Anywhere Festival bringing the art to the people where they live, work and play

Anywhere Festival is a much loved Brisbane institution, which sees artists from all genres and calibres make art literally anywhere but a theatre. This year is their biggest yet, with performances spreading out across Brisbane, Moreton Bay, Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast and Ipswich. You can find an original performance in a forest in Maleny, to a nursery in West End, a jetty in Caboolture and a dog park in Noosa, a cross-fit gym in Ipswich, to a waste water treatment plant on the Gold Coast… This year, artists are crawling into, under and around all the industrial, personal, community and hidden places and making real art that will change how you see theatre. 

We chat to Paul Osuch, Anywhere Festival Artistic Director, about bringing the art to the people where they literally live, work and play. 

Paul at the festival Program Launch. Image: Geoff Lawrence - Creative Futures Photograph
Cover image: Stuart Hirth

Year 10 - what a journey. How does it feel on the cusp of 10 years of Anywhere Festival?

Eleventy-ten we call it. It's the 11th year of us being around but the tenth full festival. It feels like so much has changed in so many ways, and yet so little has change. Last week in April when it was bucketing down rain I remember it was bucketing down 10 years ago, we were still getting over the 2011 floods. I was sitting there going, is the first festival even going to happen? 

Having the reminder of the rain, and the lockdown restrictions pop up for a few days, sitting here reflecting no matter how much it changes, it's still so much the same!  

But the show must go on! What is joyous about this year's festival?

One of the great things about it is there are a lot of shows that are reflecting the times right now, as well as shows that people are trying to escape from. There is everything from shows that resonate with the #metoo movement and other stuff going on just now, as well as shows completely separate from that, a play about wizards in a village somewhere. It's just absolutely random and that's the wonderful thing about the festival, you can stumble across something that is just joyous in its absurdity or joyous in what it is trying to celebrate. 

Covid - are you worried? How has Covid affected artists in the run up to this year's events? 

It's still this realisation that it's there, that with our notorious Brisbane late-buying audiences that people are going to hold back, wait to see it's all cool before they go for it. 

We've got a few interstate acts that are still in position of making the call but for all the local acts I think we know its there, we know we've got a plan for what we'll do if things happen. It think for all the artists, same as me, there is an elevated stress level! But its all looking promising. Fingers crossed. 

Will the smaller size of venues and dispersed nature of the events be an ace up the sleeve? 

It definitely is, and one of the big advantages, as well as smaller capacities and outdoor venues, we've had conversations with a number of venues where we can potentially move to a bigger space if we still need 50 people but we need to spread them out. We've got a couple venues we can move to if we need it. 

2021 Program launch at the paint Factory, Yeronga. Geoff Lawrence - Creative Futures Photograph

It's clear that people across multiple industries are doing everything they can to make sure this event, and live arts more generally, is going ahead. 

It's not just the non-traditional spaces, but working with the Hubs as well such as Arcana in Morroka and Elements collective, who have a large number of shows happening and can move people around the space, and are really helping to make these performances happen. 

All across SE QLD, it's happening across five regions?

It's quite incredible. There are about 37 locations happening across the region, and you really see how big Moreton bay is, you think Brisbane covers a lot of turf. There are a number of performances supporting through Sunshine Coast and Noosa,  companies you might be familiar with from previous festivals like Dive Theatre Collective, Little Seed, and BITE, they are back in their nooks and crannies. We also have a few Gold Coast groups presenting works as well.

There is a big international and digital component this year. 

This is one of the cool things that came out of lockdown restrictions last year. We've got a few different ways that people can do online things. What we wanted to do was find a couple  shows leading the way in what they are doing, such as My Heart Goes Zoom, which is a US producer Don't Touch The Artist, and another show Prison X, a VR show, that premiered at Sundance this year. We also have A Fly On The Wall from a Brisbane artist who has been stuck in London since lockdown started, and is ding a show from there. 

It is one thing to watch a show while sitting at your desk, but there is also the shared experience of being with other people. So there are a number of different venues where whilst the live show is happening online, people will also be able to watch with others, ten or twenty people having a shared experience. They are still interactive shows, these are not one-directional, I think the term in the industry is hybrid. 

Why do you do it? What drives you Paul? What makes you tick? 

The reason why I do this is because I believe there is a better way for performers to be part of the community, and part of our lives. Fundamentally, I believe that it has to happen where we live work and play. As much as I love sitting in a theatre, from a cultural point of view, from an idea of putting artists at the centre of things, the best way of doing it is for us all to be part of our community performing in residential places, in commercial places, instead of putting ourselves away within theatres.

That's always been the thing that's driven me with Anywhere Festival, and indeed the shows I produced before that. And also putting on stuff that people love to experience, it brings them together. 

Comedy lounge. Image supplied.

Hot tips for the festival? 

Everybody searches by shows, right, and the thing that I really wanted to do with Anywhere and that I think the audiences love, is that you can look by venues, you can look for what's nearby or what's in a cool place, and see what you can discover. 

Go to the search page and pull up the map. Have a look for shows without just searching for a name you know, or a genre you think you like. Go out there and see what you can find.