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.

Entertain. Challenge. Inspire. With the vision of connecting artists and audiences through the power of theatre to entertain, challenge and inspire, Black Swan’s purpose is to create exceptional, high-quality theatre that speaks to the world from our unique WA culture, landscape and moment in time. Black Swan began over 30 years ago in Perth, Western Australia, in 1991 with the work of founding Artistic Director Andrew Ross. The company was characterised by and celebrated for its original theatrical works, Western Australian stories, site-specific and promenade productions presented outside the theatre, Perth Festival presentations that toured extensively, and cross-cultural collaborations that uplifted and celebrated Aboriginal artists. Since 1991, Black Swan has presented more than 215 productions, 63 national tours and collaborations, 48 world premieres, 7 international tours, and has travelled the length and breadth of Western Australia. The company has earned both critical and popular acclaim for its world premiere productions and highly distinctive reinterpretations of international theatre classics – all of which are infused with the unique culture of Western Australia. At Black Swan, we aim to operate with values of creativity, connection, innovation and quality at the core of everything we do.