November 11, 2025 • 28 mins
This week, Andrew and Simon speak to Kate Champion, Artistic Director at Black Swan State Theatre Company in Perth, Western Australia, about their 2026 program. Black Swan is committed to inclusion and accessibility in the arts, and Kate shares their accessibility initiatives with us, which include audio description, tactile tours and Auslan interpretation.
A season of bold voices and fresh perspectives, Black Swan's 2026 program showcases iconic reinventions, daring new commissions, and stories that speak directly to the world we live in today. Find out more about the 2026 program on their website.
Vision Australia Radio is a proud accessibility partner of Black Swan State Theatre Company.
Support Vision Australia Radio: https://www.visionaustralia.org/donate
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
S1 (00:14):
Hello and welcome to In Plain Sight, a program where
we highlight people who are making a positive impact in
the community and disability sector.
S2 (00:22):
Shining a light on those who would be otherwise hidden
in plain sight.
S1 (00:26):
And it's a pleasure to bring you these stories on
a weekly basis with you here on Vision Australia Radio.
S2 (00:32):
Hi Andrew.
S1 (00:33):
How are you this week? Simon?
S2 (00:34):
I'm excellent, doing really well and great to be in
the studio, and it's always great to be part of
this wonderful program. And on that note, I would like
to thank everyone who supported us on this program and
everyone who's encouraged me personally and supported me personally throughout
the journey of creating and producing this wonderful program, to
(00:56):
be able to bring it to you on a weekly
basis here on Vision Australia Radio, and really pleased and
proud for everything we've achieved so far. Really glad and
proud of what you've brought to the table on this program. Andrew. Thanks.
S1 (01:08):
Oh well thank you. It's been my pleasure. It's great
to be involved.
S2 (01:12):
Andrew. This week we are going to the theater. I
know a lot of our listeners like going to the theater,
and a number of our blind and vision impaired friends
go to audio described events not only at theater, but
in other places as well. But firstly, I would like
to talk about preparing yourself to go to the theater.
If you have a disability, if you have an impairment
(01:32):
or you're blind or visually impaired, make sure you do
the research and make sure you are fully prepared for
what you are wanting to do. Because if you have
a companion card, each event, each ticketing office, and each
kind of theater has a different way of acknowledging that.
Do your research. Find out what's required. The more preparation
(01:54):
you do prior to going to an event, prior to
going to the theater, the easier you'll find it and
follow the procedures. Don't just turn up and say, hey,
I've got a companion card. Here's my companion. It doesn't
work like that. And I know that every theatre and
every event manager is doing the best they can to can,
to produce the best product they can and want to
(02:16):
be an inclusive as they can. And wherever you're listening
to us right now, go to the theater companies that
you enjoy. Ask them what they've got on offer in
regards to accessibility and inclusion. And if you're in Western Australia,
for instance, go to somewhere like Dada, go to Blind Citizens,
Western Australia, or go to Vision Australia. Those types of
(02:37):
organizations that will help you find out more about what's
on offer in regards to audio description and other other
similar accessibility features that are available in all aspects of
event management these days. Now, Andrew, what have we got
coming up on the show?
S1 (02:55):
Well, I had a really great chat. Well, you and
I did with Kate Champion, who's the artistic director of
Black Swan State Theatre Company, and they've just launched their
season for 2026. Black Swan has also become an Access
Media partner with Vision Australia Radio. And that's a very
exciting development as well. So yeah, we have a great
chat about the season coming up, but we also talk
(03:15):
about the access programs that Black Swan has. So here's
the interview that I had with Cate. Black Swan Theatre Company,
as the name suggests, is the State Theatre Company of
Western Australia, based here in Perth, but also performing to
audiences around the state, as well as collaborating with interstate
theatre companies. Black Swans 2026 season has just recently been
(03:40):
launched and to discuss the season, as well as Black
Swans access programs, I'm delighted to be joined in the
studio by Cate Champion, who is Black Swans artistic director. Cate, welcome.
S3 (03:52):
Thank you very much, Andrew.
S1 (03:53):
Welcome to the studio, Cate. You've you've had a very
extensive career in, in the performing arts, working across all
kinds of aspects of, of the industry in theatre and
dance and film and circus and opera, musical theatre. And
you were appointed artistic director to Black Swan in 2022,
drawing on all that experience, how did you sort of
(04:16):
come to to Black Swan and the vision that you
have for then and I suppose, and now.
S3 (04:21):
Well, I mean, everyone's backgrounds. It's interesting, isn't it? What
leads you to where you end up and how you
can only understand that retrospectively. But look, I was I
was a dancer professionally for 26 years and then but
I was more drawn to dance theatre, which is, as
it says, half dance, half theatre, more or less. I've
always been interested in multi art form, not kind of
(04:43):
staying within the strictures of what people understand a certain
art form to be. So even in my own dance
theatre company we used visual projection, all sorts, any, any
art form, anything that we felt worked to tell the
story or to make the make what we were doing effective. Yes. Um,
so the more I finished, I finished my professional dance
(05:05):
career quite some time ago and with my own company
found myself as I dance less, getting more into the
theatre aspect of it. And I've always been interested, even
in dance, that it's connected to meaning. And I'm terribly
interested in storytelling and stories that enable us to understand
either a different humans, different life, or something that is familiar,
(05:26):
and seeing it so beautifully and articulately brought to the stage.
And I think that connects us as a community. And
I'm not particularly religious. I didn't have a religious upbringing,
and I feel that theatre in particular is like a, um,
a secular place where where all faiths or non faiths
(05:46):
can collect and have that communal human experience. So the
less I dance, the more I got into theatre. And
as I left my company, it felt like a natural
progression because I'd been putting more and more text into
our shows, more and more spoken word. And look, I
think if I hadn't done dance as a child, I
would have done theatre from the beginning. So it feels
(06:07):
like a natural progression to have ended up with a
theatre company. I directed a lot of plays between leaving
my company and ending up here at Black Swan, so
it feels like a logical conclusion. But also, I've had
a lot of experience as an independent artist, and I
feel that any artist that walks in the door I've
done from smell of an Oily Rag solo show to
multi-million dollar musicals and opera, so and everything in between.
(06:31):
And I love artists, I love creativity, and I want
to bring that to Black Swan, where there's a sort
of an honoring of text based plays, but also the
adventure of what else performance can be.
S1 (06:43):
And you were you were with your company was force
majeure for between 2002 and 2015. That's a that's a
long time to be associated with a company. And then
you get to that point, it's like, yeah, it's kind of.
