In our eighth Witness Podcast, Carissa Lee and Alison Croggon discuss the importance of diversity in arts criticism: why we need it, and why the lack of it contributes to inequalities in the arts.
Further reading: Carissa Lee on the importance of informed reviewers
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‘There are gods walking through performance’
Is there a new energy sweeping through our theatres? It’s been six months since Witness launched, so founders Robert Reid and Alison Croggon take the opportunity to look back over the performances they’ve seen. And the good news is that there’s a lot of great work out there, notably from women and people of colour, that is responding to the anxieties of our time.
Works mentioned:
Blackie Blackie Brown
Contest
Overture
Lone
The Nose
My Sister Feather
The Bleeding Tree
A Caltex Spectrum
The Barbershop Chronicles
You can subscribe to The Witness Podcast via an RSS feed. If you want to subscribe, you need to copy and paste the link below into your podcasting application.http://witnessperformance.com/category/witness/podcasts/witnesspodcast/feed/
You can subscribe to the podcast directly through iTunes at this link https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/the-witness-podcast/id1363297769

“Are we going to be having the same conversations again in ten years?”
In this month’s Witness Podcast, Carissa Lee, Robert Reid and Alison Croggon look at the mechanisms of discourse. How do we manage conversations about the problems we face in our community, such as the revelations around #MeToo. Does any of this conversation actually change things, and if not, why not?
You can subscribe to The Witness Podcast via an RSS feed. If you want to subscribe, you need to copy and paste the link below into your podcasting application. http://witnessperformance.com/category/witness/podcasts/witnesspodcast/feed/
You can subscribe to the podcast directly through iTunes at this link https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/the-witness-podcast/id1363297769

On The Witness Podcast this month, Carissa Lee and Alison Croggon discuss the recent controversy around the VCA dance work Where We Stand, which caught the attention of right wing commentators and faced calls for it to be banned. What is the problem with questioning whiteness? What does it mean to be white? What does it mean to be black? How do we negotiate these constructions in our cultural spaces?
Further reading:
Safe White Spaces, by Andy Butler
Diversity is a white word: Tania Canas on ArtsHub
You can subscribe to Witness podcasts through iTunes or an RSS feed. Click here for instructions on how to subscribe.

Arts funding. It’s not a sexy subject, but anyone interested in Australian culture needs to know how it works. Since 2013, the absolute number of individual artists and organisations funded by the Australia Council has decreased by 73 per cent.  Alison Croggon and Robert Reid take a look at how we got here and what this means.
Further reading:
Alison Croggon on the cultural crisis in Australia
Black Friday: Alison Croggon on the Brandis debacle
You can subscribe to The Witness Podcast through the Smart Player above or through the RSS feed. If you want to subscribe, you need to copy and paste the link below into your podcasting application. http://witnessperformance.com/category/witness/podcasts/witnesspodcast/feed/
You can subscribe to Witness podcasts through iTunes or an RSS feed. Click here for instructions on how to subscribe.

The Witness Podcast, Episode 3. Recently British critic Quentin Letts caused a storm by suggesting the RSC cast an actor only because he was black. Is this in fact racist criticism? (Spoiler: Yes, it is!) Is “political correctness” a thing? Can we be critically rigorous and also not bigoted? This month Team Witness – Alison Croggon, Carissa Lee and Robert Reid – dives merrily into the minefield of political correctness and freedom of speech in the arts.
Further reading:
Quentin Letts and the RSC
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2018/apr/08/daily-mail-quentin-letts-accused-of-racist-attitude-in-theatre-review
Wesley Enoch’s Nick Enright Speech
https://www.audreyjournal.com.au/arts/smell-the-air-the-nick-enright-inaugural-speech/
Declan Greene’s response
https://www.audreyjournal.com.au/arts/dont-underestimate-the-audience-says-declan-greene/
The Birthday Party controversy on Theatre Notes
http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com.au/2009/07/birthday-party-and-other-late-thoughts.html
http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com.au/2009/07/birthday-party-revisited.html
You can subscribe to Witness podcasts through iTunes or an RSS feed. Click here for instructions on how to subscribe.

In our second Witness podcast, Team Witness gets down to some nitty gritty. Last month, Soda Jerk’s film Terra Nullius was disowned for being “unAustralian” by its philanthropic commissioning body, the Ian Potter Foundation. What does this imply for the future of the arts, given the push away from public funding to private philanthropy? In times of increasing austerity, arts companies are becoming reluctant to take risks: so how do we address urgent systemic problems, such as racism or sexism?  Robert Reid, Carissa Lee and Alison Croggon ask all the questions. Answers? Not so much…
You can subscribe to Witness podcasts through iTunes or an RSS feed. Click here for instructions on how to subscribe.

For our first Witness podcast, Alison Croggon, Carissa Lee and Robert Reid discuss the crucial importance of Indigenous critical voices, and ponder how to talk about contemporary dance in the lead-up to our coverage of the Keir Choreographic Awards, which we will be covering in detail next week.  Sound, recording and music by Ben Keene.
Check out The Witness Interview – extended yarns with notable people in the performing arts about their practice, their philosophy, and the meaning of life – which goes up mid-month. For March, our interviewee is the redoubtable playwright Patricia Cornelius.
You can subscribe to Witness podcasts through iTunes or an RSS feed. Click here for instructions on how to subscribe.