Hold new worlds in the palm of your hand …

Hip-hop dance meets gaming technology in this groundbreaking new work by Shaun Parker & Company. Conceived to engender emotional resilience in young people, IN THE ZONE features captivating new technology called AirSticks, which create live sound through movement. Developed with AirSticks co-creator, Alon Ilsar PhD, IN THE ZONE features Western Sydney hip-hop artist Libby Montilla and moves by award-winning choreographer Shaun Parker. With AirSticks technology in the hands of Libby Montilla, we enter the world of a video game through the dance forms of locking, popping, waving and body-ticking and self-triggered electronic soundscapes. IN THE ZONE takes gaming and escapism as a point of inspiration and celebrates the spectacular worlds that we can explore with technology today. It also examines the potential for loss of control through gaming, encouraging a renewed appreciation for nature. IN THE ZONE provides young audiences with the insight that they are much more in control of their own emotional responses than they think they are. Families, schools and young audiences (especially gamers) will be amazed by IN THE ZONE.

https://www.shaunparkercompany.com/shows/in-the-zone/

In the Zone

Tuesday 24 September - Gunnedah Civic Theatre

The story begins with strange disappearances from Mrs Mavis Hooley’s home. Something’s gone missing again. It’s nowhere to be found. Mrs Hooley has been looking everywhere. But its not just today. Every day a new thing seems to disappear. Little things. A $10 note. Clothes pegs. A ball of wool. It’s troubling at first, but then the thief takes it one step too far.

Mavis calls in a Detective to investigate. They set a trap for the burglar. A stake out is required. In the dead of night, and the Detective indeed finds something peculiar....

Little Wing Puppets present their interactive environmental detective story A Little Bit of Blue. As well as unravelling a mystery, it involves learning about the unique habits of an extraordinary Australian creature, the bowerbird, and their fascination with the colour blue.

DATES & TICKETS:

🎟️ Friday 28 July 2023, Coonabarabran Town Hall - 10am and 12pm

🎟️ Monday 31 July 2023, Quirindi - 10am

🎟️ Tuesday 1 August 2023, Gunnedah Civic Theatre - 10am & 1pm

🎟️ Wednesday 2 August 2023, Armidale TAS - 12pm

🎟️ Thursday 3 August 2023, Roxy Theatre Bingara - 10.30am

🎟️ Friday 4 August 2023, Tenterfield School of Arts Theatre - 11am

After the Tamworth Season, Arts North West on Tour and Tamworth Dramatic Society are bringing this unique hilarious cooking show comedy to the Gunnedah CIVIC, Saturday 23 March ONLY!

Isobel Lomax and Dolly Biddle are two 'mature' cable-tv cooking show hostesses who have hated each other for 30 years, ever since Larry Biddle dated one and married the other. When circumstances put them together on a TV show called The Kitchen Witches, the insults are flung harder than the food!

Dolly's long-suffering TV-producer son Stephen tries to keep them on track, but as long as Dolly's dressing room is one inch closer to the set than Isobel's, it's a losing battle, and the show becomes a rating smash as Dolly and Isobel top both Martha Stewart and Jerry Springer!

Directed by Jenny Sullivan and presented by Tamworth Dramatic Society, this one off show in Gunnedah is sure to be a fun night out full of laughter and cooking mayhem!

2 hours 20 mins | Includes interval

Tamworth Dramatic Society on Facebook

Arts North West ON TOUR, Siren Theatre Co and Critical Stages are excited to be bringing Noëlle Janaczewska's END OF WINTER to the New England North West.

A beautiful and poignant story that asks the question 'What is happening to winter?' In hot, bushfire-prone Australia our winters are becoming warmer and shorter. Will climate change eventually erase the season, leaving it to exist only in paintings, fairytales and historical accounts? The End of Winter is about loss and resilience. It’s about the places the writer goes in search of the cold weather she loves—places she can reach via public transport and the imagination.

Mark these dates in your calendar and watch this space for ticketing links still to come.

DATES:

🎟️ Tuesday, 19 September, 2023 - Tamworth Capitol Theatre at 7.30pm

🎟️ Thursday, 21 September, 2023 at The Roxy Theatre & Greek Museum, Bingara

It’s a perfect, balmy night in the outback. A sleep-deprived camper, a cheeky quokka and an emu with a penchant for creating wild inventions, awake to discover that a koala has come down with a stubborn and ear-shatteringly loud case of the hiccups.

The three embark on an epic journey through the night that sees them frantically eat, sing and invent their way towards a cure before the sun comes up.

