Period music and contemporary acrobatics will again share the stage in a celebrated and popular Helpmann Award-winning partnership between Australian Brandenburg Orchestra and Brisbane’s very own contemporary circus ensemble, Circa.

English Baroque with Circa is a part of the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra’s 30th Anniversary celebrations and will dazzle Brisbane audiences on 21 May.

After previously crafting acclaimed shows around French and Spanish music, Brandenburg Artistic Director Paul Dyer and Circa Artistic Director Yaron Lifschitz have devised a brand-new show to conceptualise the English Baroque into an explosive and thrilling collision of music and circus.

“Working with Paul is always an amazing adventure,” says Yaron.

“He brings talent and energy and joy to everything he does and his spirit is manifested in the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra. Ours are always meetings of great delight.”

“On one enchanted night, the worlds of the court, the bedroom, the chapel and the fairground all get bathed in magical moonlight,” Yaron adds.

“Playful, lyrical and rambunctious, the show brings the different worlds of the English Baroque together for a night of beauty and pleasure.”

The musicians will play a pasticcio created by Paul and Yaron that brings together music from 16th and 17th-century England by composers Purcell, Dowland, Corelli and Handel, as well as traditional tunes such as Scarborough Fair and The Garan Mother’s Lullaby.

Appropriately for an anniversary year, another significant and important Brandenburg collaborator returns for English Baroque with Circa .

ARIA Award-nominated soprano Jane Sheldon first sang on the Brandenburg stage as a teenager, having already starred with the Sydney Children’s Choir and released her first album with ABC Classics .

Jane has recently returned to live in Australia after a decade living and working in New York, where The New York Times praised her ‘full-on vocal virtuosity”.

She last sang with the orchestra during its 25th anniversary celebrations.

English Baroque with Circa
QPAC Concert Hall, Brisbane
Tuesday 21 May 2019 ay 7:30PM
www.qpac.com.au

The eighth annual festival runs from April 17-28 and heralds a new era for the Gold Coast while celebrating its unique rituals and culture with a jam-packed program that spans large-scale opera, award-winning dance, eye-popping cabaret, free live music, a thoughtprovoking political swimming carnival and a thrilling drive-in with a difference.

Over 12 days, the Gold Coast’s beaches, waterways, parklands and civic gathering places become playgrounds for contemporary performance and installation with Bleach* Artistic

Director and CEO Louise Bezzina calling on everyone to come and play. “2019’s Bleach* Festival signals a new chapter for the city, taking place one year after the historic staging of the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games,” Ms Bezzina said.

“The Gold Coast has experienced a cultural revolution over the past few years with Bleach* at the helm and, as the Gold Coast continues to evolve, so too does Bleach*.

“In 2019, we’ll turn the city on with a program of incredible arts experiences that will inspire and invigorate citizens and visitors to the Gold Coast.”

Bleach* presents its largest event to date in 2019 with 28 unique productions and 132 performance including four world premieres, and three Queensland premieres, headlined by its centrepiece event, Verdi’s Requiem, on April 27.

The blockbuster music concert, directed by Opera Queensland Artistic Director Patrick Nolan and featuring more than 150 musicians and singers, is performed under the stars, with HOTA’s outdoor stage transformed into a fiery ceremonial sanctuary.

“Verdi’s score is all-consuming and is one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever composed so this will be a very special, one-off concert for the city,” Ms Bezzina said.

“Requiem has soaring voices, the might and force of Queensland Conservatorium Symphony Orchestra, a spectacular outdoor stage and a few other visual treats to generate no end of goosebump moments.”

Bleach* again welcomes long-time collaborators The Farm, a Helpmann Award-winning and Gold Coast-based dance theatre company, to present newly commissioned work, Throttle.

Billed as a “drive-in live-action movie with a difference”, Throttle is a B-grade thriller that plays out in front of an audience safely ensconced in their cars.

“This intimate style of performance brings your personal fears to life with the idea that to embark on a new journey, you need to face up to your fears and overcome them,” Ms\ Bezzina said.

“Throttle has elements of stunt, the thrill of surprise, the eeriness of a stage lit by car headlights and incredible sound design that comes through your car speakers so you never quite know where the action’s coming from and what’s coming next.”

Also premiering in 2019 is Water Songs, a musical concert series that will travel through the Gold Coast’s waterways.

Travelling minstrels will perform from the waterfront into backyards and public parks along the Gold Coast’s network of canals, creeks and channels.

