Behind the Scenes - Vision Australia Radio

It's our last Theatre Network Australia segment for 2026 which means Yuhui Ng Rodriguez is here for a final wrap up and to tell us who our final TNA Member of the Month is… here’s a clue – multidisciplinary artist and creative producer Teneille Clerke is hanging on the line… Then, it's our last visit to Darwin for the year and Brown’s Mart Artistic Director Yvette Walker will be talking us through their recently released programme for 2026…   Then, it’s music all the way to the end of the show… First up is young singer/songwriter and mental health advocate Harley Müller (aka Capes and Crowns) who’s just released a second single from his new album – Growing Pains… …and then, Tim Richmond of the Tim Richmond Group fame has been recording songs since the early nineties and he’s just released a new solo album – The Taste…   We’ll meet both musos and listen to some of their music…   They’re all on this week’s edition of Behind the Scenes with Chris Thompson right here on Vision Australia Radio.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With International Day of People with a Disability only a week or so away, we get in early… first for a chat with Eliza Hull who’ll be hosting the Live Nation gig – One’s to Watch, an artists with disability showcase… …and then, to meet Co-Artistic Director of Rawcus Theatre Morgan Rose to chat about One Night Only, their new co-production with Jackson Castiglione for Darebin Arts Speakeasy…   After that, writer/director Demetra Giannakopoulos is here ahead of three return performances of her 2022 hit, Coming Out For Christmas a radio-play-style theatre performance about a young queer Australian-Greek woman who brings her Aussie girlfriend home for Christmas lunch… what could possibly go wrong… And finally, Jayne Tuttle has followed up her first two memoirs – Paris or Die and My Sweet Guillotine with a third instalment, The Sea in the Metro… so that seems like a good time to catch up for a chat…   They’re all on this week’s edition of Behind the Scenes with Chris Thompson right here on Vision Australia Radio.   If you’d like to hear the previous conversations with Jayne Tuttle – we spoke about My Sweet Guillotine in 2022 on the September 26 show and Paris or Die in 2019 on the December 16 show - you’ll find both on our podcast page- just put Vision Australia Radio Behind the Scenes into your favourite podcast search engine and you’ll find this and all our other episodes and bonus chats… plus if you subscribe, you’ll never have to search for an episode or our bonus material again.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For the last time this year, we’ll start the show in Perth with Boola Bardip WA Museum’s Helen Simondson who’s here for her regular round up AND to introduce her local guest artist – Kate Champion, recently appointed Black Swan Theatre Artistic Director and Director of the new Meow Meow production of The Red Shoes… Then, we meet author Roland Perry whose latest book Oliphant fills in the story of Australian Mark Oliphant whose work in nuclear physics was crucial to the development of the atom bomb – even if Christopher Nolan left him out of Oppenheimer… And finally, Genevieve Morris is here to chat about her terrific solo performance in the MTC production of Benjamin Law’s adaptation of Cory Taylor’s Dying: A Memoir… They’re all on this week’s edition of Behind the Scenes with Chris Thompson right here on Vision Australia Radio.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For the last time this year, we say welcome back to InSite Arts’ Elena Vereker for our regular Adelaide round up AND an introduction to her local guest artist – stage and screen writer, lecturer, director, and co-founder of South Australian Playwrights Theatre, Matt Hawkins. Then we’re off to Ballarat for a brand-new art experience – Sunnyside at the Ballarat Mining Exchange – and we’ll meet the first artist to exhibit there, UK based installation artist, Morag Myerscough. After that, we’re in for a bit of Shakespeare when Th’Unguarded Duncan and Theatre Works present the Prague Shakespeare Company version of Titus Andronicus. We’ll meet Co-Directors Kevin Hopkins and Claire Nichols as well as actor and Prague Shakespeare Company Associate Director, Josh Morrison. And finally, Jeremy Goldstein has been in South Africa working with Windybrow Arts Centre in Hillbrow on This Is Who I Am - an ongoing multidisciplinary, intercultural arts platform featuring live and online performances, photo portraits, exhibitions, workshops and dialogues. They’re all on this week’s edition of Behind the Scenes with Chris Thompson right here on Vision Australia Radio.