Black Swan Launches Black Swan Home Theatre With UNSUNG HEROES: A DIGITAL FESTIVAL OF WA STORIES

BLACK SWAN State Theatre Company is launching its new digital platform "BLACK SWAN Home Theatre", a company first initiative that will allow us to connect with our audience in new and exciting ways.

Distributed across the company's suite of digital channels, BLACK SWAN Home Theatre audiences will find video messages from our actors, behind the scenes interviews with our artists and creatives, backstage tours of our workshops and the production of Unsung Heroes: A Digital Festival of Western Australian Stories.

BLACK SWAN has always been about bringing people together and creating connection through live story telling. When COVID-19 hit we made the decision to postpone our 2020 season until Oklahoma! this November for the safety of our audience members and our artistic community. Whilst social distancing restrictions are being eased and life is returning back to 'normal', it will be some time before we are all back in the theatre.

BLACK SWAN Home Theatre presents an exciting opportunity to continue to foster human connection and build a sense of community online, through the love of theatre.

Initially scheduled as part of the 2020 Season, Unsung Heroes is a collection of tour-de-force solo performances that celebrate everyday Western Australians who have done extraordinary things in a world premiere season directed by Emily McLean and Joe Paradise Lui.

The performances tell stories of courage, life's music, adventure, new beginnings and dignity. The production is a timely reminder of our shared humanity and of our uniquely Western Australian identity.

The works have been written by local playwrights Gita Bezard, Barbara Hostalek, Chris Isaacs, Hellie Turner and Mararo Wangai.

Artistic Director Clare Watson said "BLACK SWAN is proud to be able to continue working with our creative teams in order to help support our sector, keep theatre professionals employed, and keep creativity alive. We feel incredibly fortunate that as a company during this time, we've been working with actors almost everyday of lock-down amounting to over 160 weeks of fulltime employment. In April, we completed a four week creative development of The Cherry Orchard over four states via ZOOM and last month we live streamed the much loved Summer of the Seventeenth Doll with over 1,000 audience members registering for the event. We are thrilled to continue to share our work with new audiences via BLACK SWAN Home Theatre in presenting the digital festival of Unsung Heroes."

Each Unsung Heroes monologue was filmed on stage. The pre-recorded performances will be live streamed for free to registered users from Tuesday July 21. A live Q&A facilitated by Resident Artist Ian Michael will follow each live stream. All performances will also be made available on demand. To watch the performances live streamed or on demand, registrations are essential. Register via our website here: https://bsstc.com.au/plays/unsung-heroes