Rediscover our stories, our stages, our city: Geelong Arts Centre launch must-see 2022 season

MEDIA RELEASE • 29 NOVEMBER 2021

No more waiting in the wings; it’s time to take your seat and rediscover the power of storytelling with Geelong Arts Centre: Our Season 2022, proudly supported by Major Artistic Partner, Deakin University, and Innovation Partner, Costa Asset Management.

After two topsy turvy years, Geelong Arts Centre is immensely proud to mark the return of extraordinary arts experiences through curating and presenting Geelong Arts Centre: Our Season 2022.

Excited to safely welcome you back to your arts centre, Geelong Arts Centre invites you to become engrossed in storytelling across a range of artforms, from the honesty of theatre and lyrical dance to mesmerising circus and immersive arts experiences.

Featuring 11 crucial stories you can't afford to miss, Our Season 2022 showcases the voices of those who have overcome hardship, broken down barriers and fought for their place upon the world stage.

From celebrating the experiences of strong and diverse women and highlighting the unique perspectives of First Nations Peoples, to shining a spotlight on those who strive to embrace their identities in the face of fear and adversity.

The artistic energy for which the community of Geelong is renowned transcends the walls of Geelong Arts Centre, and as the Little Malop Street Redevelopment reaches new heights, the team at Geelong Arts Centre is delighted to be able to bring outstanding performances to you from key satellite venues across our creative city, including their Ryrie Street Building, Costa Hall, Geelong Arena and Geelong West Town Hall.

Geelong Arts Centre scrupulously adheres to COVIDSafe principles, including strongly recommending wearing face masks for patrons aged 12 years and above, provision of ample sanitisation stations, contactless QR check-in and cashless points of service.

Visitors aged 12 years 2 months and over attending a Geelong Arts Centre event will need to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination as a condition of entry.

For the most up-to-date information regarding current COVID Safety measures, conditions of entry and what to expect on site, visit the Geelong Arts Centre website.

With capacity for shows at Ryrie Street limited to up to 100 per performance, entertainment-seekers are encouraged to get in quick to be part of Our Season 2022.

Including performances from a multitude of companies with a reputation for producing outstanding work, including Circa, Slingsby, State Theatre Company South Australia, Red Stitch Actors Theatre, Ensemble Theatre, Performing Lines and Dance Makers Collective, theatre-goers can expect to be met with the highest calibre of storytelling from the moment they take their seats.

Geelong Arts Centre: Our Season 2022 is proudly supported by Major Artistic Partner, Deakin University, Innovation Partner, Costa Asset Management.

Tickets will be available to the general public from 10:30am on Monday 29 November. Audience capacities are strictly limited – get in quick.

Bookings can be made via the website, or by phoning the Box Office on 1300 251 200 between 10:00am and 3:00pm, Monday to Friday.

Geelong Arts Centre is moving to e-ticket delivery for Our Season 2022. Confirmation of your booking will be emailed to you immediately, and all e-tickets for performances will be emailed to you three days prior to the performance.

For a comprehensive show-by-show breakdown, see over page.

To keep up to date with what’s on during Geelong Arts Centre: Our Season 2022 visit geelongartscentre.org.au and sign up to the e-newsletter.

QUOTES ATTRIBUTABLE

“We are overjoyed to safely welcome arts-lovers back to the home of Where Creativity Meets and to invite our passionate community to connect and journey with us and one another through story.”

“Across all artforms, Geelong Arts Centre knows it is imperative for us to amplify the voices of those who have overcome adversity, and we have no doubt that these stories will not only entertain; they will inspire”.

Geelong Arts Centre Chief Executive Officer and Creative Director, Joel McGuinness

“While the Little Malop Street Redevelopment is transforming our Geelong Arts Centre for the future, the team continues to bring outstanding performances directly to our community.”

“The 2022 program is set to reinvigorate arts and live entertainment in Geelong, bringing us exceptional stories, and activating fantastic local venues across our creative city”.

Christine Couzens MP, Member for Geelong

“Deakin University remains committed to growing a creative and dynamic region through excellence in education, research and innovation, and supports the strengthening of the wider community through positive arts and cultural collaborative experiences.

As Major Artistic Partner, Deakin University is delighted to support Geelong Arts Centre’s Our Season 2022, providing arts experiences to our region for all members of our community to enjoy.”