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's the first show for November and so we’re swinging by the Theatre Network Australia office for a chat with Charice Rust who will also introduce us to the TNA Member of the Month, Anna Molnar, Programme Manager – Disability, Arts Access and Inclusion at Arts Centre Melbourne… Then, keeping on the topic of access, we’ll welcome Rachel Edward back to the show, this time in her capacity as Creative Producer for the Arts Access Supported Residential Services programme which is presenting Outside In/Inside Out, an exhibition of puppetry at the Schoolhouse Studios in Coburg Then it’s time for Screens & Streams but before Marc Gracie drops by to talk about what we’ve seen on our big and small screens, we’ll have a chat with Sophie Somerville about her directorial debut with the feature film Fwends. They’re all on this week’s edition of Behind the Scenes with Chris Thompson right here on Vision Australia Radio. If you’d like to hear longer conversations with Anna Molnar -Programme Manager: Disability, Arts Access and Inclusion at Arts Centre Melbourne AND Rachel Edward: Creative Producer, Arts Access Supported Residential Services Programme, you’ll find both on our podcast page- just put Vision Australia Radio Behind the Scenes into your favourite podcast search engine and you’ll find this and all our other episodes and bonus chats… plus if you subscribe, you’ll never have to search for an episode or our bonus material again…See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We start this week with Liz Rogers, General Manager of Browns Mart for a Darwin catch up before we meet Sally Crawford, Chair of Darwin Theatre Company who’ll tell us about Seventeen, their new collaboration with Corrugated Iron Youth Arts… Then we catch up with LA based Aussie comedian Monty Franklin who’s following up his highly successful Yeah, Nah tour with a new show called Is That Your Mate? After that, we’ll chat with Ross Larkin about The Last Sunday in June, Firerock Productions’ new show at Chapel off Chapel… And speaking of Chapel off Chapel, Russell Fletcher is back on the show, this time to talk about directing the upcoming spooky comedy The Haunting of Spook Mansion (by Ghosts) And finally, a bit of music to take us out when we meet David Hyams who’s currently touring the country with Human Highway, his tribute to the great songs of Neil Young… They’re all on this week’s edition of Behind the Scenes with Chris Thompson right here on Vision Australia Radio.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Rachel Edward is a Creative Producer with Arts Access and oversees the Supported Residential Services (SRS) Studios. Artists from the SRS Studios have been working with Golden Scissor Puppets to explore the many different ways in which they can create puppets. They have not only opened the doors to their homes, but also to their hearts, minds and imaginations creating Outside In/Inside Out an exhibition that explores the joy of releasing colour, movement and imagination often kept inside. In this work, that exploration takes us into a world of puppets, crank boxes, projections, and sound. The installation at Schoolhouse Studios Gallery in Coburg invites us to experience this world in many ways including tactile tours, audio descriptions and open captions.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Helen Simondson from Boola Bardip WA Museum gets the ball rolling this week with a jazzy Perth roundup and a new show at Yirra Yaakin… After that, even though it’s not our week for Screens&Streams, we’ll check out the Irish Film Festival with Festival Director Dr Enda Murray… Meanwhile, opera, monsters and pantomime will be taking over Theatre Works’ Explosives Factory when Bladderwrack opens there in a couple of weeks, and we’ll meet co-creator David Tredinnick… Then, we catch up with Professor Wesley Enoch who amongst his many hats wears one that says Ambassador for the first ever AusArt Day… And finally, a bit of music to take us out when we meet Nashville based singer-songwriter Imogen Clark to talk about her tour with Keziah Gill and her new album Choking on Fuel… They’re all on this week’s edition of Behind the Scenes with Chris Thompson right here on Vision Australia Radio.