S3 (06:55):
I founded it. Yes yes yes yes yes it is,
it is. But I felt we were very successful. But I'm,
I always get a bit, uh, restless when I feel
like I might potentially be repeating myself or becoming comfortable or,
dare I say, falling on some kind of formula. So
I felt like I'd really, you know, squeezed the rag
on what that art form was. And I like jumping
(07:17):
off cliffs and seeing where my abilities fit in places
that I might not be familiar with.
S1 (07:23):
I guess it's part of the creative process in general, really, that, um,
you have to take that risk and, you know, it
just it delivers results in the end where, you know,
you have that faith. I guess.
S3 (07:35):
Comfort isn't where creativity.
S1 (07:37):
Is.
S3 (07:37):
Born.
S1 (07:37):
Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, it's nice to have a
bit of comfort. Absolutely.
S3 (07:41):
Yes, I know I agree, and I don't think artists
have enough stability. And that would still be seen by
the general population as not much stability. But absolutely you
need a bit of both to be able to function.
S1 (07:53):
Yeah, absolutely. The the 2026 season, which has just been launched,
is an absolute cracker, I have to say. Oh, great.
There's some exciting, exciting stuff coming up next year. Um,
the first in the in the season is, um, the
Red shoes with Miao Miao, who I think you've actually
worked with before with Force Majeure. Is that correct? Oh, no. No,
I'm getting I'm talking about Heather Mitchell. That's a little
(08:14):
bit later. Yes. Yes. Yes.
S3 (08:16):
No. Um, so meow meow and I have known each
other for a couple of decades and, um, been friends,
but and have wanted to work together and it just
hadn't come about until now. And, um, it's been a
beautiful collaboration. Uh, she's wild and has so many ideas
that harnessing them into one coherent, um, tale has been
(08:38):
has been the challenge of for all of us. But
there's so much talent on stage and she's just incredible.
She dances and sings and has such a great comedic
streak and her way of interacting with audiences. She's one
of a kind. And this is her third response to
a Hans Christian Andersen tale. She's done, The Little Mermaid
and The Little Match Girl. The Red shoes was a
(09:00):
bit more of a problematic one because it's quite brutal
what happens in the original tale, the young girl who
kind of won't stop wearing these red shoes in places
where it's not seen as being what you should do eventually,
is cursed to not be able to take off the
red shoes and not be able to stop dancing. And
in the in the end goes to a puppet maker.
I think it's a puppet maker to get her actual
(09:21):
legs or lower legs sawn off. I know they were
more brutal. The fairytales back then.
S1 (09:26):
They were yes and yes.
S3 (09:28):
So that stops her dancing and she ends up, um,
spending quite a bit of time in a room on
her own before to serve her penance, and is then
forgiven and goes to heaven. So it's a, you know,
a problematic tale on a lot of levels. But the
way she was thinking about it during Covid and she thought, oh,
there's something interesting about not being able to stop dancing,
but what if you can't even start because everyone was
(09:50):
at home on the couch and not able to go out,
but also taking themes of greed, capitalism when you when
you for some reason want more than you actually need. Um,
vanity and um, yeah, I guess a sort of puritanical
vision of what people are allowed to do, even allowed
(10:11):
to dress or behave, how people should behave and how
society controls that. So a lot of themes in there
that she bounces off.
S1 (10:18):
And speaking of bouncing, I mean, she's an extraordinary performer
to watch. I've seen her perform in enormous concert halls, um,
thinking one time in particular at the Melbourne Concert Hall.
And there's this kind of, like, controlled chaos with the
way she works in her sort of more cabaret style,
I guess. Yeah.
S3 (10:36):
She doesn't like the word cabaret, but you're absolutely right.
I think she's her own. It definitely is from the
form of cabaret, but she's sort of made it her own.
And I think Controlled Chaos is a perfect description and
it's definite. And that's what the audience love. Like you
sense that exactly. You sense where are we going exactly.
S1 (10:53):
And sort of mistimed, you know, entrances and exits, which.
S3 (10:56):
Are all.
S1 (10:56):
Costumes falling off and.
S3 (10:58):
Which are often actually planned within it. Yeah, absolutely. Um,
every moment planned. But she does also live in the
moment on stage.
S1 (11:06):
It's quite, quite hilarious watching this, uh, the way she performs. Um,
I'm really looking forward to this. And it's it's a
co-production with the Perth Festival.
S3 (11:15):
It's not a co-production in association with Perth Festival. Yeah,
and it's been a co-production with Belvoir Street Theatre or
Belvoir in Sydney and, um, the Malthouse in Melbourne. So
it's just finishing its last week in Sydney, and I'm
about to go and put it into the Merlyn Theatre
in Melbourne for Malthouse soon.
S1 (11:32):
Yeah.
S3 (11:33):
And that's it comes to. Yeah. At the end of
the festival, sort of around end of February will be
at His Majesty's.
S1 (11:38):
I know the Merlyn Theatre well. I actually used to
work for what was then Playbox Theatre Company. I used
to work in the box office and. Oh, wow. Many,
many years ago. Um, you know, back in the day
when you did publicity with stuffing envelopes and, you know,
that's a long time.
S3 (11:51):
The stamps.
S1 (11:52):
Yeah. And sending them off. And hopefully you get a response. Yeah,
it's all electronic now. Um, so coming up in March
and April, we have RBG of many one. And this
is starring the fabulous Heather Mitchell. And this is back
by popular demand. You've had a very successful season before,
(12:12):
and I guess the demand is, is there to see
it again because it's such a magnificent piece. And Heather
Mitchell is a joy to watch. And I've managed to
miss it every time it's been on. So I'm personally
looking forward.
S3 (12:24):
We had about a thousand people on the waitlist at
one stage. Wow. And look, I wouldn't I don't normally
bring things back quite this quickly. Often, sometimes it's you
wait five years or so. But look, Heather has done.
I think it's her third season in Sydney. I had
to grab it. While Heather's still doing it. Because I'm
not sure. I mean, she's done hundreds of performances of
it all around the country. And I just, you know,
(12:46):
she's she's going to move on to new roles and
other things. And I really wanted to grab it while
she was still portraying Ruth Bader Ginsburg because she is phenomenal,
absolutely transforms into Ruth and plays so many other characters.
She plays three American presidents. She carries the whole thing
with humor. It's incredibly informative. And yeah, I would encourage
(13:09):
anyone to come along. It appeals to any age, any gender,
but I'm really hoping that the younger generation come along
so that they understand what went before them and how
hard it was for women to have the kind of
role that Ruth had at her time in American politics.
S1 (13:24):
And she was the second only the second female appointee
to the.
S3 (13:28):
Supreme.
S1 (13:29):
Court, the Supreme Court in the US, and so forth.