“There is a wonderful opportunity for Gold Coast locals to host or watch these intimate concerts, featuring newly composed music as well as classic covers, on their pontoons or from their local park,” Ms Bezzina said.

From canal to coast, Townsville’s Dancenorth presents Tectonic, a free 15-minute performance installation staged twice a night and inspired by the plight of Torres Strait communities whose island homes will be consumed by rising sea levels.

“This is a fitting show for Bleach* given we’re a coastal community on the Pacific Ocean and Tectonic is staged on the stunning Burleigh Beach.”

Two acclaimed female-led works make their Queensland premiere at Bleach* in 2019: My Urrwai and Landing.

Fresh from Sydney Festival 2018, My Urrwai is Ghenoa Gela’s funny and moving onewoman show recounting her journey as a gay woman from the Torres Strait raised in a family of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Landing is the response of Perth artist Tanya Lee to Australia’s detention policies and fractious relationship with Manus Island and was a hit at Tasmania’s 2018 Dark Mofo.

Presented as an absurd swimming carnival, Landing is conducted over 24 hours in the Gold Coast Aquatic Centre with participants trying to swim the distance from Australia to Manus Island in a continuous relay, guided by people from the local migrant and refugee communities.

A solo cabaret work from Brisbane psycho-siren Leah Shelton, Terror Australis will make its Gold Coast premiere at HOTA for a limited season; a grindhouse cabaret rampant with black humour, anti-burlesque, live art and Hills-Hoist-pole-dancing.

Shelton trawls through the roadkill of the Australian national identity to reveal a litany of brutality and paranoia, drenched in sweat and beer.

Bleach* again welcomes back production powerhouse Strut ‘n’ Fret which will stage Limbo Unhinged in a Spiegeltent at Broadbeach from April 17.

“We’re delighted to have Strut ‘n’ Fret back with one of their most popular shows where visitors can enjoy the ritual of gathering in a venue like the Spiegeltent,” Ms Bezzina said.

Returning in 2019 is the oceanfront Bleach* at Burleigh entertainment precinct, a dedicated festival hub hosting free live music and entertainment across the 12 days including a concert headlined by ARIA-winning songstress Montaigne, Pub Choir at the pop-up Burleigh Bleach* Club (a bar on the beach) and sets by Mama Kin Spender and Kira Puru.

“Broadbeach’s Centenary Park, the state-of-the-art HOTA and the new Bleach* at Burleigh arts hub will become the Festival’s major hotspots in 2019,” Ms Bezzina said.

“Gold Coast, Bleach* is your festival. Its 2019 program is your invitation to gather, unite, connect, celebrate and be truly amazed.

“I look forward to seeing you at one of our 28 events during the 12 days of Bleach* Festival.”

Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate applauded the Bleach* team on designing another thoughtprovoking program.

“Bleach* is renowned for its surprises and for pushing the boundaries – 2019 will be no different,’’ he said.

“I’m delighted so many local artists and companies get to take centre stage, alongside some of the country’s most daring contemporary art-makers.

“2019 is also the finale for our much loved artistic director so let’s get behind 2019 and make this the best festival in our city’s history.’’

Bleach* Festival 2019 marks Bezzina’s eighth and final festival following her recent appointment as Artistic Director of Brisbane Festival. Her first Brisbane Festival program will be presented in 2020.

2019 Bleach*
17-28 April 2019
Various locations on the Gold Coast
www.bleachfestival.com.au

In a one-night only Brisbane return season patrons can dine with strangers in Jamie Lewis’ immersive performance on love, loss and migration. Following a popular Melbourne season and sold-out Brisbane Festival season last year, Saltwater returns home to Metro Arts where the work was first created.

Drawing on his Hmong heritage, multidisciplinary artist Vanghoua Anthony Vue transforms the Metro Arts stairwell with a striking and colourful installation that stretches across four levels.

Oriental Women, a series of hand-coloured photographs by Brisbane-based artist Sancintya Simpson, will be exhibited. Reminiscent of early ethnographic photographs of the ‘Exotic Other’, Simpson’s works features women sitting for the western gaze, but subverting it and eating cheap oriental flavoured instant noodles.

Drawing from her background of living in both Australia and Indonesia, Bridie Gillman invites conversation as part of a temporary research lab where she will be investigating the Australian and Bali connection as a catalyst for a forthcoming project.

