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

'Back to the Future: The Musical', original Broadway cast. A young man leaps into the air while playing an electric guitar, accompanied by a blaze of sparks.
News

Back to the Future: The Musical set for 2025 Sydney premiere

Everything you need to know about the Olivier Award-winning musical, which is based on the 1985 film starring Michael J…

Richard Watts

Sep 2, 2025
A red-headed young boy leaps high into the air, one fist raised triumphantly above his head. He wears blue jeans, white socks and no shoes, and an orange and white striped t-shirt. The photo's background, a semi-rural landscape, is rendered in shades of blue, against which the boy stands out dramatically. The photo illustrates ArtsHub's weekly On the move column, a round-up of Australian arts sector appointments.
News

On the move: latest arts sector appointments

Your weekly round-up of Australian arts sector appointments.

Richard Watts

Sep 1, 2025
‘GARABARI’ by Joel Bray Dance was supported by BlakDance through the BlakForm program. Three First Nations dancers perform a floor-based section of movement in a photograph illustrating a story about NIDA's MFA (Cultural Leadership) program.
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How NIDA’s MFA (Cultural Leadership) is helping Merindah Donnelly change the arts sector for the better

The BlakDance Executive Producer and Co-CEO says studying and analysing different forms of cultural leadership at NIDA has had significant…

Richard Watts

Aug 29, 2025
Isabelle Huppert in 'Mary Said What She Said,' exclusive to the 2026 Adelaide Festival. The photograph depicts Huppert in a stylised stage performance, her white-painted face distorted and her arms thrown out as she cries aloud in grief or anger.
News

2026 Adelaide Festival reveals its first two productions

Fearless French actor Isabelle Huppert and acclaimed early music specialists Ensemble Pygmalion will perform exclusively at the 2026 Adelaide Festival.

Richard Watts

Aug 28, 2025
A photograph of a group of runners' legs and feet as they limber up for a race, showing them bouncing, jogging, jumping and stretching. The photograph illustrates ArtsHub's weekly On the move column of Australian arts sector appointments.
News

On the move: latest arts sector appointments

Your weekly round-up of Australian arts sector appointments.

Richard Watts

Aug 26, 2025
A scene from 'The Past is a Wild Party' by Noelle Janaczewska, one of the 7-ON playwrights. The photo depicts a female-presenting actor with blonde hair and wearing a long-sleeved blue shirt and red trousers. Her arms are outstretched, her head tilted back and her mouth open as if she is exclaiming ecstatically. She holds a closed book with a red cover, perhaps a play script, in her left hand.
Features

The 7-ON playwrights: how to sustain a collective for 20 years

Members of playwrights collective 7-ON discuss their new anthology, and how they’ve operated successfully for two decades to date.

Richard Watts

Aug 26, 2025
A scene from the 2025 ROOKE production 'Wilds', featuring performers Conor Wild and Freyja Wild. Contemporary circus company ROOKE is one of the inaugural members of the Tasmanian Live Performance Exchange. The photograph depicts a female-presenting acrobat wearing brown garments and performing a headstand; in the background, a male-presenting performer in blue clothes and black boots sits in a folding chair beside an inflatable palm tree.
News

Tasmanian Live Performance Exchange to develop statewide strategic plan by and for the sector

The newly formed Tasmanian Live Performance Exchange will develop a 10-year strategic plan for the state’s performing arts sector, and…

Richard Watts

Aug 25, 2025
Quiet Riot's 'Power Move', the Civic Commission at the 2025 Melbourne Fringe. The image shows five young people, blurred my movement as they dance inside a colourful, monolithic art installation at Melbourne Fringe Festival.
News

Melburnians urged to become action heroes at the 2025 Melbourne Fringe

Members of the public are encouraged to embrace participatory art experiences and generate change at this year’s Melbourne Fringe Festival.

Richard Watts

Aug 22, 2025
A publicity image for 'Influencer'. a Junction Arts Festival dance production about social media. The image shows a group of people half-visible in a cloud of theatrical smoke: a pasted-on photo of a blonde-haired woman obscures one of the faces, which has a male figure in a brown coat and red beanie holding up a ring-light in front of them.
Features

Junction Arts Festival's 2025 program celebrates Launceston culture

Celebrating Launceston-based companies and artists, Junction also draws in mainland performers and musicians from across Tasmania.

Richard Watts

Aug 21, 2025
Kala Gare in MTC's original stage musical 'My Brilliant Career' which returns for an encore in the company's 2026 season. The photo shows a fair haired and fair skinned young woman in period dress posing dramatically beneath a glittering chandelier. Her head is tiled back and her eyes closed as she sings, her right arm thrusts upward and her left arm swings back behind her.
News

My Brilliant Career: MTC announces encore season of original musical in 2026

The critically acclaimed musical theatre adaptation of Miles Franklin’s My Brilliant Career returns to the MTC in 2026.

Richard Watts

Aug 20, 2025
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