S3 (13:31):
And it's obviously controversial because she didn't step down. She never,
ever thought.
S1 (13:35):
I don't have to, I don't think.
S3 (13:36):
No, you have to kind of you die. I think usually.
S1 (13:40):
And she was controversial, I guess, in probably her later
career and later in her life, I suppose because of her,
you know, incredible principles and basic principle of the law
and how it's, you know, how it's applied and basic
human decency and so forth. And then, you know, with
the rise of all kinds of right wing politics, shall
we say, in the US, she was fearless, basically, in
(14:04):
standing up for rights for so many people and just
the basis of the law.
S3 (14:08):
Such a tiny frame with a giant spirit.
S1 (14:11):
Absolutely. And you were talking about, you know, all the
different characters that Heather plays in this. Heather has got
really serious comedy chops as well. I mean, she's what
springs to mind is her, um, she did a few
episodes of, um, Gold Diggers with the ABC, and she
played the mother of the two lead characters in it,
and she turns up out of the blue dressed as
a nun, basically on the run. And it's one of
(14:32):
the funniest things I've I've seen. So she's a fantastic
performer and she is.
S3 (14:36):
And she's just getting better and better. Yeah. It's so
wonderful to see someone not, um, kind of step back
as they get older, but actually go into the fore
and take every opportunity. And she's she's doing it gloriously.
S1 (14:49):
Yeah. Fantastic. And that's coming up at the Heath Ledger Theatre.
S3 (14:52):
That's correct. Yes. Same place it was before.
S1 (14:55):
You're listening to In Plain Sight on Vision Australia Radio
with Simon Cheng and me, Andrew Williams. Our guest this
week is Kate Champion, who's the artistic director of Black
Swan State Theatre Company here in Perth. And we're having
a chat about the 2026 season coming up next year,
and also the access programs of Black Swan Theatre Company.
(15:18):
And now it's back to the conversation we're having with Kate.
Next in the program is The Shepherd's Hut in May. Um,
this is a black Swan commission and a world premiere
of Tim Mcgarry's adaptation of Tim Winton's acclaimed novel. So
this is going to be an extraordinary thing to see.
S3 (15:36):
I think this is one of the first things I
commissioned in when I arrived in 2022. It just felt
like a no brainer. Um, Matt Edgerton had told me
that it was on the cards as a possibility, and
I met with Tim McGarry and Tim Winton's agent was very, um,
positive about the whole notion of it. And, um, gave
us permission. But with new work, you really have to
(15:59):
make sure that it has enough time to develop. So
that's why it's taken this long. Like sometimes I feel
things are rushed to the stage and we've had script development,
but we've also been in the room trying out set
design ideas and, uh, audio visual potential. And I think
they're even going to go out on country, uh, the
designer and director and possibly some other creatives. So we
(16:21):
just want to make sure that it has everything it
needs to become the best version of this, that it can. Yes.
S1 (16:28):
And I'm thinking of, you know, other novels of Tim
Winton that have been adapted into classic pieces of theater,
like Cloudstreet, for example.
S3 (16:35):
I was on the original. I was part of the
original production.
S1 (16:39):
Aha.
S3 (16:39):
Right. Very much so.
S1 (16:41):
I saw that at the Malthouse as well. It was
one of the most transformative pieces of theatre and very
long with a dinner break. But yeah, but it's great
to sort of have it all in the, in the.
S3 (16:51):
Past you didn't they. Yeah we did.
S1 (16:52):
Yeah. You're talking about making it, wanting to make it
the best piece you can possibly be. I mean, even
in creating the novel itself, I mean, Tim Winton has famously,
you know, completely scrapped a project that he started to
write and then has, you know, thrown it away and
started again. So adapting something like this to, you know,
(17:13):
to the stage as well. It's just, you know, it's
very precious, I suppose, that you want to.
S3 (17:18):
Get it right.
S1 (17:18):
Get it right.
S3 (17:19):
And we also I'm also open to the fact that
we can invest in some new work, and it might
not ever make it to the stage, but we learn
something about it. Or rather than pursue just because we've
invested in it.
S1 (17:30):
And so what are some of the themes involved in
the in the piece?
S3 (17:33):
Well, all of Tim's work, I find, and I love
this about his work. Tim Winton's is how the landscape
is as much a character and how the landscape evokes
the psychology of the characters. And they're they're not at one.
I mean, sometimes they're at war, sometimes they're at one,
as we are within ourselves. Um, it's both intimate and operatic.
(17:56):
I love that it has that scale of just two men,
one young, one older, both with dark pasts and things
to come to terms with, wrestling it out. But then also, again,
the the scale of the landscape and the poetry that
he evokes through that human scale in amongst this massive landscape.
(18:18):
So how to bring that to the stage has been
I won't give anything away, but I think it's going
to be very exciting in dealing with both the intimate
and the operatic.
S1 (18:26):
It is quite an amazing thing. We, you know, you're
sitting down reading a Tim Winton novel and you just
feel exactly as you've just described that amazing language to
evoke the landscape and quite ethereal, for want of a
better word.
S3 (18:41):
And he gives his characters quests. It almost feels, you know,
like a Greek tragedy sometimes, but in our own vernacular.
And he I love how he captures how we speak
without it being corny or clichéd.
S1 (18:55):
Then coming up in July, June and July at the
Subiaco Arts Centre. Oh, yes, now the shepherd's heart. That'll
be Heath Ledger Theatre as well. Yeah, yeah. So Subiaco
Arts Centre in June and July, the Almighty sometimes. Tell
me about that.
S3 (19:08):
This is one of Kendall Fever's earliest plays. Um, I
directed her stage version of my brilliant career, actually, so
I have some experience of her talent. I love this
story because actually, as Emily McLane said in our trailer,
it's it's a love story of sorts that you that
you rarely see. And it's between a mother and a
(19:29):
daughter or any parent and a child, really, where this
daughter has had mental health issues and needed to be
have medication throughout her childhood to make it possible for
her to live well and gets to a certain age
where she's not sure who she really is. Is she
(19:50):
someone on medication and what? Who would she be if
she wasn't on it? And she's reached an age where
she has the autonomy and the legal right to do that,
and she wants to go off medication. She's also a
writer and an artist, and I know there are quite
some quite famous artists that talk about or who have
been bipolar or who are bipolar and who talk about
feeling better, how they can operate in society when they're medicated,
(20:12):
but not better. As an artist. They feel they're too
evened out and they sometimes like the peaks and troughs.