Kerbside furniture finds a new home at Metro Arts after being delicately reassembled in an installation reminiscent of a Japanese flower arrangement. The site specific installation will be created at the back of the Metro Arts’ carriageway by multi-disciplinary artist Alrey Batol.

The exciting event also includes Yum Chat, a day of conversation, connection, contemporary art and cups of tea on Sunday February 21 as part of Brisbane City Council’s BrisAsia Festival. This unique day offers everyone a chance to meet artists, including Michelle Law and Li Cunxin, and talk to them about their work in Australia, Asia, and beyond.

The full program for AusAsia is on the Metro Arts website, packed with something for everyone to enjoy.

AusAsia
17 – 21 February 2016
Metro Arts Gallery, Level 2, 109 Edward Street
www.metroarts.com.au

David Bowie is was created by the prestigious Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London drawing upon unprecedented access to the David Bowie Archive of costumes, objects, album artwork, and memorabilia. The exhibition includes lyric sheets, hundreds of photographs, stage sets, rare videos, filmed live shows, over 50 costumes and interviews with key collaborators.

Special displays within the exhibition explore Bowie’s influences as musician, stage performer, writer and actor – and his continuing legacy. At its world premiere in London in March 2013, it was the V&A’s fastest selling exhibition and became one of its most popular shows, drawing over 311,000 visitors and widespread critical acclaim.

ACMI Director & CEO, Tony Sweeney, said the landmark exhibition showcases Bowie as a true innovator in music, fashion and culture, and traces his changing style and reinvention.

“The mystery of David Bowie as an enigma is so lovingly explored in this incredible immersive exhibition you’ll feel as if you’ve stepped inside the mind of this astonishing cultural and pop icon,” Tony said. “Bowie is a figure whose social and creative influence and significance far exceeds his status as a pre-eminent rock performer and in David Bowie is, his incredible career is showcased in glorious detail.”

The V&A’s curators, Victoria Broackes and Geoffrey Marsh, from the Museum’s Department of Theatre and Performance, selected more than 300 objects and films for the show. Of the exhibition they said:

“The exhibition looks in-depth at how Bowie’s music and radical individualism has both influenced and been influenced by wider movements in art, design, film and contemporary popular culture over an incredible 50-year career and demonstrates how Bowie has inspired others to challenge convention and pursue freedom of expression.”

Bowie’s first major hit Space Oddity (1969) and the introduction of his first fictionalised stage persona Major Tom, inspired by Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey, granted him critical and commercial success as an established solo artist. His cinematic influences abound with his elaborate storyboards and set design for the Diamond Dogs tour (1974) – originally envisioned as a musical – inspired by Fritz Lang’s film Metropolis (1927), leading him to take the combination of rock music and theatre to new heights.

Excerpts and props from Bowie’s own work in feature films such as Labyrinth (1986) and Basquiat (1996) are displayed in the exhibition, as do many of his ambitious and ground-breaking music videos. The year 1972 marked the birth of his most famous creation; Ziggy Stardust, a daringly androgynous and otherworldly being. A pivotal performance of Starman on Top of the Pops in a multi-coloured suit signalled a challenge of social conventions, daring fans to shape their own identities.

Bowie’s collaborations with artists and designers in the fields of fashion, sound, graphics, theatre, art and film are explored throughout the exhibition. On display are more than 50 stage costumes including Ziggy Stardust bodysuits (1972) designed by Freddie Burretti, Kansai Yamamoto’s flamboyant creations for the Aladdin Sane tour (1973) and the Union Jack coat designed by Bowie and Alexander McQueen for the Earthling album cover (1997).

Bowie’s fruitful experimental period in Berlin between 1977 and 1979 is also explored through a series of pioneering records he produced known as the Berlin Trilogy, including the creation of the stylish Thin White Duke persona identified with the Station to Station album and tour (1976).

More personal items such as never-before-seen storyboards, handwritten set lists and lyrics are also featured in the exhibition as well as some of Bowie’s own sketches, musical scores and diary entries, revealing the evolution of his creative ideas.

ACMI is the exclusive Australasian venue for David Bowie is. The ACMI season will include a specially curated program of talks and special events, late night programs, film screenings and live performances.

“The sheer grandure brought tears to my eyes” – The Daily Telegraph

“Absolutely incredible… fabulous” – Jean Paul Gaultier

“A simple endorsement of pure stardom” – The Independent

David Bowie is
16 July – 1 November 2015
Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Melbourne
www.acmi.net.au/exhibitions/bowie

His infamous letter, written in 1897 from Reading Gaol to his lover and betrayer, holds a tabloid fascination. It is an intimate investigation of a world class dramatist and shamed celebrity suffering political imprisonment, censorship and trial by media.