Hiccup is a hilarious rocking musical extravaganza about working together, finding friendship and how to, once and for all, stop the hiccups.

On Sale Monday 12 June at 9:00am

DATES:

🎟️ Wednesday 13 September 2023 10:30 and 12:30 - Tamworth Capitol Theatre

🎟️ Friday 15 September 2023 10:30am and 1pm - Gunnedah CIVIC Theatre

🎟️ Wednesday 20 September 2023 at 11am - Narrabri Crossing Theatre

🎟️ Friday 22 September 2023 at 10am - Armidale TAS Hoskins Centre

Family secrets are revealed in double bill Stardust + The Mission – two original Australian stories about love, music, war and all the things that people leave behind... Stardust tells the story of Col Brain: a professional trumpet/cornet player and bandmaster. Before Col died, he stored all of his life’s possessions into a wooden dresser and locked it up, never to be opened again. Told through the eyes of his grandson, award winning ABC presenter and performer Joel Carnegie – herein lies the discovery of a time capsule of a musical life, in a heartwarming quest to uncover what Col wanted us to know about the world, by the things he left behind.

The Mission tells the story of Allan McDonald: a “Fighting Gunditjmara” man from South-West Victoria, who was one of Australia’s first Indigenous soldiers to enlist for war. Allan fought at some of WWI’s most famous campaigns, including Gallipoli and Beersheba – only to be denied a soldier’s settlement on his ultimate return to Australia, and forced from his land at the Lake Condah Mission. Allan’s great-great nephew, award winning Gunditjmara man Tom Molyneux shares this story of war, love and loss. These two stories are connected through a shared investigation - to trace the stories from our family ancestors to uncover who we are today.

BOOKING

19 APRIL Quirindi Royal Theatre CANCELLED

20 APRIL Narrabri Crossing Theatre 7.30pm https://www.crossingtheatre.com.au/events-page-2/

21 APRIL Inverell RSM Club 7.30PM Phone to book 02.6722.3066 or at the RSM reception

22 APRIL Gunnedah Civic Theatre 7pm https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing?eid=885505&

23 APRIL Tamworth Capitol Theatre 8pm https://www.capitoltheatretamworth.com.au/stardust-the-mission

Australia’s biggest and best comedy festival is hitting the road for a huge 25th year! Featuring the best and brightest of the 2023 Melbourne International Comedy Festival, we’re bringing the funny to you!

Get ready for a stellar line-up with Roadshow favourites alongside the most talked-about breakthrough stars of the moment, together in one jam-packed show that’s sure to leave the whole nation laughing.

So, get some mates together, book your tickets and head out for a much-needed comedy fix when the Roadshow hits a stage near you!

Casts for each venue include:

Tamworth - Brett Blake (MC), Chris Ryan, Blake Freeman, Matt Ford and Prue Blake

Gunnedah - Daniel Connell (MC), Blake Freeman, David Quirk and Jennifer Wong

Inverell - Daniel Connell (MC), Blake Freeman, David Quirk and Jennifer Wong

Glen Innes – Daniel Connell (MC), Blake Freeman, David Quirk and Jennifer Wong

Tenterfield - Daniel Connell (MC), Blake Freeman, David Quirk and He Huang

DATES:

🎟️ Wednesday 21 June 2023 7:30pm Tamworth Capitol Theatre

🎟️ Wednesday 5 July 2023 7:30 PM Gunnedah Town Hall

🎟️ Thursday 6 Jul 7:30pm Inverell RSM Club

🎟️ Friday 7 July 6:30pm Chapel Theatre Glen Innes

🎟️ Saturday 8 July 7:30pm Sir Henry Parkes School of Arts Tenterfield

Women Like Us
Stand-up comedians Mandy Nolan and Ellen Briggs join forces in Women Like Us to deliver two hours of rapid-fire, sharp, honest, sometimes self-deprecating, somewhat irreverent stand-up comedy for audiences who love their humour straight from the lip.

There are few sacred cows that Briggs and Nolan shy away from milking, pushing the bucket of popular opinion under the teats and then the jokes start flowing!

With seven children between them, parenting and their own reoccurring instances that they call ‘failure to parent’ are certainly the focus of some of their material, but then so is the beauty industry, getting older, getting fatter, strange surgeries, weird TV shows, obsessions, frustrations, and at the end of the day, who unpacks the flipping dishwasher.

The two friends have teamed up to bring two hours of stand-up to communities they believe would love a dose of Women Like Us.

