One of Australia’s most successful regional creative companies will lead a new, state-of-the-art circus hub in Melbourne, backed by the Allan Labor Government.
The Victorian Government – which owns the former Circus Oz HQ and circus training and rehearsal centre at 50 Perry Street, Collingwood – announced it was seeking a new and experienced operator to manage the venue in October last year.
The successful operator – Albury-Wodonga’s national youth circus school, the Flying Fruit Fly Circus (aka ‘the Fruities’) – was announced by Minister for Creative Industries Colin Brooks today (Friday 13 June).
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Regional arts companies are major players
“Flying Fruit Fly Circus has led the charge for 45 years, and bringing their vision to Melbourne through Circus Centre Melbourne is a great example of how regional arts organisations are major players in our state’s creative scene,” Minister Brooks said in a media statement this morning.
“This will be a game-changer that opens up this facility while offering programs that will strengthen the sector and support the next generation of performing artists.”
Under the leadership of Flying Fruit Fly Circus, the circus training facility will be renamed Circus Centre Melbourne and reimagined as an inclusive hub for artists and companies in Victoria’s circus and physical theatre sector.
The Centre, which features two large studios, collaborative working areas and multipurpose spaces, is intended to become a destination for the industry to meet, create and perform. Located in the Collingwood Yards creative precinct, the facility originally opened in 2014 after a $15 million site redevelopment. Circus Oz remains a tenant on the site.
How will Circus Centre Melbourne operate?
Speaking with ArtsHub, Flying Fruit Fly Circus Chief Executive Officer Richard Hull, explains, “Circus Centre Melbourne is a creative hub that will provide opportunities for professional artists to collaborate, to make work, to maintain their own individual practice – including artist development and skills development through open training and through creative residencies.
“We’re also [going to be] very focused on trying to build the capacity of emerging organisations to not only make new work, but to also become viable businesses and producers. So I guess it’s an incubator in many ways – for new companies, for new work. We’re excited to try and find the next Circus Oz, or the next Gravity and Other Myths, the next Circa.
“And from the perspective of our students here, clearly being plugged into the big city life of Melbourne provides a lot of new student experiences for them and for our graduates in particular. Our hope is that Circus Centre Melbourne becomes a bridge, if you like, on the very difficult journey that they have from training into professional circus artists. That’s the biggest step they take and we hope that we will be able to support them and transition into the industry through a range of programs that we begin to offer in Melbourne,” Hull says.
He emphasises that “this is an expansion, not a relocation” for the Fruities. “We’re not moving out of Albury. We’re not moving our full-time circus program – that remains rooted in our regional home here, and we’ll continue to deliver that in Albury-Wodonga alongside our academic school.”
Beyond offering spaces for hire at affordable rates, Circus Centre Melbourne will also lay the foundation for long-term sector sustainability through new programs to back the creative development of original work and support emerging companies to build their business skills and capabilities.
Founded in Albury-Wodonga in 1979, the Flying Fruit Fly Circus is Australia’s national youth circus and the country’s only full-time circus school for primary and secondary students. The company’s expansion into Melbourne will see the recruitment of a new Melbourne-based team to lead the development of Circus Centre Melbourne.
Given the range of spaces available at the Collingwood venue, including fit-for-purpose circus studios with the latest equipment and flexible rehearsal spaces, the new Melbourne team will ensure the Centre is open year-round with bookings open to performers and companies across multiple art forms.
“The next stage is to begin recruiting a team down there,” Hull tells ArtsHub. “We’ve got some work to do to get the space ready, to make sure the equipment is correct and the rooms are set out for the various purposes that we intend. So there’s a lot of work to do between now and when we open, which we hope will be October.”
The first step will be to consult broadly with the circus community, Hull continues, “to make sure that the ideas that we have are required and are needed, and to really examine the ways in which we can ensure that this place is accessible – and that’s the big challenge for us: to make sure that the programs that we offer and the services that we offer [at Circus Centre Melbourne] are affordable, because if they’re not, the place will be empty.
“But yet, by the same token, running big circus facilities is expensive, so we’ve got a little bit of work to do around that, getting that balance right, and we will do that in consultation with our friends within the industry,” he adds.
The new venue will build on the Fruities’ experience in managing its state-of-the-art circus training facility in Albury-Wodonga – which in December 2023 expanded with the addition of the purpose-built Borderville Theatre.
‘Everybody wins’
The Victorian circus sector and allied arts organisations responded to this morning’s announcement with excitement and delight.
Steph Speirs, Interim CEO and General Manager of peak body Theatre Network Australia, says: “We welcome this announcement and congratulate Flying Fruit Fly Circus on their appointment. Flying Fruit Fly Circus is a trusted and much-loved company, and as a cornerstone of Victoria’s vibrant circus sector they bring deep expertise and community connection. We’re confident they will bring great care and vision to this new chapter, and we look forward to working with them to support a thriving Victorian circus sector.”
Independent theatre and circus artist Lucy Seale tells ArtsHub, “This is such incredible news for the Victorian circus and physical theatre community. With so many creatives, especially unfunded emerging artists, struggling to find affordable spaces that fit their needs as they create, develop and rehearse new work, this announcement gives me hope that the 50 Perry Street site is set to become a much needed inclusive, creative hub for everyone in our industry to access.
“With the Fruities’ reputation and years of experience, the building will be in good hands. Opening up this space and sharing the resources it offers will be a game-changer. I look forward to booking studio space to work on my next project,” Seale says.
Circus and sideshow artist Mitch Jones, the Creative Director of independent alternative circus company Oozing Future, says: “The announcement of new management for the purpose-built circus facility at Perry Street is a welcome investment into the sustainability of Victorian circus. The specialised industry knowledge of Flying Fruit Fly Circus, and their desire to support the career pathways of professional circus artists through space hire and capacity building initiatives, is exactly what is needed to ensure that our local sector can continue to produce vital new work that inspires and entertains audiences worldwide.
“I am confident that we will see the pressing needs of the small to medium sector well considered by Flying Fruit Fly Circus, in relation to the heavy lifting that these independent companies do in creating employment and art form development within Victorian circus,” Jones adds.
Similarly, Charice Rust from One Fell Swoop Circus tells ArtsHub: “”We’re excited by the news of Fruities taking on management of Circus Centre Melbourne. Here in Victoria we have a plethora of small companies and independent artists that are pushing the art form in myriad unique ways.
“The breadth and creativity of these small feisty companies and independents is the special sauce of Victoria’s circus and physical theatre community, which punches above its weight domestically and internationally.
“We’re looking forward to seeing how the sharing of this amazing resource supports our vibrant art form-shaking independent sector,” Rust concludes.
With the addition of its new Melbourne facilities, coupled with the Fruities’ existing infrastructure in Albury-Wodonga, Flying Fruit Fly Circus is now the largest operator of professional circus facilities in Australia.
Hull notes that the Fruities’ expansion into Melbourne is “not just a win for us, it is a win for the circus and physical theatre community, and indeed for our region, as we become an organisation with a bold vision and expanded operations. So I hope that everybody wins”.
Learn more about Flying Fruit Fly Circus.
