Critical Stages Touring is Australia’s national touring theatre company. Each year we tour outstanding theatrical productions to audiences right around Australia, helping to make live theatre accessible to audiences everywhere, especially in regional, rural and remote Australia. In 2019, we toured no less than 7 original Australian shows, reaching new audiences in over 100 different towns and communities right across Australia, China and New Zealand.
We need your support to help us build an exciting new future for our artists and our audiences. This is a time of great change for the performing arts in Australia. Travel and touring will need to be reimagined now not only in response to Covid-19, but also as we consider the world we want to create on the other side – one that considers a reduced carbon footprint and better care for our environment.
We have been busy adapting to digital audiences over the past few months, reshaping our website for digital connection, taking our successful independent theatre forums online, and producing a popular weekly ‘Stage and Stream’ update about online performances and arts opportunities. We will soon be launching our new CST Screening Room, where we will be streaming new digital performances from across the independent sector.
We are particularly proud of our latest initiative: Come To Where I Am. Our usual model of performance involves touring artists to perform for audiences in regional Australia. At this time, we are inverting that model, taking advantage of the interest from audiences in digital platforms to bring stories from regional Australia to the rest of Australia.
Come to Where I Am is inspired by a project from UK touring company Paines Plough. With their support, we are bringing this program to Australia, engaging theatre-makers around the country to create short works about their home town. These works will be streamed from July into the CST Screening Room, with the opportunity for live performances once our theatres reopen.
As a very small not-for-profit organisation, each year we rely on the generosity of people like yourself to make our vision possible. If you are in a position to help, we would love you to consider supporting this new project. At the moment we have enough to support 7 projects from around Australia, just one artists per state or territory. Each dollar you give will go towards further commissions, more artists supported, and more stories from around the country. $1500 supports a whole new commission.
Your donation is tax-deductible and will be used to support our artists, as well as supporting access to exciting contemporary performance for audiences around Australia. Donations can be made quickly and simply today via the button below or the downloadable form.
I’m very much looking forward seeing you in a theatre foyer for one of our productions again very soon. With very best wishes,
Chris Bendall
CEO Critical Stages Touring