A celebration of LGBTQIA+ theatre stories is being presented across Ballarat this month.
Ballarat is set to host a ground-breaking event this Australia for the inaugural Festival of Australian Queer Theatre (FAQT). Running from Thursday 22 August until Sunday 25 August, across Ballarat’s LanceTV Studios, Ballaarat Mechanics’ Institute and FedUni Camp Street, the theatre spectacular aims to revolutionise the Australian theatre landscape.
Festival of Australian Queer Theatre
When: Thursday 22 August 2024 – Sunday 25 August 2024
Where: Various Venues across Ballarat (LanceTV Studios, Ballaarat Mechanics’ Institute, FedUni Camp St)
Stay up to date with what’s happening within the region’s art scene here.
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Bringing together leading artists and thinkers from the queers theatre community, the Festival of Australian Queer Theatre will present a program of theatre performances set to disrupt the broader societal narrative around the who and what of queerness. Offering an authentic disruption vehicle to tell stories directly from LGBTIQA+ performers and artists, the festival is enabling the queer community to reclaim their humanness from the judgements of their own existence.
The program will feature a diverse range of events including talks, panel discussions, script readings of classic queer Australian plays, open rehearsals of new works, and theatre masterclasses led by some of Australia’s most influential queer theatre makers. It includes a 70 minute performance of A Body at Work from serial nudist Frankie van Kan (AKA Frankie Valentine—Stripped Queer, Club Briefs, Baby Got Back, Seen & Heard Cabaret), a masterclass presented by Maude Davey, a neo-vaudevillian variety show titled Polite Mammals, and a staged-reading of a heartwarming transgender tale, Chasing Dick: A Love Story.
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There is also the Festival of Australian Queer Theatre conference as hosted by Richard Watt OAM which features a guest performance from Six Inches Uncut and guest and speaker appearances from multi-award winning playwright and screenwriter, Ash Flanders, artists, writer and theatre maker, Jack Beeby, Theatre and opera director, creative producer, festival director and designer, Kate Gaul, voice artist, master of accents and character voices, Jennifer Vuletic, Director and theatre maker, Beng Oh and playwright, director, game designer and academic, Rob Reid. Presented on Friday 23 August at LanceTV Studios, this is a standout event.
The Festival of Australian Queer Theatre is for the allies, the political, the creative, the curious, and the queer. This festival is for those who want to understand, and for those who want to be understood. It’s an unmissable festival, full of theatre offerings for everybody.
Check out the full Festival of Australian Queer Theatre program along with ticketing here.