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We’re kicking of this week’s show with a walk and talk through the annual Postcards Show at Linden New Art with Curator Hamish Sawyer and Chloe Kokoris whose textile creation, Woven Abstraction I was awarded The Geoffrey Conaghan and Mathew Erbs Tertiary Award. Then, it’s our final week of Fast Fringe – our effort to cram as many Melbourne Fringe Festival artists into four weeks of shows as we can.   This week you’ll meet… Sammy J and his show Fiasco: A Burke and Wills Musical – Moira Finucane and students from Monash Uni with Chambers of the Heart – Lliam Amor who’s back to give us clues to Murder in the Graveyard, the latest Murder Village improvised murder mystery – Cat Sewell from Polyglot who’ve made Whirlwind, a new participatory arts experience for children – Sarah Bird Miller and Ria Soemardjo who are retelling the myths of Persephone and Demeter with What Lies Beneath – and, finally, Jo Raphael from Fusion Theatre who are performing The Weathering…   They’re all on this week’s edition of Behind the Scenes with Chris Thompson right here on Vision Australia Radio.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Amrit Gill gets us going this week with our regular Theatre Network Australia spot and she lets us know that the TNA Member of the Month for October is Jamie Lewis whose current show Sincere Apologies makes for a nice segue into our third week of Fast Fringe… our effort to cram as many Melbourne Fringe artists into four editions of Behind the Scenes as possible… So, our other Fast Fringe friends this week include Kamarra Bell-Wykes and Carly Sheppard in The Blok! - our favourite blind comedian Jeremy Moses who claims that he’s Hard to Work With – Stephen Wakefield from Museums Victoria to talk about Nocturnal – and Rebecca Jensen who’s choreographer and lead artist for Flesh Mirror in collaboration with Weave Movement Theatre… After that, Marc Gracie is here for our usual chat about what we’ve seen on our Screens & Streams. They’re all on this week’s edition of Behind the Scenes with Chris Thompson right here on Vision Australia Radio.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We’re kicking off at Footscray Community Arts this week with Gideon Wilonja for a chat about the new show I Met an Angel Named Jaques, a story set in a real world that’s completely made up… Then we meet Damon Branacki who’s here to talk about the Thursday Group whose latest production Falling Heads will follow up its Melbourne debut with a tour to Denmark… After that, we catch up with Nancy Black from Black Hole Theatre who’ve been working hard on three new projects performing in regional Victoria – Journey of the Karen – Someone in the Dark - and the third – Sky Could Be Blue - provides a nice segue into our second week of Fast Fringe, our attempt to meet as many Melbourne Fringe Festival artists as possible in a short space of time… After Nancy, the Fast Fringe chat just keep on rolling with first time playwright of A Guide to Being Immortal, Shane Woon - producer of The Cabinet of Dr Caligari with a live score, Johannes Luebbers – choreographer of The Break, Zoe Bastin – Creator (with FUZEensemble) of Beneath, Fleur Dean and young performer Mitchell Gee – and QiQi from Elysian Blues II   Whew! That’s a lot… and they’re all on this week’s edition of Behind the Scenes with Chris Thompson right here on Vision Australia Radio.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We’re up north for the start of this week’s show with Darwin correspondent Yvette Walker, Artistic Director at Brown’s Mart, who’s joined by their Honorary Elder in Residence, Dr Richard Fejo Snr better known as Uncle Richard. Then it’s a chat with author Rhonda McCoy about her new novel Crow… …before we launch into this year’s Fast Fringe – quick chats with as many Melbourne Fringe artists as we can fit into the three weeks of the festival... Melbourne Fringe CEO and Creative Director, Simon Abrahams, along with Deadly Fringe Programming Coordinator Peta Duncan are here to kick us off with our annual overview of the festival… …before we get into it all with Alex Walker from House of Muchness and their Fed Square event – The Square… …followed by a bit of unscripted mayhem with friends of the show, Sam Lohs and Rosie Burgess, better known as The Tuck Shop Ladies… They’re all on this week’s edition of Behind the Scenes with Chris Thompson right here on Vision Australia Radio.