Independent theatre producers, artists and companies
Our national playwriting and performance program in partnership with Paines Plough. Since 2020 18 new writing commissions have been made across Australia, captured as short films by the artists.
READ MORE BELOW
CST SCREENING ROOM
A new digital broadcast platform supporting the independent theatre sector launched in 2020 with direct-to-digital projects, streams of existing work, and adaptations of stage works for digital audiences everywhere.
INDY THEATRE FORUMS
We host several forums a year bringing together theatre makers and arts leaders to discuss vital topics, share resources, network, and unpack the big issues facing the independent sector.
Productions
What we are looking for in touring productions:
- New Australian work that is innovative, of outstanding quality and with clear and demonstrated audience appeal.
- Contemporary Australian text-based drama, contemporary music theatre or cabaret theatre works.
- Original cross-disciplinary works for family audiences.
- Productions where thematic material or narrative content is relevant to regional audiences.
- Outstanding and original independent artistic voices.
- Live performance experiences where there is the opportunity for a unique and original strategy for participation and engagement especially for regional audiences.
- It must be a work of outstanding quality in all areas, especially in terms of performances, writing and direction.
- It must have received strong critical and/or audience acclaim.
- If the work has already premiered you must have strong production imagery, video footage that is suitable for promotion on social media and local television, plus strong reviews. Vox pops of audience reactions are ideal.
Potential productions should be able to fulfil the following:
- It must be a work of outstanding quality in all areas, especially in terms of performances, writing and direction.
- It must have received strong critical and/or audience acclaim.
- If the work has already premiered you must have strong production imagery, video footage that is suitable for promotion on social media and local television, plus strong reviews. Vox pops of audience reactions are ideal.
- We are particularly keen to support works from First Nations writers, performers and producers and those of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse backgrounds.
- We are interested in work that is innovative and original in content or form, and that advances the form of theatre.
- We are interested in work that has a strong and considered approach to community engagement – ie how are you going to engage a regional audience in this work? Are there original ways that you can interact with audiences around the themes of the production, offer Q and A’s or masterclasses, use local artists in your work or more. Are you interested in any form of residency in regional Australia, involving local communities in the development of a new work while you are on the road?
What to do next – Invite Us!
If you think you have a show that is perfect for touring with Critical Stages Touring, we’d love to hear from you. Do invite us to see your show and give us plenty of notice. We try to see as much as we can, but do make sure you take great archive video and production photography while its on in case we can’t make it along.
With thanks!
Robbi James, CEO
Melanie Carolan, Senior Producer
Forums
Our indy theatre forums are an opportunity for the sector to gather, network and talk about the current big issues facing independent theatre artists. Previous forums have been recorded and can be viewed in the Screening Room or listened to on Sound Cloud.
PREVIOUS FORUMS
’22 IN REVIEW
December 2022
Special Guests: Kate Fell (Artistic Director, Darwin Festival), Tandi Palmer Williams (Managing Director, Patternmakers), Richard Watts (Managing Editor, Arts Hub).
READY, STEADY, GO! INDY THEATRE AND VISIONS FOR THE FUTURE
November 2021
Special Guests: Kerri Glasscock (CEO & Festival Director, The Sydney Fringe), Kathryn Osborne (Executive Director, The Blue Room Theatre, WA), and Simon Abrahams (Melbourne Fringe).
RUOK – CREATIVE PRACTICE IN LOCKDOWN
August 2021
Special GuestS: Dr Julie Crabtree (Arts Wellbeing Specialist), Simon Ward (Psychologist and Performer), Matthew Kelly and Richard Higgins (The Listies), Lauren Peters 9\(Producer/Designer).
August 2021
Special GuestS: Dr Julie Crabtree (Arts Wellbeing Specialist), Simon Ward (Psychologist and Performer), Matthew Kelly and Richard Higgins (The Listies), Lauren Peters 9\(Producer/Designer).
REGIONAL ARTS PRACTICE IN A NEW WORLD
November 2020
We hosted a conversation and Q&A with regional arts leaders at ArtState Wagga Wagga to talk about an incredible year of change. What kind of future do we want and need for our work? How can we use this period of recovery to reshape our practices in terms of sustainability and community engagement? It was a chance to unpack how artists have managed in regional NSW throughout 2020; how covid-19 has affected artistic practice, delivery, and audience development; and what the future looks like as venues open their doors.
THEATRE, TOURING & THE ENVIRONMENT
September 2020
Special Guests: Matt Wicking (Cloud Catcher), Gemma Pepper (Side Pony Productions). Listen on Soundcloud. Watch in the Screening Room
RE-IMAGINING THE FUTURE OF TOURING
August 2020
Special Guests: Berish Bilander (Green Music Australia), Jens Altheimer (Independent Producer/Performer), Tim Watts (The Last Great Hunt), Gemma Pepper (Side Pony Productions), Rosie Dwyer (Regional Arts Victoria). Listen to this forum on Soundcloud
PREVIOUS FORUMS contd…
CREATIVE PRACTICE IN THE DIGITAL ENVIRONMENT
May 2020
Special Guests: Clare Bartholomew and Dan Tobias (Salvador Dinosaur), Imogen Gardam (Griffin Theatre Company), Sian Roberts & Adriane Daff (Last Great Hunt), Kip Chapman (Hackman NZ), Nathan Sibthorpe (Counterpilot). Listen on Soundcloud or watch in the Screening Room.
