AustLit

'Australia’s performing arts sector has long been recognised as an ecosystem. It is a community of artists, arts organisations and institutions, all affected by factors such as education and training, audiences, policy and revenues.' (Introduction)

'In 1825, Reverend Lancelot Threlkeld watched an Aboriginal Dance of Welcome at Newcastle’s East End Settlement. From the AusStage database - the research gateway to crucial information about live performance in Australia - we can learn it was held “in consequence of our coming among them”.' (Introduction)

'This article brings to light the career of Australian-born theatrical agent Harry Lyons (1841–1913) whose entrepreneurial activities span the period now attributed by historians as the first phase of globalisation (from the mid-nineteenth century to the outbreak of World War I). Travelling internationally in pursuit of his commercial speculations, Lyons introduced Australian audiences to some of the biggest international stars of the era. Revealing that Lyons’ commercial interests covered the cultural spectrum from high art (opera and Shakespeare)to popular entertainments (circus, bicycle meets, ethnographic installations), the author examines Lyons’ eclectic career within the context of modernity, arguing he was one of the newly emergent middlemen of culture who influenced popular consumption and the making of taste. Progressing in tandem with the modernities of his era, Lyons’ long career provides a useful lens through which to reconsider the expansion and diversification of late-colonial theatrical activity, as well as the ways that theatrical production in Australia absorbed international influences and contributed to trends internationally.' (Publication abstract)

'Australian child actors fascinated and amazed audiences at home and abroad at the turn of the twentieth century. Before robust education and labour laws insisted children should be at school or at home, many children, predominantly girls, found their way into Australia’s vibrant commercial entertainment industry, appearing in variety/vaudeville entertainments, pantomime, comic opera, musical comedy, drama and circus. Doris Joyce, Rosie Fitzgerald and Queenie Williams were three young actors employed by the production team of Clyde Meynell and John Gunn. Examining their careers during the years 1906–1908 reveals the genuinely surprising tenacity, agency and sophisticated talents of child actors of the period.' (Introduction)