So the mother, it's about how the mother doesn't want
the child to suffer and doesn't want to see what
she thinks will no doubt happen if the child goes
off medication, but has to also let that child forge
that path herself. And it's done with humor. It's it's
(20:34):
as much as it sounds like a heavy subject, I'm
very much drawn to writers that can balance the dark
with the with the light. And, um, I just think
you don't get through tragic circumstances if you don't maintain
your sense of humor. And it's so often a way
to portray that material, uh, really effectively so that we
don't it doesn't repel us. It doesn't it invites us
(20:55):
into this subject matter really beautifully.
S1 (20:57):
And that's the Subiaco Arts Center. So, Kate, Black Swans
access programs are quite extensive, and we'll get to the
details of the programs shortly. But it hasn't always been
that way, having all kinds of ways you can actually
access theatre and live performance. And I'm talking generally here.
I'm not talking about Black Swan in particular, but I
(21:18):
guess my background is I used to work for an
organisation in Melbourne called Arts Access, and we had a
ticketing service called ease. It was an acronym for the
Entertainment Access Service. And so what we used to do
is go to promoters and venues and so forth and
advocate to, first of all, get reduced price tickets. So
(21:39):
it was always kind of this, um, approach of having
to go to individual, um, promoters and venues and so
forth and get it all organised, and then people would
come to us, book the tickets, and then we'd book
the tickets. These days, it's all kind of so much
more integrated.
S3 (21:52):
And the venue, the venues and the companies are taking initiative.
S1 (21:55):
Absolutely.
S3 (21:56):
Needed to do.
S1 (21:57):
Yeah.
S3 (21:57):
And part of sign of the times.
S1 (21:59):
Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, a lot of what was happening,
you know, 20 or 30 years ago was, um, you know,
it was driven by the, um, the disability, the DDA act. So, uh,
it's it's really has come a long way.
S3 (22:11):
So and I think it's fascinating. You don't have to
look identify as necessarily. Um, officially, someone who has access
needs to actually benefit from a lot of things that
are there.
S2 (22:23):
Because that is the crux of what we are all
about here. Is that good, well created accessibility and inclusion
that used to be called universal design shouldn't be noticeable.
It should be part of the everyday plan for whatever
it is you're doing. Be it an event, be it theatre,
(22:44):
be it radio, and it needs to be known that
good accessibility and full inclusion is for everybody. And if
we look at the physical environment, it can be if
you make a building easier for a person with the
most vulnerable mobility needs, say, who is a wheelchair user,
it makes it easier to enter for everybody. And whatever
(23:04):
level you're looking at. That is the crux of what
we need to encourage.
S3 (23:09):
Absolutely.
S1 (23:10):
For sure. I guess the other thing about access as well,
for people with disability, it increases participation and so forth.
And so for the producers of work, it's more bums
on seats.
S3 (23:23):
Or they bring their own. Yes, yes. No. Absolutely.
S1 (23:27):
It comes from a I guess a marketing thing as well.
I mean, that's just another angle.
S3 (23:31):
But of course it shouldn't be exclusive. Yeah. If we're
if we want to reach a breadth of humanity and
say that's what we're about, then absolutely. If it has
to appeal to everyone and if it appeals to everyone,
everyone has to be able to get access to see it.
S1 (23:45):
Yeah, absolutely. So tell me about some of the some
of the access programs.
S3 (23:49):
Well, as you say, we've made a lot of improvements
and it's a lot more than it used to be.
But we are aware that that's an ongoing thing that
we're aware of getting more and more information and skill,
and we're open to suggestions all the time. We have
I have a list of things so that I don't
forget anything. Um, we have a website navigator tool, uh,
translation and language support. The toolbar supports more than 100 languages, Images,
(24:12):
allowing you to read your text in your preferred language.
Text to speech that translates website text into natural sounding
speech in over 65 languages. Customizable reading options where you
can change the font styles, sizes, colors, backdrop contrasts. Immersive
reading experiences using a screen mask. These are all to
(24:33):
do with our website, but the full user guide is
on our website and it just is a pity if
you get frustrated with something like two smaller font or something,
that there is actually guidance as to how that can
be a better experience. We have our audio 2026 program,
which is recorded as part of our partnership with Vision Australia.
So that's for, um, low vision or blindness to access
(24:56):
our full 2026 audio program. But our performances also include
closed and open captions, audio description and tactile tours, Auslan
interpreted performances, assisted listening services, and wheelchair and mobility access.
And lastly, we have kinetics, which are for people who
face social barriers to attending the theatre or who are
(25:16):
experiencing economic hardship.
S1 (25:18):
That's quite an extensive range of of access, and it's
great to see that so integrated into into what you do.
And organisations like the Perth Festival, for example, I was
having a look through their brochure, which we just got
in the mail the other day. It's just it's all
there on your website as well. I've noticed down the
left hand side there's a clear button if that's the
(25:39):
right widget, where you click on that and it basically
takes you to the rest of the information that you've
just described a guide. Yeah, yeah. So it's reasonably to
my mind I think it's reasonably easy to, to find.
S3 (25:51):
I think if there's any frustration then absolutely look through
that guide. You might be pleasantly surprised that there is
a solution to what you need.
S2 (25:59):
I'd like to congratulate you, Kate, on on what you've
just mentioned there, because for accessibility and inclusion to work
at its best, it does have to be on every level.
And if you're talking about something like the theater. It's
the ticket booking, it's the website. So if a person
can't easily access the website, they'll give in. So they're
(26:20):
not going to attend the theater. If people have difficulty
with the ticketing, they'll give in and just complain and
they won't be able to go to the theater. Obviously,
the physical accessibility is in some ways the most easiest
aspect to address, but it's all those little incidental things.
And my only brief experience with the Black Swan Theater
earlier this year, I've found it so welcoming, and I
(26:43):
found that every step of the way things were considered
and we were made to feel quite welcome and every
little aspect was addressed. Fantastic in that circumstance.
S1 (26:54):
More information that people might require about the season?
S3 (26:58):
Yes. Go to our website. There's another commission from a
WA writer. A Day After day in the Life of
Useless by Will O'Mahony and Jackie, which is a co-production
with Yuri Yarkin, where I'm co-directing with Maitland Schnaars, the
artistic director.
S1 (27:13):
It's been fantastic having you in the studio and having
a chat. Thank you for for coming in. Thank you.
And having a.
S3 (27:20):
Chat with.
S1 (27:21):
You. Thank you. I've been speaking with Kate Champion, who
is the artistic director of Black Swan State Theatre Company,
and their 2026 season has just been launched. You can
find out more information about the season and also access.
There's a lot of information on the website Black Swan Theatre. Com.au.
Good luck for the season for 2026. We're all looking
(27:41):
forward to it.
S3 (27:42):
Yeah. Come along.