Vice-Chancellor - Deakin University, Professor Iain Martin

SUBSCRIBER VALUE PACKAGES

PACKAGE A
‘CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT THE ARTS’
With this Geelong Arts Centre Premium Membership, purchase seats to all 11 Our Season 2022 shows and receive 25% off full price single tickets!

PACKAGE B
CLASSIC ‘THEATRE-LOVER’ SUBSCRIPTION
Purchase seats to all 7 Our Season 2022 Core Shows and receive 20% off full price single tickets! Plus, have the option to add on extra Special Addition shows at a 10% discount.

PACKAGE C
GEELONG ARTS CENTRE ‘FLEXI’ SUBSCRIBER
Fun and flexible, purchase seats to any 5+ shows in Our Season 2022 and receive 15% off full price single tickets and priority access to future seasons.

THE PERFORMANCES

CORE SHOWS

BLACK COCKATOO
ENSEMBLE THEATRE
STUDIO 4, GEELONG ARTS CENTRE
22 – 26 MAR

Over 150 years ago, 13 brave Aboriginal men in Western Victoria picked up their cricket bats and embarked on a treacherous voyage to England and into the unknown – all in the name of sport. Risking illness and persecution, Australia’s first international cricket team – including Australia's first Indigenous sporting hero, Johnny Mullagh - amazed the English crowds with astonishing talent, personality and grit. Instead of arriving home as celebrated heroes, they returned to find the world they once knew was no longer there. A funny and incredibly moving story of strength, resistance, hope and possibility, when a group of young present-day activists attempt to expose the truth of what happened to Johnny and his teammates, a hidden legend of triumph and tragedy unfold.

BECOME THE ONE
LAB KELPIE
STUDIO 4, GEELONG ARTS CENTRE
3 - 7 MAY
When Noah captures the attention of Tom, a celebrated AFL player nearing the end of his career, sparks immediately fly. But as the season progresses and their relationship grows, questions around identity, sexuality and our devotion to hyper masculinity begin to surface, forcing us to consider what happens to love when good intentions and patience aren’t enough anymore. Interested in exploring why same-sex partners of AFL players (who statistically have to exist) continue to accept it, this is a celebration of difference, a call to bravery, and an examination of what it takes to do the right thing – as a lover, as a high-profile sports star, as a human being – to BECOME THE ONE.

ON BY CIRCA
A MONASH UNIVERSITY COMMISSION
COSTA HALL, DEAKIN UNIVERSITY
12 MAY
Over the past two decades, Circa has forged a reputation as the most artistically audacious circus on the planet. For the company's new show, On by Circa, Artistic Director Yaron Lifschitz explores the gift of weight that lies at the heart of acrobatics; the simple act of giving and accepting another’s mass is transformed into a profound meditation about beauty, loss and trust. With stage elements reduced to their most essential: seven extraordinary acrobats, a score by Melbourne composer Jethro Woodward and a striking lighting design, the ensemble creates a stripped back circus of the heart that’s uncompromisingly bold and unashamedly athletic.

THE BOY WHO TALKED TO DOGS
SLINGSBY AND STATE THEATRE COMPANY SOUTH AUSTRALIA
GEELONG WEST TOWN HALL
13 - 16 JUL
Martin finds solace from the iciness of a troubled home in 1970s Ireland by cuddling up to his German Shepherds, Major and Rex. After running away at 13, he is adopted by a pack of six stray dogs who lead him back to human company and a new place where he "can be me". Based on the true story of Nimbin’s famous “Dogman”, who grew up in Garryowen, Limerick, this tough but tender tale is a celebration of the love of animals we share our homes and lives with, starring acclaimed Dublin actor Bryan Burroughs amidst a dazzling array of shadows, songs and stellar musicianship.

GRACE
RED STITCH ACTORS' THEATRE
STUDIO 4, GEELONG ARTS CENTRE
16 - 20 AUG
Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre presents Grace, Katy Warner’s sharp new investigation of motherhood, fairy tales, and the notion of 'selfish women'. Interrogating the complex relationship between mothers and daughters, inter-generational antipathy, and female identity inside and outside of motherhood, Grace features a stellar cast including Green Room Award-winning actor Jillian Murray (The Year of Magical Thinking) and Kate Cole (Grounded) and is directed by the critically acclaimed Sarah Goodes. Grace explores memory and remembrance, and the fairy tales we tell ourselves and each other.