‘We’re not rarefied trophy wives’ says Nolan. ‘We are the kind of women who know how to put up our own.

FRIDAY 3 FEBRUARY 2023

Narrabri Crossing Theatre

SATURDAY 4 FEBRUARY 2023

The Civic, Gunnedah

PREVIOUS SHOWS

THURSDAY, 17 NOVEMBER
Tenterfield School of Arts

FRIDAY, 18 NOVEMBER
Warialda

The Box Show
Junkyard Beats & Critical Stages Touring
Created by Junkyard Beats

You’ll never look at a cardboard box the same way!

Get ready for the most sustainable fun you’ve ever had. In the hands of Junkyard Beats, ordinary household items are transformed into extraordinary musical instruments and unwanted junk comes alive in exciting and surprising ways.

The Box Show excites the imagination of children and adults alike. We follow four characters during their daily activities in a world made of cardboard boxes and junk. The contents of an abandoned kitchen and wheelie bins become the greatest drum set in the world; plastic bags are an amazing musical instrument, and the human body becomes a unique sound machine.

Tag along for a day in the life of a bunch of musical misfits as they reinvigorate the junk that the world has forgotten. Learn about sustainability with this high energy, imaginative music-in-education performance combining drumming, dance, theatre and comedy. With a language of gibberish and rhythm, this show is accessible to any age and nationality.

26 OCTOBER
The Roxy Theatre, Bingara. Bookings can be made via the Bingara Visitor Information 6724 0066 or https://www.roxybingara.com.au/category/whats-on/

27 OCTOBER
Armidale TAS Hoskins - school workshop, booking details TBC

28 OCTOBER
Armidale TAS Hoskins Centre Armidale, book here https://www.trybooking.com/CDDUV

29 OCTOBER
Quirindi Royal Theatre, booking details TBC

30 OCTOBER
presented by Gunnedah Conservatorium at the Gunnedah Civic, booking details https://www.trybooking.com/CBOHT

This project has been assisted with funding from the NSW Government through Create NSW, and the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.

A young owl named Poot Poot has been sent to Owl School to learn to become wise. He’s not like the other owls: he doesn’t know how to fly, he misses his family, he just wants to go home. He knows the only way he can go home is by gaining “wisdom,” but he doesn’t even know what that is.

His teacher, Mr Tawny, sends him to get a book from a library in a far off city. On his way he meets other animals who share with him their own special breed of wisdom. He meets a wombat who tells him to keep trying and not give up. He meets a Lyrebird who teaches him to listen very carefully to what he hears. He meets a Kookaburra who makes him laugh even when he’s sad. He meets an echidna who shows him how to protect himself and a platypus who shows him it’s okay to be different.

On his journey, he finds that wisdom isn’t just one thing, it’s many things. It’s a collection of all the little things you learn every day. But when a bushfire threatens the Owl School, will Poot Poot be able to use his newly gained wisdom to save the forest?

Show locations;

1 AUGUST Quirindi Royal Theatre, booking details - TBC

2 AUGUST Gunnedah Civic Theatre, booking details -https://augsc.sales.ticketsearch.com/sales/salesevent/54386

3 AUGUST Bingara Roxy Theatre, booking details - https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing?eid=931960&

5 AUGUST Armidale TAS Hoskins Centre, booking details - https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing?eid=918828&

6 AUGUST Glen Innes Chapel Theatre, booking details - https://ticketing.oz.veezi.com/purchase/962?siteToken=7pemk9nhz4xw7m4fs2ab477fnc

7 AUGUST Tenterfield School of Arts, booking details - https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/919162

Jump aboard The Soul Express with Laura Zarb as she regales you with highly relatable tales and catchy, original tunes. Following a sell-out 2019 Sydney Fringe debut, Laura is thrilled to be bringing her unique blend of wit, charm and neuroses to Bathurst audiences, as she shares her penchant for procrastination, her silent battles with old mate anxiety, and her love of sequins, shimmies and sing-a-longs.

Show times and locations:

24 MAY Wallabadah Art Shack
https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/888560

25 MAY Civic Gallery, Gunnedah, https://bit.ly/3lw3B9r

26 MAY Barraba Playhouse, https://bit.ly/3kWOBB5

27 MAY Boggabri Golf Club 7PM, https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/890649

28 MAY Roxy Theatre, Bingara, https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing?eid=902348&

29 MAY Guyra Poetry Hall of Fame, https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/888560

With another virtuosic solo performance, writer/performer Emily Goddard and director Susie Dee (Animal and Anthem) bring us their highly acclaimed ‘anti-bonnet drama’ inspired by the rebellion and resistance of the female convicts of Van Diemen’s Land.