Oscar Wilde’s De Profundis is sexually uncompromising, audacious and exquisitely powerful. A one-man tour-de-force performance by Brian Lucas.

This brutal and touching work investigates human rights, their quashing, emergence and acceptance – it charts the shift and suffering of discrimination for queer communities, drawing together the threads of current debates about inequality under the law and reflecting ongoing concerns through the mirror of time; the right to love, who you love, no matter their gender or sex.

Oscar Wilde’s De Profundis is a contemporary theatre adaption of a classic literary work never before seen on stage. An exciting collaboration between David Fenton and Brian Lucas, with vision design by Ray Pittman and composition by David Megarrity.

Oscar Wilde’s De Profundis
Wednesday 22 April – Saturday 02 May, 2015
Brisbane Powerhouse
www.brisbanepowerhouse.org

Perth International Arts Festival is the longest-running annual multi-arts celebration in the Southern Hemisphere and the jewel in the crown of Western Australia’s cultural life. Artistic Director Jonathan Holloway said: “No two Festival journeys will be the same and our hope is that your travels through this Festival will include experiences both intimate and epic. Experiences that whet the appetite and stimulate all five senses.” “Moments that allow us to remember something we all knew as children – that the map is not the territory, that the best discoveries are made by straying from the path or committing to a fantastic voyage.”

The 2015 Festival opens in an epic spectacle of wonder with Royal de Luxe’s The Incredible and Phenomenal Journey of the Giants to the Streets of Perth, the biggest arts event Western Australia has ever seen. For three days over the opening weekend, the French masters of theatrical magic let loose a modern-day fable that will transform Perth forever, as 11-metre tall giants take inspiration from uniquely Western Australian stories and tour the city, commemorating the Anzac centenary. Suitable for the whole family, the Australian premiere promises to rekindle childlike wonder across the city.

The Festival takes art to the people as the Festival’s in-between spaces are playfully transformed and life re-imagined, with the Chevron Festival Gardens acting as the exciting festival hub, central to festival-goers’ experience. Across the festival, guests gather, discuss and participate, enjoying a diverse, world-class program of free events.

The 2015 theatre and opera program is equal parts philosophical, political and sensual, with an array of world-renowned international productions and breathtaking Australian talent. In an Australian exclusive and a Festival highlight comes the English National Opera’s production of Anthony Minghella’s award-winning Madama Butterfly, as Puccini’s iconic love story astounds audiences in the premier visual production in the opera world today. Making its world premiere, the Perth International Arts Festival co-commission The Rabbits brings together an incredible team of Australian talent including Kate Miller-Heidke, Lally Katz, Iain Grandage, Gabriela Tylesov and John Sheedy, who transform John Marsden and Shaun Tan’s compelling picture book into operatic delight.

A Queensland Theatre Company and Sydney Festival co-production, Black Diggers interweaves vignettes to present stories of Indigenous soldiers who fought in the battlefields of WW1 for Australia and then returned home to be treated as second-class citizens. By turns witty, moving and enlightening, this production shares an important national narrative of injustice based on extensive research, as part of the Festival’s centenary of Anzac commemorations. Illustrious South African puppeteers Handstring Puppet Company team up with renowned artist, animator and director William Kentridge in the Australian premiere of Ubu and the Truth Commission, a soul-rattling, multi-dimensional adaptation of Alfred

Jarry’s satirical classic Ubu Roi to apartheid South Africa, melding puppetry, riveting animation, original documentary footage and superb acting. World-class Irish actress Lisa Dwan exquisitely realises Beckett’s trilogy Not I, Footfalls, Rockaby in a landmark one-woman performance, bringing audiences face-to-face with the startling fragility of our existence. Acclaimed Australian circus ensemble Circa present Beyond, a cutting-edge spectacle of contemporary music, sublime acrobatics and irresistibly outlandish humour that made it a massive Edinburgh Festival hit. From the UK, Davy and Kristin McGuire bring their exquisite paper creations to Perth for an immersive evening of theatre on a miniature scale with the Australian premiere of The Paper Architect, a spellbinding story of creativity, imagination and love as a paper architect’s workshop creations come to life.

