When the Brisbane Powerhouse reopens later this month, it will have been 131 days since it opened a show.
Key points:
- Brisbane Festival employs a record number of artists
- La Boite spent tens of thousands during lockdown to create new shows later this year
- Companies previously touring the world settle in Brisbane
COVID-19 has kept arts and live performance venues shuttered since March.
The Powerhouse will be the first major arts venue in Queensland to welcome back patrons for a range of performances.
As signs of life return to the pandemic-stricken industry, here are the larger productions that are opening:
Brisbane Powerhouse: July 24
While the venue itself reopens on July 10, three iconic local theatre companies will run limited shows from July 24: Queensland Ballet, Briefs Factory International and Circa.
Brisbane Powerhouse artistic director Kris Stewart said they would open for 100-person capacity cabaret-style shows with audiences sitting with their group at well-spaced tables.
“We want to open the venue safely, but also make sure that artists and audiences get a chance to see each other to perform for each other again,” he said.
“These kind of companies like Circa, Queensland Ballet, Briefs Factory International, traditionally they’re touring the world, but now they’re back in Brisbane.
“We think it’s a great opportunity to get those international companies into a classic Brisbane venue.
“We need to remain physically distanced but we’ve got to socially connect again … we need to do shows to people and get in front of audiences.”
Circa’s artistic director Yaron Lifschitz said it was incredibly welcome news.
“To perform in our home town as a treat at the best of times,” he said.
“To be in the same physical space as an audience and to be able to communicate with them, for them to sense the passion and the effort and the humanity of our artists and for us to convey that with some warmth and generosity and humour is really beautiful.”
Call out to residents to nominate their own cul-de-sacs for show
It was an anxious wait for festival organisers closely watching the impact of the coronavirus-pandemic, but its usual September timeslot has been confirmed.
Brisbane Festival artistic director Louise Bezzina said this year would be about bringing “art to the people” rather than a focus on centrally located performances.
That included a recent call-out for Brisbane residents to nominate their own cul-de-sacs for shows.
“There’s cabaret, there’s classical music, contemporary music, pretty much you name it … we’ve got it.
“[This year] is very, very much focused on Brisbane artists and Queensland artists.
“We will employ 700 Brisbane artists this year, which is the most number of Brisbane artists that the Brisbane festival has ever employed.”
Other players working to put on shows
La Boite and Queensland Theatre Company are working toward shows closer to the end of the year.
La Boite Theatre Company executive director Zohar Spatz said they had put forward tens of thousands of dollars for artists to create new performances.
“What we’re hoping for is over the course of the next three or four months, artists are going to start building the seeds of new shows,” she said.
“We’ll open up the venue at the end of the year for a sort of celebration of those new ideas and what it looks to be in a world post-COVID.
“In between all of that we’re sort of trying to explore what we might be able to present this year … but really, our focus is on 2021.
“Touring is going to be super tough next year, so there’s a really great opportunity for us to celebrate Queensland.”
Arts Queensland is also supporting the reopening of Gold Coast’s HOTA, Empire Theatre in Toowoomba, the Ipswich Civic Centre, Cairns Performing Arts Centre and Cairns’ Tanks Arts Centre.
Queensland Performing Arts Centre’s chief executive John Kotzas said work was being done to reopen their theatres in August.
“A bit similar to the way sport has done it, is we want to do smaller numbers to see how we do with those, implement social distancing and give our audiences great comfort in terms of being safe,” Mr Kotzas said.
“Hopefully by September we’ll be starting to return back to close to the numbers we had prior to COVID.
“We will go very hard with strong local content … there’ll be some really strong music programs.
“Mainly around music and cabaret until such time we can draw an audience together and we can do some drama and music theatre.“
