News

Live Performance Industry Releases COVID Safe Guidelines

Actors, musicians and crew will be forced to have regular COVID-19 tests, and limit their interaction with people outside of their production when major performance returns to the stage, under guidelines released by Live Performance Australia.

The guidelines cover auditions, rehearsals and performances, as well as touring of live performances.

Musical Theatre Road Trip

Curious to discover which songs from musicals are most popular for road trips, Halfords analysed Spotify data to reveal the top 100 musical tunes to sing in the car. 

The study analysed thousands of playlists with names such as 'musical road trip’ to reveal that Dear Evan Hansen's ‘Waving Through A Window’ performed by Ben Platt is the song musical-lovers are most likely to belt out behind the wheel. 

Performers Become Mask Entrepreneurs

Australian Musical Theatre performers Todd McKenney and Claire Lyon have both gone into the mask business as a result of the Covid pandemic, at the same time supporting their showbiz colleagues.

Within a couple of weeks, Todd McKenney’s new project to assist others in the entertainment industry has become a roaring success. Almost 800 Australian-made face masks have been sold, raising $20,000 for their talented designers and professional theatrical wardrobe teams. 

Can Clean Theatres Save Industry?

Australia’s Live Entertainment industry is working on a new hygiene code to make the public comfortable returning to theatres without a vaccine for COVID-19. This comes as social distancing regulations continue to make major performing arts events unviable. David Spicer reports.

Darwin Festival 2020 Kicks Off on August 6

Darwin Festival is set to open on August 6, 2020 - the first major capital city event in Australia to go ahead since COVID-19 shut the world down. The DF20 Homegrown program is a celebration of Top End talent with an array of exciting live and virtual events spanning theatre, music, comedy, cabaret, visual arts and more.

Brisbane Festival 2020

The Brisbane Festival will return in September 2020 with a program spanning giant outdoor installations, intimate street concerts, suburban symphonies and an epic new light and laser installation.

The debut Brisbane Festival program from Artistic Director Louise Bezzina will bring the unexpected and the delightful to Brisbane from 4 – 26 September, reaching all 190 suburbs of the city with a line-up unlike any presented before.

Ghost Lights Kicks Off NIDA Digital Theatre Festival

An ambitious reimagining of the storytelling landscape, NIDA’s Digital Theatre Festival kicks off with a call for audience participation. For Ghost Lights, audiences worldwide are invited to perform, record, and upload a monologue to social media to keep the spirit of theatre alive. The best monologues will be showcased every week.

Beginners Call in South Australia

Our South Australian correspondent Mark Wickett reports.

Some are peeking through the curtains, sizing up the audiences before opening night; others are already taking their bows in front of enthusiastic theatre-goers desperate for live entertainment. Yet whether the performers are in the rehearsal rooms or green rooms, live theatre in South Australia is waiting for its cue.

Theatre in Queensland Slowly Reopens

Following the easing of Covid-19 restrictions to Grade 3, Theatres in Queensland are slowly getting back to business late in July. Peter Pinne reports.

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