The Festival creates extraordinary arts experiences for all audiences with many works dedicated to the young and young at heart. Across three venues, The Future Postal Service is a whimsical, creative, interactive mail delivery game that sees children think, draw, write and then play postmaster as they deliver their postcard to a passerby in a random act of kindness. Across three days, Screenkids is a curated selection of Europe’s best animated short films for children from 14 European nations, presented in partnership with the Netherlands’ Cinekid Festival, bringing the excitement of the international film festival experience to the children of Perth. At the Perth Writers Festival Family Day, children meet their literary heroes in a free day of interactive performance, mural painting and family fun.

The 2015 dance program journeys the spectrum from the soaringly balletic to the exhilaratingly modern. A sell-out sensation in New York, London and Vienna, Mozart Dances sees New York’s legendary Mark Morris Dance Group reinterpret Mozart’s masterpieces through dance, uniting the classical with the modern in an electric work as sensually gratifying as it is intellectually stimulating. Aakash Odedra, one of today’s most exciting contemporary dancers thrills with Rising, phenomenally contrasting the work of Odedra and three of the world’s finest choreographers – Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Akram Khan and Russell Maliphant – in a vibrant, eclectic mix that spans classical Indian dances Kathak and Bharata Natyam. Broome-based Indigenous dance theatre group Marrugeku explore the effects of climate change from a specifically Indigenous perspective in the world premiere of Cut the Sky. Part dance theatre, showcasing Marrugeku’s restless, disciplined and irresistible choreography, and part dystopic ghost musical, featuring the poems of dream-catcher Edwin Lee Mulligan and songs by Ngaiire and Nick Cave, Cut the Sky is a bold, imaginative and vitally important work. The West Australian Ballet returns with its beloved Ballet At The Quarry summer season of ballet under the stars, headlined by international choreographer Annabelle Lopez’s Zip, Zap, Zoom – a fresh and energetic fusion of hip hop, ballroom, and cabaret.

In 2015, the Perth International Arts Festival thrills classical music lovers, inviting the world’s most acclaimed performances to an Australian stage, from scintillating opera, blissful chamber music to glorious a cappella. From France, eminent harpsichordist William Christie leads Les Arts Florissants in a ravishing celebration of Italian Baroque lyric work, as six singers from Christie’s world-famous master-class academy Le Jardin des Voix join the world-renowned orchestra. Soft Soft Loud presents a fusion of electronic, acoustic, scored and improvised music in a genre-bending collaboration between lauded Finnish composer, singer and pianist Tuomo Prättälä, his beatboxing compatriot Felix Zenger and ten of Western Australia’s finest instrumentalists. From Canada, Musica Viva brings the Baroque era to life through Tafelmusik: House of Dreams, an ambitious theatrical exploration of music and painting, accompanied by the period instruments of the renowned Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra. For one night only, the prestigious chamber music group Australian String Quartet pay homage to the past, marking the centenary of the Anzac landing in Gallipoli, premiering the evocative and moving Gallipoli by esteemed composer Ross
Edwards, in Remember Tomorrow. English a cappella supergroup The Sixteen perform timeless works by Palestrina, Allegri and James McMillan in The Queen of Heaven, a performance of inimitable beauty to uplift and inspire Perth.

Over 24 nights, Perth will rock throughout the Festival to an eclectic selection of sounds tracing majestic pop to indie rock, trip hop to afro-soul. Highlights include the powerful vocals and tender lyrics of acclaimed Irish singer-songwriter Sinead O’Connor. One of the great vocalists and songwriters of his generation, the genuinely original Rufus Wainwright returns with a special showcase featuring his greatest hits. From the UK, introspective indie-pop darlings London Grammar grind spacious pop hooks with trip-hop beats, sparkling with sophisticated, spectral charm. American alt-rockers Spoon bring their mind-blowing live show to Perth, stomping out indie rock gems and party-starters. Pioneer of the 80s and 90s, Neneh Cherry explores a staggering array of beat poetry, avant electronica and rich vocals, touring her first solo album in 17 years. Chet Faker’s down-tempo beats and smoky vocals land centre-stage for two nights. Heavily instrumental Scots Mogwai return to the Festival in a double bill with Dinosaur Jr frontman J Mascis. And Tuareg guitarist and singer Bombino brings the sound of the Sahara to Perth with his desert blues-rock jams.