Be transported back to 1839, to Tasmania’s infamous Cascades Female Factory, where in a solitary cell on the edge of survival, Mary Ford waits alone in the darkness. Left for dead, ten thousand miles from home, she plots her escape and reveals, with biting mockery, the untold tales of her captors.

With a tour-de-force performance by Emily Goddard, This is Eden is an extraordinary tale that has largely escaped our nation’s history books. Winner of the 2018 Drama Victoria Award and nominated for Best Performer at the Green Room Awards, this powerful, ground-breaking one-woman show is equally dark, funny, insightful and provocative.

Show Dates:

27 JULY Bingara Roxy Theatre, booking details TBC

29 JULY Tenterfield School of the Arts, booking details TBC

30 JULY Armidale TAS Hoskins Centre, booking details TBC

Bursting at the seams with fascinating facts, naughty stories and dance moves to die for, 100 Years Of The History Of Dance As Told By One Man In 60 Minutes With An Energetic Group Finale follows Jacob, a schoolboy presenting a report on the topic of his own choice. Not to be extra or anything, but Jacob has decided to cover 100 Years of the History of Dance!

Exploring the lives of influential choreographers including Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham, Bob Fosse, Rudolf Nureyev, Pina Bausch, Gene Kelly and Paula Abdul, Jacob not only talks about them, but demonstrates their signature style at the same time.

As he prepares, Jacob ponders the difference between ‘influence’ and ‘plagiarism’ and begins to question his own legacy...

SHOW DATES:

1 JUNE Tamworth, Capitol Theatre 7.30PM https://www.capitoltheatretamworth.com.au/100-years-of-the-history-of-dance

3 JUNE Inverell, Inverell Town Hall (Inverell Cultural Group)
7:30PM
https://www.trybooking.com/BZNRL

4 JUNE Armidale, TAS Hoskins Centre
7:30PM
https://www.trybooking.com/BZEIS

5 JUNE Gunnedah, Civic Theatre 7.30PM https://augsc.sales.ticketsearch.com/sales/salesevent/53060

A slightly sideways tale about unexpected friendship, finding where you fit and learning to mix it up a little. In Mort’s Village everything has its place, every day is the same and everyone likes it that way. Until one morning, crash, boom, bang… down comes Beep.

What is this annoying interruption to Mort’s breakfast Molly Melon, who is this noisy robot girl, and how will she find her home? With Windmill’s trademark design, gentle storytelling, music and puppetry, Beep tells the story of what happens when someone new comes to town.

For ages 2-7

BOOKINGS

13 MAY Quirindi Royal Theatre https://www.royaltheatrequirindi.com/beep/

16 MAY Gunnedah Civic Theatre, 1.30PM https://augsc.sales.ticketsearch.com/sales/salesevent/13115

18 MAY Warialda Town Hall 11AM: https://www.trybooking.com/events/792031/sessions/2623287/sections

23 MAY Armidale TAS Hoskins Centre 11AM https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/889966

25 MAY Glen Innes Chapel Theatre https://bit.ly/3vIIBlo

26 MAY Inverell - Uniting Church Hall,

Strap yourself in Australia! The Melbourne International Comedy Festival Roadshow is hitting the highways to home-deliver the freshest and funniest from the 2022 Festival to neighbourhoods across the nation.

For 24 years the Roadshow has presented an all killer, no filler line-up of Australian stars and talented newcomers to comedy fans far and wide. Buckle up for a night of stand-up, sketch, satire, silliness and song in this rip-roaring road trip designed to satisfy all your comedy cravings!

BOOKING:

25 MAY Armidale TAS Hoskins Centre, 7.30pm https://www.trybooking.com/events/876758/sessions/3057927/sections

26 MAY Glen Innes Chapel Theatre, 8PM https://giac.com.au/movie/melbourne-international-comedy-festival-roadshow

27 MAY Tenterfield Sir Henry Parkes School of Arts 7PM https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing?eid=863728&

28 MAY Inverell RSM Club 7.30PM https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/873130

22 JUNE Capitol Theatre, Tamworth 7.30PM https://evtam.sales.ticketsearch.com/sales/salesevent/17957

23 JUNE Gunnedah Town Hall 8PM https://augsc.sales.ticketsearch.com/sales/salesevent/51826