S1 (27:43):
That concludes in Plain Sight for this week. Join us
at the same time next week on Vision Australia Radio,
VA radio digital and online at VA Radio.com. You can
also listen on demand by searching for In Plain Sight
by Vision Australia Radio. Wherever you get your podcasts, or
ask your smart device to play in Plain Sight by
(28:05):
Vision Australia Radio. Thanks for listening.
S2 (28:07):
Thank you.
Hello and welcome to In Plain Sight, a program where
we highlight people who are making a positive impact in
the community and disability sector.
S2 (00:22):
Shining a light on those who would be otherwise hidden
in plain sight.
S1 (00:26):
And it's a pleasure to bring you these stories on
a weekly basis with you here on Vision Australia Radio.
S2 (00:32):
Hi Andrew.
S1 (00:33):
How are you this week? Simon?
S2 (00:34):
I'm excellent, doing really well and great to be in
the studio, and it's always great to be part of
this wonderful program. And on that note, I would like
to thank everyone who supported us on this program and
everyone who's encouraged me personally and supported me personally throughout
the journey of creating and producing this wonderful program, to
(00:56):
be able to bring it to you on a weekly
basis here on Vision Australia Radio, and really pleased and
proud for everything we've achieved so far. Really glad and
proud of what you've brought to the table on this program. Andrew. Thanks.
S1 (01:08):
Oh well thank you. It's been my pleasure. It's great
to be involved.
S2 (01:12):
Andrew. This week we are going to the theater. I
know a lot of our listeners like going to the theater,
and a number of our blind and vision impaired friends
go to audio described events not only at theater, but
in other places as well. But firstly, I would like
to talk about preparing yourself to go to the theater.
If you have a disability, if you have an impairment
(01:32):
or you're blind or visually impaired, make sure you do
the research and make sure you are fully prepared for
what you are wanting to do. Because if you have
a companion card, each event, each ticketing office, and each
kind of theater has a different way of acknowledging that.
Do your research. Find out what's required. The more preparation
(01:54):
you do prior to going to an event, prior to
going to the theater, the easier you'll find it and
follow the procedures. Don't just turn up and say, hey,
I've got a companion card. Here's my companion. It doesn't
work like that. And I know that every theatre and
every event manager is doing the best they can to can,
to produce the best product they can and want to
(02:16):
be an inclusive as they can. And wherever you're listening
to us right now, go to the theater companies that
you enjoy. Ask them what they've got on offer in
regards to accessibility and inclusion. And if you're in Western Australia,
for instance, go to somewhere like Dada, go to Blind Citizens,
Western Australia, or go to Vision Australia. Those types of
(02:37):
organizations that will help you find out more about what's
on offer in regards to audio description and other other
similar accessibility features that are available in all aspects of
event management these days. Now, Andrew, what have we got
coming up on the show?
S1 (02:55):
Well, I had a really great chat. Well, you and
I did with Kate Champion, who's the artistic director of
Black Swan State Theatre Company, and they've just launched their
season for 2026. Black Swan has also become an Access
Media partner with Vision Australia Radio. And that's a very
exciting development as well. So yeah, we have a great
chat about the season coming up, but we also talk
(03:15):
about the access programs that Black Swan has. So here's
the interview that I had with Cate. Black Swan Theatre Company,
as the name suggests, is the State Theatre Company of
Western Australia, based here in Perth, but also performing to
audiences around the state, as well as collaborating with interstate
theatre companies. Black Swans 2026 season has just recently been
(03:40):
launched and to discuss the season, as well as Black
Swans access programs, I'm delighted to be joined in the
studio by Cate Champion, who is Black Swans artistic director. Cate, welcome.
S3 (03:52):
Thank you very much, Andrew.
S1 (03:53):
Welcome to the studio, Cate. You've you've had a very
extensive career in, in the performing arts, working across all
kinds of aspects of, of the industry in theatre and
dance and film and circus and opera, musical theatre. And
you were appointed artistic director to Black Swan in 2022,
drawing on all that experience, how did you sort of
(04:16):
come to to Black Swan and the vision that you
have for then and I suppose, and now.
S3 (04:21):
Well, I mean, everyone's backgrounds. It's interesting, isn't it? What
leads you to where you end up and how you
can only understand that retrospectively. But look, I was I
was a dancer professionally for 26 years and then but
I was more drawn to dance theatre, which is, as
it says, half dance, half theatre, more or less. I've
always been interested in multi art form, not kind of
(04:43):
staying within the strictures of what people understand a certain
art form to be. So even in my own dance
theatre company we used visual projection, all sorts, any, any
art form, anything that we felt worked to tell the
story or to make the make what we were doing effective. Yes. Um,
so the more I finished, I finished my professional dance
(05:05):
career quite some time ago and with my own company
found myself as I dance less, getting more into the
theatre aspect of it. And I've always been interested, even
in dance, that it's connected to meaning. And I'm terribly
interested in storytelling and stories that enable us to understand
either a different humans, different life, or something that is familiar,
(05:26):
and seeing it so beautifully and articulately brought to the stage.
And I think that connects us as a community. And
I'm not particularly religious. I didn't have a religious upbringing,
and I feel that theatre in particular is like a, um,
a secular place where where all faiths or non faiths
(05:46):
can collect and have that communal human experience. So the
less I dance, the more I got into theatre. And
as I left my company, it felt like a natural
progression because I'd been putting more and more text into
our shows, more and more spoken word. And look, I
think if I hadn't done dance as a child, I
would have done theatre from the beginning. So it feels
(06:07):
like a natural progression to have ended up with a
theatre company. I directed a lot of plays between leaving
my company and ending up here at Black Swan, so
it feels like a logical conclusion. But also, I've had
a lot of experience as an independent artist, and I
feel that any artist that walks in the door I've
done from smell of an Oily Rag solo show to
multi-million dollar musicals and opera, so and everything in between.
(06:31):
And I love artists, I love creativity, and I want
to bring that to Black Swan, where there's a sort
of an honoring of text based plays, but also the
adventure of what else performance can be.
S1 (06:43):
And you were you were with your company was force
majeure for between 2002 and 2015. That's a that's a
long time to be associated with a company. And then
you get to that point, it's like, yeah, it's kind of.
S3 (06:55):
I founded it. Yes yes yes yes yes it is,
it is. But I felt we were very successful. But I'm,
I always get a bit, uh, restless when I feel
like I might potentially be repeating myself or becoming comfortable or,
dare I say, falling on some kind of formula. So
I felt like I'd really, you know, squeezed the rag
on what that art form was. And I like jumping
(07:17):
off cliffs and seeing where my abilities fit in places
that I might not be familiar with.
