Opportunities and risks in booming co-productions

Artists and audiences both benefit from co-productions, but is there a risk more co-productions will mean fewer individual opportunities?
[This is archived content and may not display in the originally intended format.]

Image: Peter Paltos, Paul Capsis and Ash Flanders in Sydney Theatre Company / Malthouse Theatre’s Calpurnia Descending by Sisters Grim © Brett Boardman

Co-productions are now commonplace across the performing arts sector, with the popularity of such works showing no signs of abating – a glance at upcoming subscription seasons reveals that we’re going to see everything from the new Australian opera The Rabbits (an Opera Australia co-production with Barking Gecko Theatre Company) to a magical adventure about love, Masquerade (a collaboration between the State Theatre Company of South Australia and Griffin Theatre Company in association with Adelaide Festival Centre and Windmill Theatre) as a result of co-productions in 2015.  

Unlock Padlock Icon

Unlock this content?

Access this content and more

Richard Watts is ArtsHub's National Performing Arts Editor; he also presents the weekly program SmartArts on Three Triple R FM, and serves as the Chair of La Mama Theatre's volunteer Committee of Management. Richard is a life member of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, and was awarded the status of Melbourne Fringe Living Legend in 2017. In 2020 he was awarded the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards' Facilitator's Prize. Most recently, Richard was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Green Room Awards Association in June 2021. Follow him on Twitter: @richardthewatts