brisbane festival

Cessalee Stovall is an in-demand performer and the founder of the organisation Stage a Change. When Cessalee is not on stage herself, she is driving opportunities for artists of colour working in the performing arts. Over a pot of tea, Cessalee and Stéphanie discuss the organisation's efforts — and spill some tea in the process.

Also, playwright Hilary Bell shares the works that have most inspired her journey as an artist on Top Shelf and the disability-led performing arts festival Undercover Artist returns to Brisbane, but who is an 'undercover artist' and how and why does this festival blow their cover?

As new parents, Kate Miller-Heidke and Keir Nuttall found themselves immersed in an uncanny world of children's entertainment. The impossible chirpiness of the singers made them wonder: what struggles lurk behind those bright eyes? Those musings have inspired their new musical comedy Bananaland.

Also, Stephen Schwartz thought that he had left Broadway behind when he chanced to encounter a novel called Wicked. The composer-lyricist behind Godspell and Pippin had recently won three Academy Awards for his screen work, but the prospect of adapting Wicked drew him back to the stage. Now, Wicked is back.

“The thing that brought us all together was the art. Wayfinder, true to its name, really enabled us all to find a way through.”

Amid the chaos and calamity of the past few years sprung a reminder of the beautiful possibility of art to heal.

Wayfinder, the world premiere work by acclaimed Australian contemporary dance company Dancenorth, delivers an antidote to the fear and anxiety permeating all corners of the globe in the wake of the global pandemic.

The North Queensland company’s adventurous and genre-bending work is a colourful celebration of heart, humanity and… knitting.

“We wanted to remind people of the beautiful aspects of the body. When we stop thinking and we start feeling, truly wonderful things occur.”

In this episode, Dancenorth Artistic Director Kyle Page dissects how the physicality and technical prowess of the company’s dancers are pushed to the limit.

He reveals the inspiration behind Wayfinder’s innovative inflatable stage and how it creates a platform where fear is minimised and the dancers can lean into their senses of adventure, virtuosity and potentiality.

Wayfinder is the collaborative result of an all-star creative team including Japanese-Australian visual artist Hiromi Tango, three-time Grammy nominated Australian band Hiatus Kaiyote and sound artist Byron J. Scullin.

Embracing its Townsville roots, Kyle shares how Dancenorth’s community was integral to realising Hiromi Tango’s artistic vision, helping finger-knit 65km of wool into a colourful, textural and critical performance element.

“Every individual set of hands that touches and connects with that wool, they’re weaving their own stories, their weaving their own hearts into the project, into the work.”

Brisbane Festival returns to fill the city with three weeks of wonder, delight and celebration from 2 – 24 September 2022. For information and tickets, visit brisbanefestival.com.au

Beginners’ Call records on Turrbal and Yugerra country in Meanjin, Brisbane. Brisbane Festival recognises the integral role Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples play in our creative, artistic and celebration spaces and pays respect to Elders past, present and emerging.

Podcast Curator: Louise Bezzina (Brisbane Festival)

Podcast Guest: Kyle Page (Wayfinder)

Podcast Host: Adam Brunes (Aruga) 

Podcast Producer: Gilberto Castillo (The Podcast Boss)

“Like anybody who puts any creative vision out into the world, there’s that moment when your heart skips a beat: Are people going to like this? Does it resonate? Does it do all of the things it needs to?”

Louise Bezzina knows a thing or two about creative programming. She’s produced work that required shark mitigation, always has a rain contingency and only weeks away from unveiling her inaugural Brisbane Festival program in 2020, watched as the COVID pandemic turned everything on its head. Undeterred, Louise and her team curated a reimagined Brisbane Festival, a beacon of hope in a challenging time.

On the eve of her third Brisbane Festival, Louise reflects on the inspiration and innovation that continues to shape the 2022 program. She discusses the challenges of presenting a Festival that truly reflects the essence of Brisbane, one she defines as “dynamic optimism”.

“You don’t want to be a cookie-cutter version of every other Festival or arts program. You need to find a way to give it a personality that feels distinctly of this place.”

