Artistic Director’s report

CHRISTIAN LEAVESLEY // ARTISTIC DIRECTOR & CO-CEO

Last year we celebrated 55 years of Arena Theatre Company. It is a remarkable achievement for any cultural organisation in these times, but especially for a theatre company that specialises in creating new expressions of performance and original work.

The year included a lot of disruption to the industry as a whole, and Arena sends our support to all the individuals and organisations making performance right around the country. The value we provide to our respective communities could not be clearer.

Though we suffered our share of cancellations and postponements - including our actual 55th Birthday Party - when I look back at what we achieved in 2021 I could not be prouder. We delivered a set of premieres and ‘firsts’ that were nothing short of spectacular. Although we never got to have the actual party, I want to send a big ‘Thank You!’ to everybody who supported our 55th Birthday Giving Campaign. It was a terrific result for the Company.

In February Arena opened The Castlemaine State Festival for the first time in our history, with the South Sudanese Women’s Ensemble providing a brilliant performance of song and storytelling on the huge outdoor stage in Castlemaine. The venue was packed, with thousands more tuning into the live stream. The ovation for this performance could not have been more enthusiastic from everybody present.

During the same month, we premiered our very first Virtual Reality work in Bendigo Pride Festival. Many of our audience members commented that the opportunity to spend a little time with their own heart was exactly what they needed following the challenges of the first pandemic year.

Heart VR was developed out of a research relationship that we had established with Melbourne University’s Creative Convergence Project. It was very exciting to see a ‘pure’ research project evolve into a public performance for one of Bendigo’s most important festivals. The Creative Convergence Project has delivered important insights and understandings of our work since 2017, and I want to thank the researchers and project partners for all their hard work over many years.

Our second premiere for the year was also a hybrid performance project that had roots in a powerful partnership - this time the partnership was with Bendigo Community Health.

Baai was the culmination of many years of work of the South Sudanese Women’s Ensemble. Following the second long lockdown period in the middle of 2021, we had some thinking to do about about the feasibility of rehearsing and performing a major work for the Ulumbarra stage.

The outcome of this thinking was a decision to create a stand-alone film that would sit alongside a live component of singing, dancing and storytelling. It was thrilling to see the Ensemble and creative team take on this challenge so enthusiastically. The result was a most beautiful and powerful piece of performance work.