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Helen Simondson from Boola Bardip WA Museum gets us going this week with her regular Perth round up and, of course, a local guest artist… this time it’s flash fiction specialist, Gillian O’Shaughnessy who’s part of Freemantle’s Totally Lit Festival… Then, we stick with literature for most of the rest of the show, catching up with Alison Booth whose eighth novel is Death at Booroomba, her first venture into historical crime fiction… and then much loved multi-award winning author Kate Grenville whose new book Unsettled takes her on a road journey into her own past and the often denied past of our own country post colonisation. And finally, we’ll wrap up the show with a couple of the filmmakers - Sally Newman and Violeta Abarzua - whose short films are finalists in this year’s Focus On Ability festival again celebrating ability in all forms through the works of a diverse group of international filmmakers. They’re all on this week’s edition of Behind the Scenes with Chris Thompson right here on Vision Australia Radio.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Elena Vereker from InSite Arts gets us going this week with her Adelaide round up… …and then introduces us to Ben Francis who’s part of the retro vocal group The 60-Four who are celebrating their tenth birthday with a gig in Shepparton… Meanwhile, back in Melbourne at Arts Centre Melbourne’s Fairfax Studio, playwright Daniel Keene, director Matt Sholten and actor Noni Hazelhurst have reunited after the success of Mother, to present The Lark, and we’ll catch up with the entire cast of the show, which is to say, with Noni herself… Then it’s time for the Arts Projects Australia open day again, so we’ll drop in on their studio to meet artist Mark Smith and Jo Salt who’s Curator of their current exhibition Embodied, showing at their Collingwood Yards gallery… And finally, it’s RUOK Day this Thursday, which means it’s time to catch up with RUOK Day Ambassador Aislinn Sharp and to listen to Replacing Feelings the new song she’s released for this year’s event… They’re all on this week’s edition of Behind the Scenes with Chris Thompson right here on Vision Australia Radio.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Theatre Network Australia CEO Amrit Gill is here to kick us off this week AND to let us know that Western Edge Youth Arts is the TNA Member of the Month for September, and we’ll meet Artistic Director John Mark Desengano… Then, it’s a bumper edition of Screens & Streams starting with director Kate Woods who, 25 years after directing Looking for Alibrandi, is back on the big screen with the captivating family film; Kangaroo… …and after that, Marc Gracie joins in for our usual round up of what we’ve seen on our big and small screens… They’re all on this week’s edition of Behind the Scenes with Chris Thompson right here on Vision Australia Radio.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Brown’s Mart Artistic Director Yvette Walker gets the Darwin ball rolling tonight and introduces us to her local guest artist, Writer/Performer of We Keep Everything, Lisa Pellegrino… Then it’s Spring in Darebin and that means it’s time for the FUSE Festival and we’ll meet this year’s Ganbu Gulin Curator in Residence, Ethan Savage… Meanwhile, Bangarra Dance Theatre is back in town with a new work – Illume, and Daniel Mateo, one of the dancers for this performance is dropping by for a chat… After that, much loved comedian John Clarke left us way too early and never wrote down his life story. So his daughter Lorin Clarke has done the job for him in her new doco – But Also John Clarke - and she’s here to tell us about it AND him … And, just in case we didn’t get enough of McClelland Sculpture Park and Gallery’s Music Curator Monica Curro at the start of the month, she’s back to tell us more about her last few Music on Sunday events for the year… They’re all on this week’s edition of Behind the Scenes with Chris Thompson right here on Vision Australia Radio.   