Exit interview: Annette Downs, Performing Lines TAS

The producer looks back on her experiences with Performing Lines and considers the ways Tasmania has changed in that time.

After 17 years as Senior Producer at Performing Lines TAS, the widely respected Annette Downs has walked away from working in the arts in order to focus on her partner’s well-being.

‘I was in rehearsals for Hide the Dog in Sydney just before Christmas, leading into the Sydney Festival season at the Opera House, and my partner got an awful diagnosis – and thank the Lord, Performing Lines were so great. They found a substitute producer and I was able to do the last three days, just to wrap up and set up, and then I was able to come home and focus on family,’ Downs explains.

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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