How a sideways career move aided an international tour

Belvoir’s Executive Producer Sue Donnelly discusses the company’s upcoming UK tour of epic play Counting and Cracking.

Belvoir’s Sue Donnelly recognises that her recent movement sideways into the newly created position of Executive Producer is a little out of the ordinary.  

‘I think that’s how the arts has to work and it has to work that way because of scant resources and also, it just [reflects] the creativity that is inherent in working in an arts organisation. When I’ve been employing people I always look to obviously their skills, but also their enthusiasm, their commitment, their passion for theatre. Because to have the skills is very important, but you’ve got to have all those other elements as well these days because it’s hard working in the arts, no doubt about it,’ she said.

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Richard Watts OAM is ArtsHub's former National Performing Arts Editor; he also presents the weekly program SmartArts on Three Triple R FM. Richard is a life member of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, a Melbourne Fringe Festival Living Legend, and was awarded the 2019 Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards' Facilitator's Prize in early 2020. He received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Green Room Awards Association in 2021, and a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in June 2024. Photo: Fiona Hamilton. Follow Richard on Bluesky @richardthewatts.bsky.social and Instagram @richard.l.watts