BLACK SWAN THEATRE

About This Project

About Black Swan

The year after successfully staging Jimmy Chi and Kuckles’ Broome-set classic Bran Nue Dae for the 1990 Perth Festival, Andrew Ross founded Black Swan Theatre with chair Janet Holmes a Court, along with then theatre manager Duncan Ord and arts administrator Will Quekett. Since 1991, Black Swan has created theatre, that speaks with a quintessentially Western Australian voice, and taken their work to the world. Stories like Bran Nue Dae, Cloudstreet, Red Dog, Last Cab to Darwin and The Sapphires, all began with Black Swan.

About the project

The ABF has supported for the last two years, the Black Swan Theatre group, which has allowed them to offer to indigenous communities, free seats and in some cases, free transport to their productions.

As organisers have noted ‘the success of free seats for the Port Headland performance was celebratory. Most had never seen live actors on stage before’.

The ABF is continuing support for ‘The First Nations Community Access Program’ which has been increasing accessibility to the arts for Aboriginal audiences of greatest need.

The funding applied for from the Aboriginal Benefits Foundation will support the program from 01 July 2025– 30 June 2026.

How we helped

We provided $5,500 for theatre seats to be freely provided to local and remote regional Indigenous peoples, their transport to and from the venue and other additional assistance. There will also be new work developed with the Pigram family, from the north coast Kimberley region.