ARTS GUIDE
The Village Festival 140 EVENTS OVER THREE DAYS Community arts event The Village Festival is returning to Fitzroy for its 15th year in late October. This year’s program contains more than 140 different elements, covering theatre, visual art, music, food and ritual. Highlights from this year’s program include master storytellers Bunk Puppets, acrobat performances from Sunset Ritual and the paw-fect Village Dog Show (BYO pooches). Catch The Village Festival at Edinburgh Gardens between Friday October 25 and Sunday October 27. For more info, head to thevillagefestival.com.au.
Digital Writers’ Festival
Bright Star
Tammy Kanat
Token Armies
LET’S GET LITERARY
LANDS IN AUSTRALIA
CIRCLES OF LIFE
MAN AND MACHINE, TOGETHER
If you’ve ever wanted to build up your writing skills in the comfort of your own home, you’re in luck: the Digital Writers’ Festival is right around the corner. Spread out over five days, the festival’s program is jam-packed with webinars, masterclasses and tools on digital storytelling, AI and much more. The festival runs between Tuesday October 29 and Saturday November 2. Tickets available via the festival website.
Comedian Steve Martin and Edie Brickell’s bluegrass musical Bright Star is coming to Melbourne’s Chapel Off Chapel in late October. The show tells the story of love, redemption and regret in the ‘20s and ‘40s of the American South. The premiere was nominated for five Tony Awards back in 2016. The Australian premiere of Bright Star runs between Friday October 25 and Sunday November 3. For more info, head to Chapel Off Chapel’s website.
Melbourne-based artist Tammy Kanat is presenting four commissioned works to NGV Australia later this month. Specialising in woven tapestry, Kanat’s recent work has focused on circular forms that often represent themes of unity, inclusion, wholeness and infinity. Kanat’s work is inspired by colour theory, rare Japanese colour dictionaries and the works of Bauhaus artist Gunta Stölzl and modernist artist Sonia Delaunay. The exhibition kicks off Friday October 25 at NGV Australia. Entry is free.
Premiering at the Melbourne International Arts Festival, Chunky Move’s Token Armies is Australian choreographer Antony Hamilton’s most ambitiously scaled work to date. The work seeks to scrutinise the fixation on human primacy, placing more than 20 performers alongside biomechanical life forms. Hamilton’s work tends to be quite philosophically motivated, centring on themes with concrete significance. The performance runs from Wednesday October 16 until Sunday October 20 at Meat Market. Tickets via the festival website.
Lobby Hero
Heide Museum Workshop
Everything Is Borrowed
Stand Up for Space2b
NOT YOUR AVERAGE MURDER MYSTERY
GET YOUR HANDS DIRTY
CALLING ALL HOARDERS
COMEDY FOR A CAUSE
Heide Museum of Modern Art is hosting a life sculpting on the afternoon of Saturday October 26. Punters of all skill levels are encouraged to join in and get their hands messy, Patrick Swayze style. By the end of the class, you’ll be provided with the techniques to sculpt the human body out of clay. Tickets to the workshop also get you entry in the Heide Museum, your own workshop materials and a glass of wine. For more info, head to the gallery website.
In his new exhibition Everything Is Borrowed, Callum Preston will showcase a collection of mixed media, multidimensional works in a tribute to the objects we collect over our lifetime and the value we attach to them. As part of his residency, Preston invites the public to come and watch him create the pieces which will be exhibited. Preston’s residency for Everything Is Borrowed is open to the public now. The exhibition will run from Thursday November 21 until Thursday December 19 at KSR Art Bar, the Rialto.
In this thrilling play, running at fortyfivedownstairs, a security guard, a manager, a rookie cop and her senior partner get caught up in a murder investigation. What follows is a night of questionable morals, comedy and drama. Written by Oscarwinning writer Kenneth Lonergan in 2001, Lobby Hero still manages to find relevance to this day. The show kicks off Tuesday October 22 and runs until Sunday October 27. Tickets range between $35 and $45, available via fortyfivedownstairs.com.
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A bunch of iconic Aussie comedians are coming together to support a local cause with Stand Up for Space2b. Space2b is an art and design social enterprise supporting asylum seekers, refugees and newly arrived migrants. The lineup for Stand Up for Space2b includes Colin Lane, Geraldine Hickey, Judith Lucy and more. The show goes down at St Kilda’s Memo Music Hall on Thursday October 31. For tickets, head to memomusichall.com.au.