In this episode, Louise reveals how she draws on instinct, local knowledge, community and connection to program a Festival of and for its time and place. Exploring her formative tenure as Founder and Artistic Director of Bleach – The Gold Coast Festival, Louise explains the origins of her fascination with developing site-specific work and commissioning performances in non-traditional venues

“That’s the great gift of a Festival: to push ourselves, to push artists, to push companies to make work that they couldn’t make at any other time of the year.”

Brisbane Festival returns to fill the city with three weeks of wonder, delight and celebration from 2 – 24 September 2022. For information and tickets, visit brisbanefestival.com.au 

Beginners’ Call records on Turrbal and Yugerra country in Meanjin, Brisbane. Brisbane Festival recognises the integral role Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples play in our creative, artistic and celebration spaces and pays respect to Elders past, present and emerging.

Podcast Curator: Louise Bezzina (Brisbane Festival)

Podcast Guest: Louise Bezzina (Brisbane Festival)

Podcast Host: Adam Brunes (Aruga) 

Podcast Producer: Gilberto Castillo (The Podcast Boss) 

Physical theatre-maker Hanna Cormick performs her show The Mermaid wearing a bright pink and blue tail and a full respirator mask. The image reflects the show's underlying warning about climate change — but without the mask, Hanna might very well die.

Also, we explore some of the unique considerations necessary to translate the work of Shakespeare into sign language and Sarah Houbolt outlines Arts Access Australia's vision for a National Access and Inclusion Code of Conduct.

Justin Levine is the man behind the music of Moulin Rouge! The Musical. The Broadway production, nominated for 14 Tony Awards, is soon to open in Melbourne. Justin joins us at the keyboard to demonstrate how he updated some of the film's most iconic moments.

Also, Trent Dalton's acclaimed novel Boy Swallows Universe comes to the Queensland Theatre stage and we check in on the challenges faced by and support on offer to artists and event organisers amid border closures, lockdowns and surging COVID-19 cases.

Thomas E.S. Kelly proves that you can be built like a rugby player and be a contemporary dancer. From a childhood committed to sport and dance, Kelly is emerging as one of our top dancers and choreographers.

Also, voice and dialect coach Leith McPherson on how to effectively use our voices within and beyond our COVID-19 bubbles, and we touch base with Carriageworks, Brisbane Festival and the Malthouse.

The new Australian musical Fangirls challenges negative perceptions of female fandom and places their passion and power centre stage, Grey Rock at this year's Melbourne International Arts Festival tells the story of a Palestinian TV repairperson secretly building a rocket ship bound for the moon, and choreographers Sue Healey and Gideon Obarzanek discuss filming dance to capture and push the boundaries of an ephemeral art form.

21 years after Who's Afraid of the Working Class?, Andrew Bovell, Patricia Cornelius, Melissa Reeves, Christos Tsiolkas and Irine Vela reunite for Anthem at the Melbourne Festival, The Shadow Whose Prey the Hunter Becomes by Back to Back Theatre shines a light on the shadows of prejudice, and we meet the team behind the most ambitious work at this year's Brisbane Festival: 59 Productions and Rambert's Invisible Cities, inspired by Italo Calvino's novel.

Acclaimed Israeli-born, UK-based choreographer Hofesh Shechter brings his Grand Finale to the Melbourne Festival, we travel to the Brisbane Festival to experience three Australian works that question the ways in which we connect: From Darkness, Bitch on Heat and Communal Table, award-winning English actor Maxine Peake shares the Best Advice she was ever given, and Chicago returns to the Australian stage, bringing glitz, glamour, guile and all that jazz.

The award-winning autobiographical musical Caroline, or Change by Tony Kushner (Angels in America) has its Australian premiere at the Hayes Theatre, director Adena Jacobs and performer Jane Montgomery Griffiths discuss tackling Shakespeare's grisly Titus Andronicus, the viability of digital publisher Australian Plays is under threat after losing Australia Council organisational funding, and MALAPROP Theatre from Ireland bring their hit comedy about human-robot relationships, LOVE+, to Australia.

As the Darwin Festival kicks off, we find out about the unique opportunities — and challenges — that come with making art in the Northern Territory, we pay tribute to the late George Whaley, we speak with Omar Musa about his work Since Ali Died and its journey from poem to album to theatre, and Stephen Sondheim's Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece Sunday in the Park with George returns to the Australian stage.