Richard Watts

Richard Watts OAM is ArtsHub's National Performing Arts Editor; he also presents the weekly program SmartArts on Three Triple R FM. Richard is a life member of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, a Melbourne Fringe Festival Living Legend, and was awarded the 2019 Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards' Facilitator's Prize in early 2020. He received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Green Room Awards Association in 2021, and a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in June 2024. Photo: Fiona Hamilton. Follow Richard on Bluesky @richardthewatts.bsky.social and Instagram @richard.l.watts

Richard Watts's Latest Articles

Joel Bray Dance's 'Garabari' features in the Blak Out program at Sydney Festival 2026.. Three First Nations people, two male-presenting and one female-presenting, pose dramatically on a smoky, yellow-lit back-lit stage. Sydney Festival 2026.
Features

Sydney Festival 2026 celebrates 50 years of helping shape the city’s culture

Festival Director Kris Nelson discusses his inaugural Sydney Festival program, and looks to the future while celebrating the festival’s legacy.

A parkour practioner dressed in basecall cap, yellow hoodie, black pants and white sneakers, leaps into the air in a tunnel which appears to be closed to traffic. Blue-white lights in a row along the tunnels walls receed into the distance, with the leaping body centred in the frame. the photo illustrates ArtsHub's weekly round-up of arts sector appointments.
News

On the move: latest arts sector appointments

Your weekly round-up of Australian arts sector appointments.

Sydney’s Pinchgut Opera is the first Australian company to utilise Spektrix’s integrated, intuitive CRM platform. Pictured is Pinchgut’s recent production, ‘The Fairy Queen’. A cast in suits and white ball gowns sing, embrace and hold hands on a mirrored stage; a giant mirrorball is projected behind them.
Sponsored

Spektrix: the CRM system that combines ticketing, marketing and fundraising functions

Integrated, intuitive and well supported, Spektrix combines multiple business needs in one powerful database.

A 1950s-style car careers down a blurred street at speed, headlights blazing, towards the viewer. The image illustrates ArtsHub's weekly round-up of Australian arts sector appointments, On the move.
News

On the move: latest arts sector appointments

Your weekly round-up of Australian arts sector appointments.

Company members of 'Gatz' by the American Repertory Theatre; the production can be seen at Adelaide Festival 2026. The photo shows six performers seated and standing around an office table as playing cards rain down around them.
Features

Adelaide Festival 2026: Matthew Lutton reveals his inaugural program

Lutton discusses the creative shift required in programming a festival instead of a theatre company, and why he has not…

New performance venue Lango at Footscray Community Arts. An artist's render of the outdoor performance space, showing the stage and the three overlapping architectural shells arcing above it.
News

New performance venues in Melbourne and Brisbane

A revitalised indie theatre complex in Brisbane’s Petrie Terrace is one of several new performance venues.

Boorloo Contemporary at East Perth Power Station (seen here in 2025) returns for Perth Festival 2026. An industrial-looking building lit up by brightly coloured projects, and photographed from the air at night; a large crowd is gathered in the building's expansive courtyard.
Interviews

Perth Festival 2026 makes the most of its city’s cultural infrastructure shortage

Artistic Director Anna Reece reveals how her second Perth Festival takes over the city’s public and private spaces.

An underground stretch of road in a tunnel. The yellow-tinged photograph shows vehicles moving through the tunnel at speed, with details blurred to suggest their rapid movement. The photo illustrates Artshub's On the Move column of arts industry appointments.
News

On the move: latest arts sector appointments

Your weekly round-up of Australian arts sector appointments.

A blurry arm with tattoos in the foreground. In the background the converse clad legs of someone laying on a tattoo bed while Xani, dressed in brown, gives them a tattoo. A scene from 'Tattoo Show' by Rawcus at Melbourne Fringe 2025.
StarsStarsStarsStarsStars

Melbourne Fringe 2025: a review diary

A selection of short reviews from the 2025 Melbourne Fringe Festival; rolling coverage which will be regularly updated.

Circus artists training in The Hub at Circus Centre Melbourne. A trapeze artist swings, their photo blurred by motion, as other artists watch on.
News

Circus Centre Melbourne opens its doors

Envisaged as a creative hub for circus development and training, the new Circus Centre Melbourne opened on Monday and is…

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