CTC @ Home

Kids in the House

The Joe Boogie Show

The first week of programming begins on Monday 15 June with Kids in the House, a song and dance program featuring local children’s act The Joe Boogie Show. The band consists of local dads Joe Gleeson and Mark LaBrooy who met at school. The main focus of the band is healthy bodies, healthy minds with a healthy dose of fun!

Richie Allen & Adam Shipp – Cultural Experience

Up this week for Kids in the House is Ngunnawal Kamilaroi man Richie Allan, who runs the Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation and Wiradjuri man Adam Shipp, who runs the Yurbay consultancy, specialising in native ACT plants. Together the two will be performing their show Cultural Experience which aims to teach the whole family about Aboriginal culture in fun and engaging ways.

ABC Canberra’s Dan Bourchier reads the Dreamtime story How the Koala Lost its Tail

ABC Canberra Presenter Dan Bourchier will be presenting the Dreamtime story How the Koala Lost its Tail from 5.30pm. Dan is a multi-award winning multi-platform journalist with the ABC and anchors ABC Canberra’s flagship 7pm news. He has reported across the country and around the world for 20 years.

Lucy Sparkles & friends LIVE

Lucy Sparkles & Friends has been providing high-quality drama, music and dance classes and parties for thousands of young children in the UK. In 2016, they launched in Canberra with Ginny, the local Head Sparkle. Ginny Sparkles is passionate about helping small children to express themselves creatively through the performing arts. In their performance today, Ginny and team will be singing, dancing and playing ukuleles – to the theme of SPACE PARTY.

Gran’s Bag

Gran’s Bag is a delightful, heartwarming show by Greg Lissaman and Chrissie Shaw, for 3 to 10 year olds. When Gran comes to visit, she brings her beautiful big red bag. All sorts of surprises emerge; puppets, bags large and small, songs and stories about all sorts of grans and their grandchildren. With storytelling, songs, and puppetry, Gran takes us on a fun adventure full of twists and turns. Where will the story go next?

PuppetOODLE

Marianne Mettes, from PuppetOOdle, will take you into her magical world of puppetry and showcase a range of her hand-crafted puppets. Set to live, improvised music by her brother Jonathan, Marianne will share with you secret wonders and insights of how you can make your very own puppets at home using everyday objects.

Chapter the 1st

ABC Canberra’s Dan Bourchier reads The Tears of Strangers

ABC Canberra Presenter Dan Bourchier will be doing a LIVE reading of The Tears Of Strangers by Stan Grant from 5.30pm. Dan is a multi-award winning multi-platform journalist with the ABC and anchors ABC Canberra’s flagship 7pm news. He has reported across the country and around the world for 20 years.

Adam Shirley reads Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

Adam Shirley spent much of his early days on the shores of Corio Bay in Geelong, nestled amongst the endless vistas of oil refineries and wood chipping mills. He’s since wandered into Canberra and has yet to find the exit. Born in England, Adam is a cricket tragic who has previously packed trucks, prepared food and pulled the odd hotel night shift for a crust. He is a scientist by trade, has entertained kids of all ages at Questacon and still embraces his inner nerd.

ABC Canberra’s Lish Fejer reads My Brilliant Career

Lish Fejer grew up on large stations in the bush before studying Biochemistry at ANU. She has worked in the field of science communication as a presenter, speaker, writer and exhibition developer ever since. She joined the ABC Radio Canberra team in 2010 and she loved working on the wireless so much, she didn’t want to leave. Lish rides a bike, does science experiments at parties (she met her husband when she fired a scone out of a potato cannon), has over 15,000 worms and loves Canberra.

Daniel O’Malley reads The Rook LIVE

Born and raised in Canberra, Daniel O’Malley graduated from Michigan State University and earned a Master’s Degree in medieval history from Ohio State University. He then returned to his childhood home. He is the author of the Checquy novels The Rook and Stiletto (and those yet to come). Today Daniel will be reading The Rook, which was the winner of the 2013 Aurealis Award for Best Science Fiction Novel, and was released last year as a mini-series on STAN.

