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 Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards' Facilitator's Prize in 2020. In 2021 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Green Room Awards Association. Most recently, Richard received a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in June 2024. Follow him on Twitter: @richardthewatts

Richard Watts's Latest Articles

Peering inside the set design for the final Slingsby production, 'A Concise Compendium of Wonder'. In the photo, a man peers through a small doorway into the interior of the model.
News

Slingsby Theatre Company’s 2026 production to be its last

The South Australian company will wind up in its 20th year with a final, ambitious work.

Arts News and Trending Topics. A red and white megaphone floats above a loudspeaker, conveying the message of arts news and arts sector headlines being announced.
News

This week’s arts news and trending topics

We report it – you read it. This week’s top arts news stories.

Jessica Cottis, a fair-skinned woman with long dark hair tied back behind her head, conducts the Canberra Symphony Orchestra. She wears a black jacket over a white shirt, and holds a white baton in her raised right hand.
Features

Celebrating connection and story: Canberra Symphony Orchestra’s 75th anniversary season

Jessica Cottis, Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the CSO, discusses her 2025 season and the importance of commissioning new…

The three members of Irish rap group Kneecap lie shirtless on the floor, surrounded by empty baggies, scattered pills and an empty bottle of Buckfast, suggesting the aftermath of a wild, drug-fuelled night. Rich Peppiatt’s Kneecap movie is a semi-fictionalised biopic about the band.
StarsStarsStarsStarsStars

Kneecap film review: top showcase of the hip hop trio’s talents

Rich Peppiatt’s debut feature is a bawdy, rambunctious and semi-fictionalised biopic of Belfast rappers Kneecap.

The musicians of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra arrayed on stage in a grand concert hall.
News

Managing Director leaves MSO: Peter Garrett to conduct independent external review

Sophie Galaise has left the MSO after the Orchestra’s musicians made a statement of 'no confidence' in senior management.

A woman in a white dress flails in the arms of a man in a white shirt. Her arms are raised, her hair flying; we cannot see her face, although she is partially reflected in pane of glass behind her.
News

Adelaide Festival announces first three shows for 2025

A Simon Stone-directed opera, a triple bill from Pina Bausch’s Tanztheater Wuppertal and ADT’s 60th anniversary production are the first…

A deliberately blurred photograph of a fast-moving soccer player and goalie, the latter of whom is defending the goal from an incoming football during training.
News

On the move: latest arts sector appointments

Our weekly round-up of Australian arts sector comings and goings.

A man with long dark hair and a short dark beard concentrates as he plays the electric guitar. He wears blue jeans and a t-shirt that exposes the tattoos on his forearms.
Sponsored

How Newcastle’s New Annual festival changes artists’ lives, one opportunity at a time

Now in its fourth year, the multi-arts festival New Annual celebrates Novocastrian creatives while also bringing Australia’s best artists to…

A woman in a red top and blue pleated skirt, facing away from the camera, balances atop a cyr wheel (a piece of circus apparatus) while spinning two hula hoops on each outstretched arm. In the background, a large audience watches on.
Features

The National Circus Festival: growing grassroots circus in the regions

With an emphasis on circus training and community-building as much as entertainment, the National Circus Festival is a major event…

Woman swimming in an aquatic race in swimming pool.
News

On the move: latest arts sector appointments

Our weekly round-up of Australian arts sector comings and goings.

1 6 7 8 9 10 229