S1 (07:23):
I guess it's part of the creative process in general, really, that, um,
you have to take that risk and, you know, it
just it delivers results in the end where, you know,
you have that faith. I guess.
S3 (07:35):
Comfort isn't where creativity.
S1 (07:37):
Is.
S3 (07:37):
Born.
S1 (07:37):
Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, it's nice to have a
bit of comfort. Absolutely.
S3 (07:41):
Yes, I know I agree, and I don't think artists
have enough stability. And that would still be seen by
the general population as not much stability. But absolutely you
need a bit of both to be able to function.
S1 (07:53):
Yeah, absolutely. The the 2026 season, which has just been launched,
is an absolute cracker, I have to say. Oh, great.
There's some exciting, exciting stuff coming up next year. Um,
the first in the in the season is, um, the
Red shoes with Miao Miao, who I think you've actually
worked with before with Force Majeure. Is that correct? Oh, no. No,
I'm getting I'm talking about Heather Mitchell. That's a little
(08:14):
bit later. Yes. Yes. Yes.
S3 (08:16):
No. Um, so meow meow and I have known each
other for a couple of decades and, um, been friends,
but and have wanted to work together and it just
hadn't come about until now. And, um, it's been a
beautiful collaboration. Uh, she's wild and has so many ideas
that harnessing them into one coherent, um, tale has been
(08:38):
has been the challenge of for all of us. But
there's so much talent on stage and she's just incredible.
She dances and sings and has such a great comedic
streak and her way of interacting with audiences. She's one
of a kind. And this is her third response to
a Hans Christian Andersen tale. She's done, The Little Mermaid
and The Little Match Girl. The Red shoes was a
(09:00):
bit more of a problematic one because it's quite brutal
what happens in the original tale, the young girl who
kind of won't stop wearing these red shoes in places
where it's not seen as being what you should do eventually,
is cursed to not be able to take off the
red shoes and not be able to stop dancing. And
in the in the end goes to a puppet maker.
I think it's a puppet maker to get her actual
(09:21):
legs or lower legs sawn off. I know they were
more brutal. The fairytales back then.
S1 (09:26):
They were yes and yes.
S3 (09:28):
So that stops her dancing and she ends up, um,
spending quite a bit of time in a room on
her own before to serve her penance, and is then
forgiven and goes to heaven. So it's a, you know,
a problematic tale on a lot of levels. But the
way she was thinking about it during Covid and she thought, oh,
there's something interesting about not being able to stop dancing,
but what if you can't even start because everyone was
(09:50):
at home on the couch and not able to go out,
but also taking themes of greed, capitalism when you when
you for some reason want more than you actually need. Um,
vanity and um, yeah, I guess a sort of puritanical
vision of what people are allowed to do, even allowed
(10:11):
to dress or behave, how people should behave and how
society controls that. So a lot of themes in there
that she bounces off.
S1 (10:18):
And speaking of bouncing, I mean, she's an extraordinary performer
to watch. I've seen her perform in enormous concert halls, um,
thinking one time in particular at the Melbourne Concert Hall.
And there's this kind of, like, controlled chaos with the
way she works in her sort of more cabaret style,
I guess. Yeah.
S3 (10:36):
She doesn't like the word cabaret, but you're absolutely right.
I think she's her own. It definitely is from the
form of cabaret, but she's sort of made it her own.
And I think Controlled Chaos is a perfect description and
it's definite. And that's what the audience love. Like you
sense that exactly. You sense where are we going exactly.
S1 (10:53):
And sort of mistimed, you know, entrances and exits, which.
S3 (10:56):
Are all.
S1 (10:56):
Costumes falling off and.
S3 (10:58):
Which are often actually planned within it. Yeah, absolutely. Um,
every moment planned. But she does also live in the
moment on stage.
S1 (11:06):
It's quite, quite hilarious watching this, uh, the way she performs. Um,
I'm really looking forward to this. And it's it's a
co-production with the Perth Festival.
S3 (11:15):
It's not a co-production in association with Perth Festival. Yeah,
and it's been a co-production with Belvoir Street Theatre or
Belvoir in Sydney and, um, the Malthouse in Melbourne. So
it's just finishing its last week in Sydney, and I'm
about to go and put it into the Merlyn Theatre
in Melbourne for Malthouse soon.
S1 (11:32):
Yeah.
S3 (11:33):
And that's it comes to. Yeah. At the end of
the festival, sort of around end of February will be
at His Majesty's.
S1 (11:38):
I know the Merlyn Theatre well. I actually used to
work for what was then Playbox Theatre Company. I used
to work in the box office and. Oh, wow. Many,
many years ago. Um, you know, back in the day
when you did publicity with stuffing envelopes and, you know,
that's a long time.
S3 (11:51):
The stamps.
S1 (11:52):
Yeah. And sending them off. And hopefully you get a response. Yeah,
it's all electronic now. Um, so coming up in March
and April, we have RBG of many one. And this
is starring the fabulous Heather Mitchell. And this is back
by popular demand. You've had a very successful season before,
(12:12):
and I guess the demand is, is there to see
it again because it's such a magnificent piece. And Heather
Mitchell is a joy to watch. And I've managed to
miss it every time it's been on. So I'm personally
looking forward.
S3 (12:24):
We had about a thousand people on the waitlist at
one stage. Wow. And look, I wouldn't I don't normally
bring things back quite this quickly. Often, sometimes it's you
wait five years or so. But look, Heather has done.
I think it's her third season in Sydney. I had
to grab it. While Heather's still doing it. Because I'm
not sure. I mean, she's done hundreds of performances of
it all around the country. And I just, you know,
(12:46):
she's she's going to move on to new roles and
other things. And I really wanted to grab it while
she was still portraying Ruth Bader Ginsburg because she is phenomenal,
absolutely transforms into Ruth and plays so many other characters.
She plays three American presidents. She carries the whole thing
with humor. It's incredibly informative. And yeah, I would encourage
(13:09):
anyone to come along. It appeals to any age, any gender,
but I'm really hoping that the younger generation come along
so that they understand what went before them and how
hard it was for women to have the kind of
role that Ruth had at her time in American politics.
S1 (13:24):
And she was the second only the second female appointee
to the.
S3 (13:28):
Supreme.
S1 (13:29):
Court, the Supreme Court in the US, and so forth.
S3 (13:31):
And it's obviously controversial because she didn't step down. She never,
ever thought.
S1 (13:35):
I don't have to, I don't think.
S3 (13:36):
No, you have to kind of you die. I think usually.