Pj Williams reads A Fortunate Life

Lighting Designer and Freelance Media Practitioner based in Canberra. He has appeared in Home & Away, All Saints, Always Greener, and Tricky Business. Williams has directed a number of plays at The Street as well as a number of workshop developments. Today he will be reading A Fortunate Life, an autobiography by Albert Facey published nine months before his death. The book details his early life in Western Australia, his experiences as a private during the Gallipoli campaign of World War I and his return to civilian life after the war. It also documents his extraordinary life of hardship, loss, friendship and love.

Kate Blackhurst reads Mornington Crescent

Kate Blackhurst was born in England and graduated from Manchester Metropolitan University with an English degree. She is an actor, director and writer, and Mornington Crescent is her first novel. She loves to travel, has lived in six countries, and is happy to call Canberra her (current) home. Today Kate will be reading from her novel Mornington Crescent which details the lives of two sisters growing up in the mid-20th Century. They both make decisions that change the course of their lives as they follow paths influenced by education and career; travel and family.

Live tabletop RPGs and video games

Roll for Intelligence with Joel Barcham

Roll For Intelligence is a live, improvised performance, based on everyone’s favourite tabletop RPGs. Think dice, costumes and dragon-slaying adventures. Four heroes (Joel Barcham, Andrew Galan, Helen Luan and Sharona Lin) face off against the Master of Dungeons (Euan Bowen) with musical accompaniment by the mysterious Silent Bard.

Roll for Intelligence with Joel Barcham Pt 2

Storm clouds gather. Icy winds whip across the plains. In these dark times only a plucky band of heroes can save the day, but only if they roll high enough on a D20 first. Tune in for Part 2 of the highly popular Roll For Intelligence, an improvised performance, based on everyone’s favourite tabletop RPGs. Think dice, costumes and dragon-slaying adventures. Four heroes face off against the Master of Dungeons with musical accompaniment by the mysterious Silent Bard.

Roll for Intelligence with Joel Barcham Pt 3

Tune in for Part 3 of the highly popular Roll For Intelligence, an improvised performance based on everyone’s favourite tabletop RPGs. Think dice, costumes and adventures. Don’t miss this week’s episode, where the Roll for Intelligence gamers take on cult classic board game Betrayal.

Street Fighter IV: Ultra Tournament

The Canberra Fighting League has been a community built upon the ACT’s love of fighting games, grown and nurtured since the days of Street Fighter 2. Over the years, many players have built a reputation for being the names to beat in regular Tournaments hosted all around Australia’s states – and the best players would always rise to meet the challenge when it called.

Playreadings

The Camel by Dylan Van Den Berg LIVE

Dylan is a Palawa writer/performer with family connections to the Bass Strait Islands and the northeast of Tasmania. Recently, his play Way Back When was shortlisted for the Griffin Award, the Patrick White Playwrights Award and the QLD Premier’s Drama Award. In 2019, he was selected to participate in Playwriting Australia’s masterclass with Patricia Cornelius. As an actor, Dylan has worked extensively in theatre for young people and new Australian drama with Canberra Youth Theatre, Jigsaw Theatre Company, Gearstick Theatre, and The Street Theatre.

Playreading of Leopoldville (Part 1) by Jaki Mccarrick directed by Jordan Best LIVE

Jaki McCarrick is an award-winning writer of plays, poetry and fiction. She won the 2010 Papatango New Writing Prize for her play LEOPOLDVILLE, and her play BELFAST GIRLS, developed at the National Theatre London, was shortlisted for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and the 2014 BBC Tony Doyle Award.

Playreading of Leopoldville (Part 2) by Jaki Mccarrick directed by Jordan Best LIVE

Jaki McCarrick is an award-winning writer of plays, poetry and fiction. She won the 2010 Papatango New Writing Prize for her play LEOPOLDVILLE, and her play BELFAST GIRLS, developed at the National Theatre London, was shortlisted for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and the 2014 BBC Tony Doyle Award.

Long Term Greedy Chinese Walls

Nameless Redacted has been secretly recording the most powerful bank in the world for half a decade and is finally ready to blow the whistle on corporate corruption. The C.E.O. is an E.D.M. Dj and his predecessor just rewrote the American tax code for a Reality Show Billionaire with a chain of bankrupt casinos. Can Nameless decode the acronyms and expose the ecocidal capitalists before they doom our planet to chronic inequality?  Long Term Greedy Chinese Walls is a hectic piece of whistleblower art – chaotic, paranoid, legally questionable and very, very funny.

