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About Back to Back Theatre

Back to Back Theatre creates new forms of contemporary performance created by artists with disabilities, giving voice to social and political issues which speak to all people. Based in the regional centre of Geelong, the company is one of Australia’s most globally recognised and respected contemporary theatre companies. Seeking to make a body of work that exists in repertoire across time, the company tours extensively locally, nationally and internationally. Over the last decade, Back to Back Theatre has presented 40 national and 70 international seasons of its work. Since 1999, under the Artistic Directorship of Bruce Gladwin, the company has nurtured a unique artistic voice with an emphasis on the ensemble’s own commentaries on broad social and cultural dialogue. Created through a process of research, improvisation and scripting, new work is realised across time via collaboration between the ensemble, Artistic Director and guest artists. In addition to its professional practice Back to Back Theatre collaborates intensively with communities around the world, with a focus on artistic excellence and elevated social inclusion for all people of difference. Back to Back Theatre has received multiple national and international awards including in recent years a Helpmann Award for Best Australian Work, an Edinburgh International Festival Herald Angel Critics’ Award, a New York Bessie and the Myer Foundation Group Award for longstanding contribution to the development of Australian theatre. In 2015, Bruce Gladwin received the Australia Council for the Arts’ Inaugural Award for Outstanding Achievement in Theatre. In 2022 the Ibsen award, theatre’s equivalent of the Nobel prize, and in 2024, Back to Back has been awarded the prestigious Golden Lion award for lifetime achievement in theatre by the Venice Biennale.

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