

COURAGEOUS CONVERSATIONS - Pt3 SOS: Save our Sector • Save our Stories • Save our Stages
The five myths of BLAKSTAGEtheatre Within this current environment many myths have surrounded the BLAKSTAGE companies. These flow into a general perception of our work being somehow ‘less than’, our companies being a separatist Western notion of ‘community theatre’ which somehow is ‘less than’, our artists being typecast or somehow ‘less than’. Without hearing from the companies themselves, or empowering more voices in the sector to engage in national discourse, they remain d


COURAGEOUS CONVERSATIONS - Pt2 SOS: Save our Sector • Save our Stories • Save our Stages
Perceptions of BLAKSTAGEtheatre: a study of a privileged voice Following research, the few selected academics deemed ‘experts’ of our genre present papers. One theme, ‘How increased mainstream production opportunities have facilitated this expansion of Indigenous theatre practice … and development of the one-person show as the dominant genre for Indigenous theatre practices’ are typical of these musings[FU1] . Those of us who were actually at the frontline and in the trenches


COURAGEOUS CONVERSATIONS - Pt1 SOS: Save our Sector • Save our Stories • Save our Stages
SOS: Save our Sector • Save our Stories • Save our Stages by Sam Cook Having spent nearly eight years with the Western Australia-based Yirra Yaakin Theatre Company, and five and a half of those years as the CEO, the primary focus of this conversation is from a company perspective. It is important to note that the standpoint I represent sits outside the east coast Indigenous Australian perspective, a perspective often unrecorded. I can speak from direct experience and ‘tell it