Playreading: If It Lives by Stuart Roberts

If It Lives is an original work by Canberra playwright Stuart Roberts, originally produced by The Master of Space and Time on commission from the Australian Museum, Sydney.
In the mid-nineteenth century several ‘Acclimatisation Societies’ were established to introduce as many exotic animals and birds to Australia as possible. Operating with a complete lack of biological knowledge, the consequences of these introductions were generally unforeseen. Blisteringly smart, If It Lives is one of Canberra’s great ‘lost works’ that received national attention but somehow slipped through the cracks in its home town.

A short work from Liv Hewson

Liv Hewson is a 24 year old actor born and raised in Canberra. They came up in Canberra’s theatre scene and these days work mostly in film and television. Now based in Los Angeles, Liv has appeared in things like Santa Clarita Diet, Homecoming Queens, Bombshell, Top of the Lake, and Let It Snow.

Live music

Cathy Diver LIVE

To end your week we have a special performance by local musician Cathy Diver, an alt-country & folk artist. Her 2019 debut single Watertight received 5 stars from Triple J’s Roots ‘n’ All Host, Nkechi Anele. Cathy has been heavily involved in the ACT music community for several years, previously a part of Helena Pop, Azim Zain and his Lovely Bones and The Lowlands. As lead singer/songwriter of The Lowlands she toured with Tim Rogers (You Am I), supported Beth Orton and Katy Steele (Little Birdy) as well as coming home with the National Live Music Awards’ ACT Live Voice of the Year for 2017 and 2018.

Evan Buckley (The Burley Griffin) LIVE

Evan Buckley (The Burley Griffin) grew up in Canberra, homeschooled in a religious fundamentalist cult, and has since hitchhiked and toured through 37 American states, exorcising and befriending his demons along the way. His most recent US tour took place during the 2016 election and his newest songs reflect the absurdity of the American dream. With two records, and now a third on the way, Evan’s songs have been accompanied and interpreted by some of both Australia’s and the USA’s most intuitive musicians.

Pheno LIVE

Pheno (pronounced fee-no) (aka Jess Green) released her debut EP Dragon Year in May 2017 as part of Sydney’s VIVID festival. Jess has worked as an electric guitartist and vocalist on stage with Georgia Mooney (All our Exes Live in Texas), Katie Noonan, Clare Bowditch, Deborah Conway, Tim Rogers, Urthboy, Kate Ceberano and many more, as well as recording, performing and composing in television, dance and theatre. Canberra audiences have seen Pheno at the 2016 TEDx, as well as regular shows at Smith’s and The Street.

Sebastian Field LIVE

Sebastian Field has been a mainstay of the Canberra creative circuit for more than ten years, through his involvement in acts such as Cracked Actor, Burrows, Julia and the Deep Sea Sirens and The Ellis Collective. 2019 saw him release his debut solo album, Picture Stone, which saw him tour the album extensively nationally and internationally. 2020 finds him working on new material for a follow-up release.

Lisa Richards LIVE

Lisa Richards writes songs of longing, loss, love and hope, borrowing from the traditions of folk, blues and jazz while carving out her own musical corner of the world. She has a life story that could easily grace the silver screen, from a capella busking in Kings Cross, Sydney, to hanging out with Debbie Harry at SXSW,  playing CBGB’s in NYC as well as living in both New York City and Austin Texas for many years, before returning home to Australia in 2014.

Sesame Girl LIVE

Sesame Girl delivers a sparkling concoction of indie dream-pop, creating an entirely dynamic and unique sound. Coming into the new year as a full live act, lead singer Heather Duncan & her band have already cemented their presence in the Canberra music scene, showcasing her most hard-hitting and emotional work yet.

Girls Rock Canberra

 

Girls Rock! Canberra is a not-for-profit arts organisation dedicated to amplifying the voices of girls, and trans and gender diverse young people in the ACT through music education and mentorship. Their Girls Rock! Camp program is a week long school holiday program where participants form their own band, learn an instrument, watch live music performances and attend creative workshops such as screen printing t-shirts and zine-making. Unfortunately due to current circumstances, their Girls Rock Camp program is not running this year, however they’re still championing the voices of young Canberrans and broadcasting them to you live!

