Barking Spider Creative Competitors

We're for stories: the ones less told, the ones told before and the ones yet to be told. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Anne-Louise Sarks and Executive Director Sally Noonan, Melbourne Theatre Company embodies the creative spirit that Melbourne and Victoria are renowned for, bringing remarkable theatre to the fore to inspire, entertain, challenge and enrich the lives of audiences. As one of Australia’s flagship performing arts companies, we produce classic and contemporary Australian and international theatre for today and tomorrow, with excellence, imagination and passion. We employs approximately 90 permanent staff and around 400 casuals each year, in a variety of creative and administrative departments at our Company HQ and at Southbank Theatre, which are both located in Melbourne's Southbank cultural precinct. As the state theatre company of Victoria, we're an important part of the cultural landscape and play a special role in the lives of thousands of Australians.

Sydney Theatre Company (STC) has been a major force in the Australian cultural landscape since its establishment in 1978. It is Australia’s largest theatre company in terms of audiences and amount of work presented each year, the state theatre company of NSW, and is recognised as one of the world’s most exciting and original theatre companies. The Company presents an annual season of around 15 productions across four harbourside theatres; Wharf 1 and Wharf 2 Theatres and Roslyn Packer Theatre in Walsh Bay, and as the resident theatre company of the Sydney Opera House. Our current Artistic Director is Kip Williams, who was appointed in 2016. STC has a proud heritage as a creative hub and incubator for Australian theatre and theatre-makers, developing and producing eclectic Australian works, interpretations of classic repertoire and great international writing. STC strives to create theatre experiences of the highest standard that consistently illuminate, entertain and challenge, and that reflect Sydney’s distinctive personality and engage broad audiences. Strongly committed to engagement in the community, STC offers an innovative School Drama™ program; partners with groups in metropolitan Sydney, regional centres and rural areas; and reaches beyond NSW touring productions throughout Australia. STC’s annual audiences throughout Australia are in excess of 315,000. In recent years, the company's international profile has grown significantly with numerous productions touring extensively to great acclaim in to Europe, USA and the UK. The theatre careers of many of Australia's internationally renowned artists have been launched and fostered at STC, including Benedict Andrews, Cate Blanchett, Rose Byrne, Toni Collette, Judy Davis, Mel Gibson, Richard Roxburgh and Hugo Weaving.

Based in an old factory on Gadigal land, Sydney, Belvoir is one of Australia’s most celebrated and beloved theatre companies. Since 1984, when a group of 600 theatre-lovers came together to buy a theatre and save it from becoming an apartment block, Belvoir has been at the forefront of Australian storytelling for the stage. Each year the company presents an annual season of shows for this now-iconic corner stage. New work and new stories sit at the centre of Belvoir’s programming, alongside a mix of reinvented classics and international writing, and a foundational commitment to Indigenous stories. In short, Belvoir is about theatrical invention, an open society, and faith in humanity. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Eamon Flack and Executive Director Aaron Beach, Belvoir engages Australia’s most prominent and promising theatre-makers. Belvoir has nurtured the talents of artists including Cate Blanchett, Simon Stone, Leah Purcell, Benedict Andrews, Tommy Murphy, Kate Mulvany, Anne-Louise Sarks, Wesley Enoch, S. Shakthidharan, and former Artistic Director Neil Armfield. Landmark productions include Counting and Cracking, The Wild Duck, FANGIRLS!, Cloudstreet, Barbara and the Camp Dogs, The Drover’s Wife, The Glass Menagerie, Angels in America, Keating!, The Sapphires, and many, many more. Belvoir regularly tours nationally and internationally. Belvoir receives government support for its activities from the Federal Government through Creative Australia and the state government through Create NSW.