LIFE AS A REGIONAL INDY THEATRE ARTIST
October 2019
Special Guests: Adam Deusien (Artistic Director, Lingua Franca), Sally Blackwood (Director, Arts North West), Caroline Dunphy (Co-Artistic Director, Belloo Creative). Listen on Soundcloud
SECOND LIFE IN THE INDY SECTOR
August 2019
No recording available
PITCHING YOUR PROJECT
June 2019
Listen on Soundcloud
WORKING WITH PRESENTERS
December 2018
Special Guests: Kerri Glasscock (CEO & Festival Director, The Sydney Fringe), Suzanne Millar (Co-Artistic Director, Bakehouse Theatre/KXT), Cath Dadd (Executive Producer Performing Arts, The Joan Penrith). Listen on Soundcloud
Come to Where I Am – Australia
After a successful first season in 2020, Critical Stages Touring was thrilled to produce a return season of this national playwriting initiative in partnership with the UK’s Paines Plough Theatre Company. The project provided professional outcomes for artists from around Australia, giving voice to their experiences during an extraordinary time, and audiences the opportunity to travel virtually through their stories.
The program was based upon Paines Plough’s Come to Where I’m From, an exceptionally successful project that has engaged more than 170 playwrights since 2010 with invitations to write and perform short plays about their home towns and the places that shaped them.
We invited Australia-based writers to create a new 10-minute story that can be made into a short video postcard, read or performed by the author. The story could be autobiographical, fiction or non-fiction, and should reflect what is special to them about the character of the place that they call home.
The first international edition of the program, Come to Where I Am – Australia was watched by thousands of viewers in over a dozen countries, and while it is no longer available to stream, Season 2 of the project is currently available in our Screening Room.
In Season 2, eight successful authors received a $1500 writer’s fee, dramaturgical support from Paines Plough, and technical and editing services from Critical Stages Touring to create their short films.
The works were presented as two volumes, each with a livestream produced by CST, in December 2021. They are now featured as on-demand videos in the Screening Room, Paines Plough website, and our social video channels.
We’ve selected writers from every state and territory with an aim to find pieces that highlight regional and rural experiences alongside writers from our urban and suburban communities.
Come to Where I Am – Australia is supported by the NSW Government through CreateNSW, and the Australian Government through the RISE (Restart Investment to Sustain and Expand) fund, and the Australia Council for the Arts, it’s arts funding and advisory body.
WATCH ON-DEMAND IN THE SCREENING ROOM
Regional Touring Residencies
Critical Stages Touring is proud to be supporting the development of new theatrical experiences for regional touring and presentation through our new Regional Residency program. Four wonderful new works have been selected and matched with a regional partner in NSW.
The productions, each at various stages of development, will undertake a week-long residency at a matched regional or rural location, with residencies running from March 16th through to April 30th. Each has been selected for their ingenuity, artistic merit and exploration, and for their potential to connect with and engage regional communities. The program is an exciting new extension of Critical Stages Touring’s commitment to discover and develop outstanding independent theatrical experiences for audiences everywhere.
We would like to thank Create NSW for their support of the project.
2021 Regional Residencies
The Lighthouse at the End of the World
Scott Parker & Matriark Theatre
A new work for families using micro-puppetry, digital media and live music.
Sunlit
JoJo Zhou and Bernadette Fam
A new play inspired by the school strikes for climate movement.
The Oyster
Phil Spencer and Julian Lanarch
A new interactive and participatory comedy.
Little Things Matter
Debra Keenahan and Katrina Douglas
A new work extending the short film of the same name for the stage.
CST SCREENING ROOM
A NEW DIGITAL PLATFORM FOR INDEPENDENT ARTISTS
Hosted here on the Critical Stages Touring website, the CST Screening Room and CST Digital will support artists to create new direct-to-digital projects for audiences to enjoy, stream existing work that is ready to be seen, and work with independent artists to adapt their work for digital performance outcomes. It will also host the video stories produced for our new playwriting and performance program Come to Where I Am – Australia.
The first broadcast is planned for late July 2020.
The initiative is one response by Critical Stages Touring to the rush of live productions streaming across YouTube and social media, many of which have been offered for free to audiences with little or no compensation for the artists involved. CST Screening Room projects will provide professional paid opportunities to broadcast their work in line with relevant industry awards.
The platform is another way Critical Stages Touring continues to support access to theatre for audiences while the industry begins recovering and developing plans for welcoming people back into venues. Digital consumption of live performance has grown exponentially during 2020, and the screening room will be a vital new channel for independent artists to be discovered and enjoyed by Australians everywhere, including remote communities where physical touring is challenging even when we are able to travel.
How to get involved…
Expressions of Interest for the CST Screening Room will open in mid-June 2020. Critical Stages Touring will be seeking independent digital engagement projects across three categories:
- High quality filmed performances that are in need of a distribution platform;
- Live performance works that were to be performed over this period and can be ready to be filmed with minimal re-rehearsal for distribution in a digital format;
- Original digital performance projects, especially those that could involve a future live performance outcome.
For more information please email us at info@criticalstages.com.au
