‘It’s an Australian play’: how a new CALD theatre company is turning the tables on diversity

‘Akaraka’ and Empty Seat Theatre are built by creatives who hope to lead change by example, one show at a time.
Members of the cast from ‘Akaraka’ by Amarachi and produced by Empty Seat Theatre. Photo: Cameron Grant. Two people standing close to each other with their hands on the person seated in front of them, smiling. Two more people are standing at the back and off to the right hand side, their hands are held together looking slightly serious. All members of the cast have dark skin brown skin and black hair, with a red-orange background.

Akaraka by Igbo Australian playwright Amarachi Logo, will soon get its long-awaited debut at The Substation, presented by new Melbourne-based theatre company, Empty Seat Theatre.

While the theatre company itself was founded in 2022, the three co-founders together – Rachel Kamath, Ruby Duncan and Vivian Nguyen – have more than a decade of experience as actors, producers and playwrights in this industry.

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Celina Lei is an arts writer and editor at ArtsHub. She acquired her M.A in Art, Law and Business in New York with a B.A. in Art History and Philosophy from the University of Melbourne. She has previously worked across global art hubs in Beijing, Hong Kong and New York in both the commercial art sector and art criticism. She took part in drafting NAVA’s revised Code of Practice - Art Fairs and was the project manager of ArtsHub’s diverse writers initiative, Amplify Collective. Celina is based in Naarm/Melbourne.