The 2015 Visual Arts program is studded with experiential, world-class contemporary art that reflects on themes of connectedness, community and divide, in the past and today. In an Australian premiere, celebrated Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson’s double exhibition, The Visitors + The End, sublimely combine his acumen in music, film and performance, instilling viewers with a poetic and compelling sense of the romantic and the absurd. Tokyo-born, New York-based Mariko Mori is one of the most important artists of our time. Her exhibition, Rebirth, is an immersive, contemplative experience composed of installations, glowing LED sculptures, photographs, drawings and videos. Kaleidoscope is the first major exhibition in Perth by internationally renowned Australian artist Tracey Moffat since 2004, featuring the Australian premiere of her new candid video work Art Calls alongside an installation of bold photography and evocative works from her Spirit Landscape series. With more than 100 vibrant crayon drawings produced by the Yolngu community in east Arnhem Land in 1947, Yirkkala Drawings directs our imagination into the Yolngu worldview through boldly rendered artworks, enriched by digital installations. Exploring geopolitical conflict and theatrical spectacle, Theatres groups striking work by leading Australian and international video artists, examining areas of borders and violent exchange across two venues.

Over four days, the 2015 Perth Writers Festival (19-22 Feb) brings a superb program of international and Australian authors, innovators, artists, activists and provocateurs to Perth, sure to enthrall writers, readers and thinkers. In an Australian exclusive, experience two of the world’s most highly acclaimed authors in a single, unmissable evening: British author Hilary Mantel, winner of back-to-back Booker Prizes with her Tudor saga installments Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies, joins Perth from London in a live video-link conversation with Michael Cathcart, followed by inspirational American author Elizabeth Gilbert, whose memoir Eat, Pray, Love topped The New York Times’ Best Seller list for 187 weeks. A moving opening address by leading human rights lawyer Geoffrey Roberston QC, and a closing address on the stories of courage and mercy from US justice lawyer and revered TED speaker Bryan Stevenson will bookend an incredible weekend of literary events, discussions and workshops, with further writers attending including Booker Prize-winner and Irish provocateur DBC Pierre (Vernon God Little), and prolific British novelist and fellow of the Royal Society of Literature Nicholas Shakespeare. Engage with the finest minds for the latest in print and digital magazines, fiction, memoir, travel writing, poetry, journalism and more in this year’s celebration of contemporary storytelling in all its forms. This includes The Style Makers, a Perth Writers Festival exclusive event exploring the ongoing success of beautifully produced, cutting-edge publications in the digital era, bringing together the masterminds behind publications such as Kinfolk, Dumbo Feather, Renegade Collective, Frankie and Alphabet Family Journal.

2015 Perth International Arts Festival
13 February – 7 March 2015
Multiple venues aroung Perth
www.2015.perthfestival.com.au

A play about a sex blogger and a gifted novelist who collide between love and the digital age.

Their age, their writing style, their attitude toward personal privacy and just about everything else they are opposites, but each holds the key to what the other really wants — and needless to say, within minutes of meeting they’re at it like rabbits.

Veronica Neave as Olivia, is now working with preciousness on her second book but reluctant to let it loose on the cruel modern literary marketplace, she’s joined unexpectedly at her writer’s retreat by Thomas Larkin as Ethan, a blogger whose notoriety rests on his lurid online accounts of a year spent having sex with strangers.

Sex with Strangers faces the anxieties and the compromises by all writers in the digital age where traditional literary values are dying along with the print media, while readers gravitate toward the ephemeral, sensational world of blogging.

“No compromises. No second-guessing. No hopes. No expectations.”

Sex with Strangers
Wednesday 11 – Sunday 22 February, 2015
Brisbane Powerhouse
 www.brisbanepowerhouse.org

FAST is an annual national theatre festival based in Brisbane. The festival collaborates with young artists from across the country, as well as including locals from Brisbane and interstate artists from Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide.

With the festival in its fifth year, newly appointed Artistic Director Lucas Stibbard has introduced an entirely new structure for the event with a variety of pilot programs.

Stibbard said their initiative has generated a revitalised buzz for the festival. One of the pilot programs has seen FAST inviting secondary school students from Queensland Academy of Creative Industries and a secondary group from Toowoomba to perform their work in the festival.

“This year will be a new beginning for FAST, we have the largest festival yet, and it is three days of the festival with great shows, great conversations and a great atmosphere,” said Stibbard.

“I like to call it ‘Hogwarts for drama nerds’ – the place where the future of Australian Theatre come to meet minds, exchange ideas and share their work.”

Fast Festival 2014
3-5 October 2014
Queensland University of Technology’s Creative Industry Precinct
www.laboite.com.au