Taiyo Matsumoto’s ‘Ping Pong’ as well as Safdar Ahmed’s ‘Still Alive’, which Bernard helped publish. Drawn from the stories of refugees detained in the Villawood Immigration Detention centre, ‘Still Alive’ is based on the Walkl...

Composer Luke Styles, Kurdish-Iranian journalist Behrouz Boochani and translator and collaborator Omid Tofighian join Richard ahead of ‘No Friend but the Mountains: A Symphonic Song Cycle’ premiering at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl. Inspired by Boochani’s book of the same name written secretly in Farsi whilst on Manus Island, this adaptation explores his brutal detention experience through the langu...

Tai Snaith returns to the studio for the fortnightly visual arts segment Art Attack , chatting about her artistic process whilst working from home, and reviewing Judy Watson and Yhonnie Scarce’s ‘Looking Glass’, on display at the TarraWarra Museum of Art. Described by curator Hetti Perkins as both “a love song and lament for country”, this exhibition sees Watson, a Waanyi artist, and Scarce, a Kok...

William Mora, son of Melbourne cultural icon Mirka Mora joins Richard to discuss ‘MIRKA’ - the most expansive exhibition of her work to date, which will be on for an exceptional nine months at the Jewish Museum of Australia. Featuring previously unseen works, objects she lived with and a soundscape of her voice in each room, the exhibition is a comprehensive and immersive honouring of a truly rema...

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’...

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...

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...

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 o...

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...

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...