 

Matilda House

Ngambri-Ngunnuwal elder Matilda House on the Tent Embassy and the first Aboriginal Flag

Contemporary dance

Red by Liz Lea LIVE

Liz is a freelance dance artist working across genres. She was the 2017 ACT Artist of the Year and has toured RED internationally.

Poetry

CJ Bowerbird LIVE

CJ Bowerbird explores what it is to be human, writing about things we have lost, things we never had and things that are slipping through our fingers. CJ is a spoken word artist and the 2012 Australian Poetry Slam Champion. In 2018, he released Beyond This Blue, a recording of the show he created with the Downfall Choir for the 2017 National Folk Festival. CJ is a two-time TEDxCanberra speaker and has performed his work in China, Indonesia and the US. He combines words and clumsy movement as part of the Sound & Fury Ensemble.

Poetry with Zhi Yi Cham

Zhi is a Malaysian poet currently on Ngunnawal Country who procrastinates plenty by cooking and eating and eating. Her work has been published in Australian Poetry, Voiceworks, Pencilled In, among others.

ANU Chamber Choir conducted by Tobias Cole

Headline act of our digital season CTC@Home, The World From Here is a new weekly variety show hosted by Chris Endrey, beloved musician, producer and creator of Canbeurovision. Playful, insightful and always curious, this eight-episode series is a stimulating exploration of the world through interviews, music and play. With a new theme each week and guests ranging from intellectuals and elite athletes to your cheeky elderly neighbours, our playful mission is to learn and share from all of our lives, with heart.

Join our Facebook event to keep up to date with The World From Here with Chris Endrey and CTC@Home. Can’t make the scheduled showtime? No problem – we’ll hold the curtain for you to stream the episodes any time after their premiere.

Episode 1 – Loneliness

Join Chris as he delves into the theme of loneliness, featuring talks, performances and fun with Breath Therapist Dr Lisa Pethram, rapper Jedbrii, indie vocalist Stephen Read, professional callback radio participant Baba Tina, Fiona Patten, Victorian MLC and Leader of the Reason Party and plenty of surprise guests!
Streamed LIVE Friday 19 June, 8pm.

 

Episode 2 – Transcendence

Join Chris as he delves into the theme of transcendence, featuring talks, performances and fun with David Pocock (rugby star), Dr Jamie Freestone, Eleanor Ailie, Baba Tina, Nick Delatovic and more! and plenty of surprise guests!
Streamed LIVE Friday 26 June, 8pm.

Episode 3 – Pleasure

Are you ready to step into The World From Here with Chris Endrey? Join Chris and a gaggle of guests as they delve into the concept of pleasure. [Language and adult theme warning]
Sreamed LIVE Friday 3 July, 8pm.

Episode 4 – Abundance

Streamed LIVE Friday 10 July, 8pm.

 

Episode 5 – Eliteness

Streamed LIVE Friday 17 July, 8pm

Episode 6

Streamed LIVE Friday 24 July, 8pm.

Episode 7

Streamed LIVE Friday 31 July, 8pm.

Episode 8

Streamed LIVE Friday 7 August, 8pm.

CTC@Home
Canberra’s best talent, home delivered

Canberra Theatre Centre’s first digital season CTC@Home ended on Friday 7 August with a grand finale starring Chris Endrey and a host of Canberra performers, with the series amassing over 140 000 views and over 103 days’ worth of watch time from viewers spanning five countries.

The eighth episode of variety show The World From Here with Chris Endrey, which was both streamed and performed for a live audience, marked the end of CTC@Home and the first live performance at Canberra Theatre Centre in over four months.

CTC@Home provided paid performance opportunities to over 80 local artists and was supported by the Australian Capital Territory Government, who contributed $10 400 to support local arts in Canberra.

The program ran for eight weeks and included 58 performances ranging from live music to literary readings, children’s programming, play readings, circus, dance and even cooking demonstrations.

Canberra Theatre Centre retrained many of its technical and digital staff and transformed the Canberra Theatre stage into a filming studio in order to pivot from presenting live performance to broadcasting digital streams.

If you missed it the first time around you can watch every episode of CTC@Home right here on the previous episodes tab above.