The content on this page and other DCITA document archive pages is provided to assist research and may contain references to activities or policies that have no current application. See the full archive disclaimer.
OFFBEAT VENUES ENERGISE
Playing Australia—offbeat venues energise
By Tricia Fitzgerald
The South Australian-based Co-Opera company, which was established to ‘take opera out to the people', thrives on a busy touring schedule, staging up to 60 or 70 performances in regional and remote Australia each year.
The company presents a lively and fun form of opera and its focus on attracting non-city audiences means it performs in some very unusual venues like showground stadiums, wineries, bowling clubs and outdoor gardens.
Co-Opera's director, Brian Chatterton, says unexpected and unconventional venues add excitement and energy to Co-Opera's performances.
‘Performing in the same type of auditoriums can get repetitive, but when the venues are so different it puts a spark into the performance and creates a bond with audiences,' Chatterton said.
‘One of our most memorable offbeat venues was the Stud Stock Selling Centre at the Wodonga Show Ground in regional Victoria, where we staged an award winning performance of Carmen .'
‘The showground venue was a glorified bull auction ring with sawdust on the floor and the performers had to tread carefully or the sawdust rose up to stifle their voices.'
Service and bowling clubs have been the company's most visited venues.
‘The entertainment auditoriums of country bowling and RSL clubs are the cultural citadels of remote communities, particularly in New South Wales where the club culture is so strong,' Chatterton says.
Recently the company has started moving out of the clubs to perform outdoors.
‘These days we're doing a lot of outdoor venues … our favourite performing spot is on the banks of the Darling River in Bourke.'
‘It's almost a religious experience performing on the banks of the Darling, with the moon shining on the river and the strains of Mozart's Cosi fan tutte drifting across the river.
‘We take a portable stage and use that to elevate the singers. The audience sits in BYO picnic style around the stage in fold-up chairs, on rugs, on the lawn or on dust depending on the time of the year.'
Touring the small towns of north west Queensland is another experience the Co-Opera company cherishes.
‘The smaller far west towns in Queensland are very tiny and we tend to attract audiences of at the most 100 … that's half to a third smaller than our larger town audiences.'
‘The great thing is though, that those 100 patrons represent 20 per cent of the town's whole population so that's a pretty big turn up, and the excitement engendered by our visits more than makes up for the smaller numbers!
‘Audiences in regional and remote areas hugely enjoy that we are performing live opera for them and we are delighted we can get to such character-filled places,' Chatterton says.
Co-Opera has been receiving support from the Australian Government's Playing Australia program for 11 years.
The funding is what gets the company over the South Australian border and allows them to set their entrance fees at a level that regional and remote audiences can afford.
The Playing Australia support, for example, allows Co-Opera to charge $30 rather than $50 or $60 a ticket for performances.
‘The places that we tour to are often extremely economically depressed, especially in drought time, and that can make the difference between people being able to afford to come to a show or not,' Chatterton said.
Playing Australia, Australia's national performing arts touring program, provides support for professional productions to take their art out to regional and remote audiences.
Playing Australia supports a wide range of performances from ballet to contemporary dance, jazz to classical music and drama to circus and puppetry.
Visit the Playing Australia website at www.dcita.gov.au/arts/arts/playing_australia for more information.