The 2025 MERRIGONGX artists’ program, presented by Merrigong Theatre, showcases the breadth of local talent from the Illawarra region, NSW. The initiative supports a range of ambitions, from in-house creative developments to fully staged public presentations of new work, with fundamentals such as financial, technical, marketing and artistic resources.
Merrigong Theatre Company Artistic Development Manager, Leland Kean, says the program, now in its eighth year, is “sighted as best practice by many of our industry peers” and its impact “has changed not only the ecology for independent artists in the live performing arts in the Illawarra, but is felt now across the national performing arts landscape”.
The 2025 program of public presentations kicks off from 20-22 February with Gunai artist Kirli Saunders’ Yandha Djanbay (Go Slowly), described as a “powerful meditation on resilience, connection and healing [that] blends intimate storytelling with audiovisual projections” and draws inspiration from Country.
Alt-rock, pop and ballads intertwine in the work of Lucy Heffernan, who will perform Dog People from 19-21 June. It’s a story about love, loyalty and loss, using music to explore primal instincts.
September brings Squatch Watch: LIVE by Vaguely Adjacent, a new performance collective led by Nick Vagne. The dark comedic take on live podcast shows will interrogate conspiracies and hoaxes, and how they are proliferated through social media.
The finale of the staged season features Public Access by The Corinthian Food Store, which will turn the Wollongong City Library into a performance space for people to come together and decide what truly matters in these shared spaces.
Read: Merrigong Theatre Company’s 2025 season is its largest ever
In addition, MERRIGONGX will support over 40 local artists across various projects throughout the year, including creatives such as Bonnie Curtis, Bradley Ward and Jordon Mahar.
In March, June and September, emerging and established artists are invited to experiment and present new ideas to live audiences on the stage of the annual Made From Scratch multi-art form performance nights.
MERRIGONGX is now in its eighth year; find out more about the 2025 program.
