New era for Australia’s circus and physical theatre sector

The Australian Circus and Physical Theatre Association (ACAPTA) has been wound up, with its services transferred to Theatre Network Australia.

Gravity and Other Myth’s Backbone. Image by Hamish McCormick/Carnival Cinema.

Established in 1999 out of the ashes of the Australian National Circus Association (ANCA), and originally known as the National Circus and Physical Theatre Association (NCPTA), Australia’s peak body for circus and physical theatre is no more.

A special general meeting of the Australian Circus and Physical Theatre Association’s (ACAPTA) members in April agreed to wind up the organisation. That process has now been completed, with Theatre Network Australia (TNA) announcing last week it has taken on the bulk of the services that ACAPTA used to provide.

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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