S1 (13:40):
And she was controversial, I guess, in probably her later
career and later in her life, I suppose because of her,
you know, incredible principles and basic principle of the law
and how it's, you know, how it's applied and basic
human decency and so forth. And then, you know, with
the rise of all kinds of right wing politics, shall
we say, in the US, she was fearless, basically, in
(14:04):
standing up for rights for so many people and just
the basis of the law.
S3 (14:08):
Such a tiny frame with a giant spirit.
S1 (14:11):
Absolutely. And you were talking about, you know, all the
different characters that Heather plays in this. Heather has got
really serious comedy chops as well. I mean, she's what
springs to mind is her, um, she did a few
episodes of, um, Gold Diggers with the ABC, and she
played the mother of the two lead characters in it,
and she turns up out of the blue dressed as
a nun, basically on the run. And it's one of
(14:32):
the funniest things I've I've seen. So she's a fantastic
performer and she is.
S3 (14:36):
And she's just getting better and better. Yeah. It's so
wonderful to see someone not, um, kind of step back
as they get older, but actually go into the fore
and take every opportunity. And she's she's doing it gloriously.
S1 (14:49):
Yeah. Fantastic. And that's coming up at the Heath Ledger Theatre.
S3 (14:52):
That's correct. Yes. Same place it was before.
S1 (14:55):
You're listening to In Plain Sight on Vision Australia Radio
with Simon Cheng and me, Andrew Williams. Our guest this
week is Kate Champion, who's the artistic director of Black
Swan State Theatre Company here in Perth. And we're having
a chat about the 2026 season coming up next year,
and also the access programs of Black Swan Theatre Company.
(15:18):
And now it's back to the conversation we're having with Kate.
Next in the program is The Shepherd's Hut in May. Um,
this is a black Swan commission and a world premiere
of Tim Mcgarry's adaptation of Tim Winton's acclaimed novel. So
this is going to be an extraordinary thing to see.
S3 (15:36):
I think this is one of the first things I
commissioned in when I arrived in 2022. It just felt
like a no brainer. Um, Matt Edgerton had told me
that it was on the cards as a possibility, and
I met with Tim McGarry and Tim Winton's agent was very, um,
positive about the whole notion of it. And, um, gave
us permission. But with new work, you really have to
(15:59):
make sure that it has enough time to develop. So
that's why it's taken this long. Like sometimes I feel
things are rushed to the stage and we've had script development,
but we've also been in the room trying out set
design ideas and, uh, audio visual potential. And I think
they're even going to go out on country, uh, the
designer and director and possibly some other creatives. So we
(16:21):
just want to make sure that it has everything it
needs to become the best version of this, that it can. Yes.
S1 (16:28):
And I'm thinking of, you know, other novels of Tim
Winton that have been adapted into classic pieces of theater,
like Cloudstreet, for example.
S3 (16:35):
I was on the original. I was part of the
original production.
S1 (16:39):
Aha.
S3 (16:39):
Right. Very much so.
S1 (16:41):
I saw that at the Malthouse as well. It was
one of the most transformative pieces of theatre and very
long with a dinner break. But yeah, but it's great
to sort of have it all in the, in the.
S3 (16:51):
Past you didn't they. Yeah we did.
S1 (16:52):
Yeah. You're talking about making it, wanting to make it
the best piece you can possibly be. I mean, even
in creating the novel itself, I mean, Tim Winton has famously,
you know, completely scrapped a project that he started to
write and then has, you know, thrown it away and
started again. So adapting something like this to, you know,
(17:13):
to the stage as well. It's just, you know, it's
very precious, I suppose, that you want to.
S3 (17:18):
Get it right.
S1 (17:18):
Get it right.
S3 (17:19):
And we also I'm also open to the fact that
we can invest in some new work, and it might
not ever make it to the stage, but we learn
something about it. Or rather than pursue just because we've
invested in it.
S1 (17:30):
And so what are some of the themes involved in
the in the piece?
S3 (17:33):
Well, all of Tim's work, I find, and I love
this about his work. Tim Winton's is how the landscape
is as much a character and how the landscape evokes
the psychology of the characters. And they're they're not at one.
I mean, sometimes they're at war, sometimes they're at one,
as we are within ourselves. Um, it's both intimate and operatic.
(17:56):
I love that it has that scale of just two men,
one young, one older, both with dark pasts and things
to come to terms with, wrestling it out. But then also, again,
the the scale of the landscape and the poetry that
he evokes through that human scale in amongst this massive landscape.
(18:18):
So how to bring that to the stage has been
I won't give anything away, but I think it's going
to be very exciting in dealing with both the intimate
and the operatic.
S1 (18:26):
It is quite an amazing thing. We, you know, you're
sitting down reading a Tim Winton novel and you just
feel exactly as you've just described that amazing language to
evoke the landscape and quite ethereal, for want of a
better word.
S3 (18:41):
And he gives his characters quests. It almost feels, you know,
like a Greek tragedy sometimes, but in our own vernacular.
And he I love how he captures how we speak
without it being corny or clichéd.
S1 (18:55):
Then coming up in July, June and July at the
Subiaco Arts Centre. Oh, yes, now the shepherd's heart. That'll
be Heath Ledger Theatre as well. Yeah, yeah. So Subiaco
Arts Centre in June and July, the Almighty sometimes. Tell
me about that.
S3 (19:08):
This is one of Kendall Fever's earliest plays. Um, I
directed her stage version of my brilliant career, actually, so
I have some experience of her talent. I love this
story because actually, as Emily McLane said in our trailer,
it's it's a love story of sorts that you that
you rarely see. And it's between a mother and a
(19:29):
daughter or any parent and a child, really, where this
daughter has had mental health issues and needed to be
have medication throughout her childhood to make it possible for
her to live well and gets to a certain age
where she's not sure who she really is. Is she
(19:50):
someone on medication and what? Who would she be if
she wasn't on it? And she's reached an age where
she has the autonomy and the legal right to do that,
and she wants to go off medication. She's also a
writer and an artist, and I know there are quite
some quite famous artists that talk about or who have
been bipolar or who are bipolar and who talk about
feeling better, how they can operate in society when they're medicated,
(20:12):
but not better. As an artist. They feel they're too
evened out and they sometimes like the peaks and troughs.
So the mother, it's about how the mother doesn't want
the child to suffer and doesn't want to see what
she thinks will no doubt happen if the child goes
off medication, but has to also let that child forge
that path herself. And it's done with humor. It's it's
(20:34):
as much as it sounds like a heavy subject, I'm
very much drawn to writers that can balance the dark
with the with the light. And, um, I just think
you don't get through tragic circumstances if you don't maintain
your sense of humor. And it's so often a way
to portray that material, uh, really effectively so that we
don't it doesn't repel us. It doesn't it invites us
(20:55):
into this subject matter really beautifully.
