Richard Watts

Richard Watts OAM is ArtsHub's National Performing Arts Editor; he also presents the weekly program SmartArts on Three Triple R FM. Richard is a life member of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, a Melbourne Fringe Festival Living Legend, and was awarded the 2019 Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards' Facilitator's Prize in early 2020. He received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Green Room Awards Association in 2021, and a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in June 2024. Photo: Fiona Hamilton. Follow Richard on Bluesky @richardthewatts.bsky.social and Instagram @richard.l.watts

Richard Watts's Latest Articles

Melbourne's Butterfly Club has closed, sending shockwaves through the independent sector. The photo depicts a dead butterfly, partially crushed on a sandy beach.
Features

How the independent sector rallied after The Butterfly Club’s shock closure

Indie companies and venues discuss the implications of The Butterfly Club’s closure, and sound a warning for the future of…

A promotional image for La Boite and Dead Puppet Society's climate change production, 'We're All Gonna Die!'. The photo shows a female Asian-Australian actor's shocked looking face as they are engulfed by spreading rubbish and garbage.
Features

We're All Gonna Die! – Maddie Nixon's climate show 'smashes Brisbane's buildings'

We’re All Gonna Die! embraces a monstrous metaphor, with the help of Dead Puppet Society and La Boite.

NSW Minister for the Arts John Graham MLC launches the Plan for Western Sydney Arts, Culture and Creative Industries: 2025-2028. The photo shows an animated man with silver hair and wearing a blue suit and white shirt but no tie. He stands at a lectern and gestures with his left hand.
News

$5 million arts strategy announced for Western Sydney

The NSW State Government has released a new three-year arts strategy for Western Sydney.

Ebony Bott, the incoming Artistic Director of Brisbane Festival. The photo shows a confident, fair-skinned woman with lightly curled, shoulder-length blonde hair smiling at the camera. She wears a charcoal-coloured jacket and pants over a white shirt.
News

Brisbane Festival appoints Ebony Bott as New Artistic Director

Ebony Bott’s first Brisbane Festival program will be presented in 2026.

A group of contemporary dancers, blurred in motion. The photo illustrates ArtsHub's On the move column, summarising the week's arts sector appointments.
News

On the move: latest arts sector appointments

Your weekly round-up of Australian arts sector appointments.

Three women with their backs to the camera admire a colourful mural, an emample of work supported by Regional Arts Development Orgsnisations in NSW.
News

Regional Arts Development Organisations protest NSW funding changes

Three regional arts development organisations have lost out on four-year Create NSW funding, putting their programs and activities at risk.

The Butterfly Club is closing. The photo shows a collection of dead butterflies pinned in a case.
News

Breaking: Melbourne’s Butterfly Club to close indefinitely

The sudden announcement has shocked cabaret artists and theatremakers booked to perform at the intimate CBD venue in the coming…

The ate Henri Szeps: a fair-skinned older man with thining grey hair and a grey moustache.
News

Vale Henri Szeps OAM, remembered for Mother and Son and a storied stage career

Though best know for ABC TV series ‘Mother and Son’, Szeps was also a committed and much-loved stage actor, widely…

The four members of Eddy Current Suppression Ring rehearse in a nondescript band room.
News

Eddy Current Suppression Ring returns after nine year hiatus for free headline gig

The underground favourites, renowned as a blistering live act, have reformed to play Melbourne’s Fed Square in September.

A woman with grey plaits escaping from under a pink bathing cap stares at the camera. Behind her, sitting on the steps of the Newcastle Ocean Baths or standing nearby, are three other actors dressed for a swim or the beach. The ocean and sky meet behind them, in this publicity photo for 'Meet Me at the Baths' at New Annual Festival.
Features

New Annual Festival celebrates Newcastle places and stories

New Annual Festival Director Tory Loudon discusses highlights of her 2025 program.

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