If you’d like to hear Shane Carroll talking about Bangarra’s innovative audio description for dance, you can find her on the August 12 show from last year (2024) as well as a special longer conversation on our podcast page- just put Vision Australia Radio Behind the Scenes into your favourite podcast search engine and you’ll find this and all our other episodes and bonus chats… See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Helen Simondson from WA Museum Boola Bardip is here to let us know what’s going on in the west AND to introduce us to Daniel Schoknecht who’s the Curator in charge of the visiting Terra Cotta Warriors… Then Chamber Made is taking over the public and hidden spaces of the Melbourne Recital Centre when they present Listening Acts – a programme of three live performances and six sound installations – and we’ll meet one of the artists – Aviva Endean – to find out what we’ll be listening to… Meanwhile, the Bowlines trio is back with another live, improvised performance that could include echoes of classical, Norwegian, Indian, blues, klezmer, Balkan, Turkish , Greek, Irish, Scottish and jazz music styles. How do they fit all that in? Ernie Gruner is here to explain… And finally, it might be our week to focus on Perth, but we’re sneaking in an artist from Adelaide when we meet young singer songwriter Zara Chantelle who’s just released a song about breakups that, oddly, is called Happiness… They’re all on this week’s edition of Behind the Scenes with Chris Thompson right here on Vision Australia Radio.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Well, our Adelaide correspondent Elena Verker’s lost her voice, so we literally won’t hear from her this month – BUT, she did see the State Theatre Company’s new production Dear Son adapted from the book by Thomas Mayo  by Isaac Drandic and John Harvey and if she was here she’d be saying how great it is and that you should see it before it closes on August 16 AND she also managed to line up a local guest artist, Bridget Alfred who’s head honcho of SALA – the South Australia Living Artists Festival… Speaking of festivals, MUDfest – Melbourne Uni’s biennial student arts festival is back and one of its Co-Directors – Riya Gupta – will tell us about how this year’s theme – Refraction – has influence the programme… Meanwhile, at Theatre Works Briony Dunn is adapting and directing The Machine Stops from a 1909 novella by EM Forster that predicted the internet, TED Talks and video calls… And finally, Screens & Streams may be a week late, but we make up for it with a bumper edition when Marc Gracie drops in for a look at three movie franchises that are trying their best to maintain our interest… They’re all on this week’s edition of Behind the Scenes with Chris Thompson right here on Vision Australia Radio.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s August already and this month we’re devoting our whole Theatre Network Australia spot to a special TNA member of the Month – it’s the new TNA CEO Amrit Gill.   Then Producer and Musical Director Ben Samuel is here for a chat about Songs for a New World and to tell us why a Producer would add in more performers than the script actually calls for… Then we’re off to the Royal Botanic Gardens with our ear buds in for a new episode of Sonica Botanica - the free self-guided listening experience set in the new climate-adapted Australian Drylands and we’ll find out what that means when we chat with Creative Producer Sally McPhee… After that, we head down on the Peninsular Link to McClelland Sculpture Park and Gallery where we’ll welcome back Music Curactor Monica Curro to find out what the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra is doing there… And finally, a very short Screens & Streams this week when Tom Middleditch swings by to let us know all the access arrangements we can take advantage of in this year’s Melbourne International Film Festival. But fear not…  we’ve only delayed the arrival of Marc Gracie until next week when there’ll be a bumper Screens & Streams to make up for our tardiness… They’re all on this week’s edition of Behind the Scenes with Chris Thompson right here on Vision Australia Radio.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Yvette Walker from Brown’s Mart kicks of our Darwin spot for July and introduces us to Monkey, Lead Producer and Sound Designer for Crown and Country as part of the Darwin Festival … Then, we drop in on Bloomshed’s rehearsals for their latest production – Pride and Prejudice – and talk Jane Austen, housing shortages and playdoh with James Jackson … After that, Peter Knight is here to talk about his new album Too Long; Didn’t Read and why all the track titles are cloud names… And finally, Melbourne Fringe is quite a way off, but we’re sneaking in a quick catch up with Creative Director Simon Abrahams to talk about First Trimester, one of its upcoming shows where you could be involved – as a sperm donor…  What’s all that about? That’s Simon’s job to explain… They’re all on this week’s edition of Behind the Scenes with Chris Thompson, right here on Vision Australia Radio.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.