SUNSHINE SUPER GIRL
BY ANDREA JAMES
PRODUCED BY PERFORMING LINES
THE GEELONG ARENA
5 OCT
A young girl hits a ball against the tin wall of her family’s home. This is where it all began for Evonne Goolagong. Hers is a heart-warming, quintessentially Australian story about a girl from the bush who dared to dream, and with the support of an outback farming town, rose to become the No. 1 tennis player in the world and a household name by the age of 19. A celebration of spirit and passion over adversity, this landmark new Australian work written and directed by Yorta Yorta/Gunaikurnai theatre maker Andrea James asks us to consider our nation’s future and the part we can play for the next ‘Goolagong’ waiting in the wings.

THE RIVOLI
DANCE MAKERS COLLECTIVE
GEELONG WEST TOWN HALL
9 - 12 NOV
A celebration of social life before social media, when to meet was to talk, laugh and move to music together.
An immersive dance hall meets dance theatre performance, The Rivoli is a tribute to the iconic dance halls across Australia that were a celebration of social life before social media. A hit at Sydney Festival 2020, this joyous production will bring local town halls to life and communities together.

SPECIAL ADDITIONS

DON JUAN
A SLIGHTLY ISOLATED DOG & NCM
STUDIO 4, GEELONG ARTS CENTRE
26 - 30 APR
Putting the audience at the centre of the action, five ludicrous and downright hilarious “French” performers will entice and delight as they invite the audience into their wild retelling of the story of the original master of seduction: Don Juan. Don Juan is the boldest and greatest of men, seducing, fighting, and charming his way through life. He does whatever he wants and to hell with the consequences. He lives big, loves big, and leaves a trail of broken hearts in his wake.

UNSUNG
AMPLIFIED ASSEMBLY
COSTA HALL, DEAKIN UNIVERSITY
21 MAY
On a hot summer’s day in 1965, Merle Thornton and Rosalie Bogner walked into the public bar of the Regatta Hotel in Brisbane, calmly chained themselves to the bar rail, and ordered a beer. What happened next would change the course of Australian history, and the course of music in Australia for women, forever. Join award-winning cabaret powerhouses Amelia Ryan and Libby O’Donovan, in a rollicking, raucous celebration of songs and stories from 1960s Australia.

MOUNTAIN
GEELONG ARTS CENTRE IN ASSOCIATION WITH SWEET REASON & PERFORMING LINES
WORLD PREMIERE
STUDIO 4, GEELONG ARTS CENTRE
21 - 25 JUN
Mountain is the story of a man in pieces.
Adrift in grief, he becomes fixated by the idea of hiking up a mountain. But even on the simplest of journeys it can be difficult to find the way back…The man’s journey up the mountain opens precipitously outward, to encompass not just his own voice, but the voice of the mountain, the wind, of a planet crying out for what it’s losing and what it’s already lost. A new solo work by writer/director Kit Brookman and performer André Jewson, Mountain is a hymn to the transformative power of grief, to the wonder of the unknown.

BLUE: THE SONGS OF JONI MITCHELL
STARRING QUEENIE VAN DE ZANDT
NEIL GOODING PRODUCTIONS & AMAZON WOMAN ENTERPRISES
COSTA HALL, DEAKIN UNIVERSITY
3 SEP
Join Australian cabaret chanteuse and musical theatre star, Queenie van de Zandt for a beguiling night of melancholic songs, poetic storytelling and haunting vocals. Renowned for her artful storytelling and raw, emotive vocals, Queenie brings to you the songs, stories and art of the musical legend that is Joni Mitchell, including hits such as Case Of You, Little Green, Both Sides Now, and Big Yellow Taxi. Renaissance woman, painter and poet, Mitchell created a soundtrack for the Woodstock generation that has been affectionately reinterpreted by van de Zandt and her live band to a slew of rave reviews and prestigious awards across Australia and the United States.

THE VENUES

Geelong Arts Centre: Our Season 2022 will be held across multiple venues – details below:

Studio 4 – Geelong Arts Centre | 81 Ryrie Street, Geelong

Costa Hall – Deakin University Waterfront Campus | 1 Gheringhap Street, Geelong

Geelong West Town Hall | 153 Pakington Street, Geelong West (access via Albert Street carpark)

Geelong Arena | 110 Victoria Street, North Geelong

For more information on Our Season 2022 venues, including accessibility features, parking information and maps, visit the website.

Bookings can be made via the website, or by phoning the Box Office on 1300 251 200.