Embracing risk: moving interstate to further your career

Theatre-maker Steven Mitchell Wright and dancer Ngioka Bunda-Heath discuss their respective decisions to leave Brisbane and embrace Melbourne as their new base of operations.

Promotional image for The Danger Ensemble’s The Hamlet Apocalypse. Image credit: Morgan Roberts (photography), Sean Dowling (graphic design).

Despite founding the independent theatre company The Danger Ensemble in Scotland, and premiering the original season of their signature production The Hamlet Apocalypse at Melbourne’s La Mama Theatre in 2009, the company’s Artistic Director Steven Mitchell Wright very much saw Brisbane as both his and the company’s home – but last year he realised it was time to leave.

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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