01.02.20
50 years ago, a group of young Australian theatremakers carved out a space in Sydney for the Australian voice to grow—the Stables Theatre.
Would you believe you have been coming up the hill to this gorgeous little theatre for 50 YEARS?!?!
Yep. 50 years ago, a group of young Australian theatremakers carved out a space for the Australian voice to grow. And 50 years ago, you started to rely on this space as a source of sounds and words and plays and performances that spoke to you in ways that were distinctively Australian. In this space the idea of Australian storytelling has flourished, spawning great playwrights and great performers and even greater audiences who expect to hear that Australian voice everywhere now, not just in the little theatre on the hill.
Subscribe to 2024 +The story of Australian storytelling is really the story of you. Of the growth of a distinctively Australian audience. Because it doesn’t matter what we want to make, it matters what you want to see. You are the people our playwrights are talking to, and if you don’t want to hear what they have to say you don’t come. But when you do want to hear it, when their words connect to something inside you, you come rushing up the hill as an audience like no other. At which point we are really sorry we only have 105 seats! But your excitement that can fill this little theatre to the brim, night after night, is the fuel that has sent the plays you love around the country and around the world.
You are the audience that has made a home for Australian plays. The playwrights thank you. For your honesty, for your loyalty, for your arguments, for your willingness to tell your friends, for your extra donations that have helped the building survive, for your hunger for new ideas, for your love of a challenge, for being smart and demanding and loud and open and brave and confident and listening. You have been the best audience in the country for the last 50 years and I know you will continue to be for the next 50! Starting with 2020…
Our 2020 Season is not a looking back but a looking forward. The playwrights of Australia may thank you, but they are not about to let you off the hook! They have questions for you, challenges for you, arguments to have with you, laughter to share with you, hope and visions of the future to offer you. There is no nostalgia here, just great writing. And you’ll get to discover which of these plays we will carry with us into our future Australia. You will decide, and the country will listen to you.
Love,
Lee
Lee Lewis
Artistic Director (2014 – 2019)
