9. Experience

An Unprecedented Pivot

“If we can stay calm and kind and loving to each other and our community, things are going to be okay. The work we do is needed, it has value and we've got to remain committed… If we haven't got skin in the game, we won't get the work when the work comes back.” (Susan Eldridge)

The Australian government’s mid-March ban on non-essential public gatherings effectively cancelled the live performance industry indefinitely. In this episode of House Lights Up, our arts workers share their observations and their personal experiences of the COVID-19 shutdown. What has the crisis taught us about the industry and ourselves? What opportunities does this time of upheaval present? And how might performing arts organisations and workers respond in a way that builds the industry’s resistance to the next big disruption?

 With Chris Cheers, Cristina D’Agostino, Monica Davidson, Susan Eldridge, Ian Peel, Mantra, Anne Wood and Deone Zanotto.