S1 (20:57):
And that's the Subiaco Arts Center. So, Kate, Black Swans
access programs are quite extensive, and we'll get to the
details of the programs shortly. But it hasn't always been
that way, having all kinds of ways you can actually
access theatre and live performance. And I'm talking generally here.
I'm not talking about Black Swan in particular, but I
(21:18):
guess my background is I used to work for an
organisation in Melbourne called Arts Access, and we had a
ticketing service called ease. It was an acronym for the
Entertainment Access Service. And so what we used to do
is go to promoters and venues and so forth and
advocate to, first of all, get reduced price tickets. So
(21:39):
it was always kind of this, um, approach of having
to go to individual, um, promoters and venues and so
forth and get it all organised, and then people would
come to us, book the tickets, and then we'd book
the tickets. These days, it's all kind of so much
more integrated.
S3 (21:52):
And the venue, the venues and the companies are taking initiative.
S1 (21:55):
Absolutely.
S3 (21:56):
Needed to do.
S1 (21:57):
Yeah.
S3 (21:57):
And part of sign of the times.
S1 (21:59):
Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, a lot of what was happening,
you know, 20 or 30 years ago was, um, you know,
it was driven by the, um, the disability, the DDA act. So, uh,
it's it's really has come a long way.
S3 (22:11):
So and I think it's fascinating. You don't have to
look identify as necessarily. Um, officially, someone who has access
needs to actually benefit from a lot of things that
are there.
S2 (22:23):
Because that is the crux of what we are all
about here. Is that good, well created accessibility and inclusion
that used to be called universal design shouldn't be noticeable.
It should be part of the everyday plan for whatever
it is you're doing. Be it an event, be it theatre,
(22:44):
be it radio, and it needs to be known that
good accessibility and full inclusion is for everybody. And if
we look at the physical environment, it can be if
you make a building easier for a person with the
most vulnerable mobility needs, say, who is a wheelchair user,
it makes it easier to enter for everybody. And whatever
(23:04):
level you're looking at. That is the crux of what
we need to encourage.
S3 (23:09):
Absolutely.
S1 (23:10):
For sure. I guess the other thing about access as well,
for people with disability, it increases participation and so forth.
And so for the producers of work, it's more bums
on seats.
S3 (23:23):
Or they bring their own. Yes, yes. No. Absolutely.
S1 (23:27):
It comes from a I guess a marketing thing as well.
I mean, that's just another angle.
S3 (23:31):
But of course it shouldn't be exclusive. Yeah. If we're
if we want to reach a breadth of humanity and
say that's what we're about, then absolutely. If it has
to appeal to everyone and if it appeals to everyone,
everyone has to be able to get access to see it.
S1 (23:45):
Yeah, absolutely. So tell me about some of the some
of the access programs.
S3 (23:49):
Well, as you say, we've made a lot of improvements
and it's a lot more than it used to be.
But we are aware that that's an ongoing thing that
we're aware of getting more and more information and skill,
and we're open to suggestions all the time. We have
I have a list of things so that I don't
forget anything. Um, we have a website navigator tool, uh,
translation and language support. The toolbar supports more than 100 languages, Images,
(24:12):
allowing you to read your text in your preferred language.
Text to speech that translates website text into natural sounding
speech in over 65 languages. Customizable reading options where you
can change the font styles, sizes, colors, backdrop contrasts. Immersive
reading experiences using a screen mask. These are all to
(24:33):
do with our website, but the full user guide is
on our website and it just is a pity if
you get frustrated with something like two smaller font or something,
that there is actually guidance as to how that can
be a better experience. We have our audio 2026 program,
which is recorded as part of our partnership with Vision Australia.
So that's for, um, low vision or blindness to access
(24:56):
our full 2026 audio program. But our performances also include
closed and open captions, audio description and tactile tours, Auslan
interpreted performances, assisted listening services, and wheelchair and mobility access.
And lastly, we have kinetics, which are for people who
face social barriers to attending the theatre or who are
(25:16):
experiencing economic hardship.
S1 (25:18):
That's quite an extensive range of of access, and it's
great to see that so integrated into into what you do.
And organisations like the Perth Festival, for example, I was
having a look through their brochure, which we just got
in the mail the other day. It's just it's all
there on your website as well. I've noticed down the
left hand side there's a clear button if that's the
(25:39):
right widget, where you click on that and it basically
takes you to the rest of the information that you've
just described a guide. Yeah, yeah. So it's reasonably to
my mind I think it's reasonably easy to, to find.
S3 (25:51):
I think if there's any frustration then absolutely look through
that guide. You might be pleasantly surprised that there is
a solution to what you need.
S2 (25:59):
I'd like to congratulate you, Kate, on on what you've
just mentioned there, because for accessibility and inclusion to work
at its best, it does have to be on every level.
And if you're talking about something like the theater. It's
the ticket booking, it's the website. So if a person
can't easily access the website, they'll give in. So they're
(26:20):
not going to attend the theater. If people have difficulty
with the ticketing, they'll give in and just complain and
they won't be able to go to the theater. Obviously,
the physical accessibility is in some ways the most easiest
aspect to address, but it's all those little incidental things.
And my only brief experience with the Black Swan Theater
earlier this year, I've found it so welcoming, and I
(26:43):
found that every step of the way things were considered
and we were made to feel quite welcome and every
little aspect was addressed. Fantastic in that circumstance.
S1 (26:54):
More information that people might require about the season?
S3 (26:58):
Yes. Go to our website. There's another commission from a
WA writer. A Day After day in the Life of
Useless by Will O'Mahony and Jackie, which is a co-production
with Yuri Yarkin, where I'm co-directing with Maitland Schnaars, the
artistic director.
S1 (27:13):
It's been fantastic having you in the studio and having
a chat. Thank you for for coming in. Thank you.
And having a.
S3 (27:20):
Chat with.
S1 (27:21):
You. Thank you. I've been speaking with Kate Champion, who
is the artistic director of Black Swan State Theatre Company,
and their 2026 season has just been launched. You can
find out more information about the season and also access.
There's a lot of information on the website Black Swan Theatre. Com.au.
Good luck for the season for 2026. We're all looking
(27:41):
forward to it.
S3 (27:42):
Yeah. Come along.
S1 (27:43):
That concludes in Plain Sight for this week. Join us
at the same time next week on Vision Australia Radio,
VA radio digital and online at VA Radio.com. You can
also listen on demand by searching for In Plain Sight
by Vision Australia Radio. Wherever you get your podcasts, or
ask your smart device to play in Plain Sight by
(28:05):
Vision Australia Radio. Thanks for listening.
S2 (28:07):
Thank you.
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