Australian Theatre Live Streams Into The United States and Launches WHITEFELLA YELLA TREE at The Australian Embassy and Australian Theatre Festival NYC

Based on the east coast of Australia, AUSTRALIAN THEATRE LIVE (ATL) is a not-for-profit arts organization that records and distributes Australian live performances. Through doing so, ATL is preserving a state-of-the-art archive of its playwright, performing, and stage production heritage (much like the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive at the New York Public Library). Their groundbreaking digital subscription platform ATL ON DEMAND launched in October 2022, expanding access to arts and culture while sharing Australian theatre with the world. This innovative platform hosts a growing catalog of the best of Australian theatre, allowing access to the work of the country's greatest artists on an international stage.

Thanks to support from the International Cultural Diplomacy Arts Fund (ICDAF), the Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade, Minister Tony Burke, and the Federal Office of the Arts, ATL will make its international debut in October/November 2023. Creative Director Grant Dodwell and Producers Lucy Clements and Emma Wright look forward to connecting with American audiences, education institutions, and arts professionals as they introduce ATL On Demand, and build an exciting new pathway for cultural exchange between Australia and the US. Through two public screenings, they eagerly await celebrating the global Premiere of Indigenous artist Dylan Van Den Berg's WHITEFELLA YELLA TREE, a Griffin Theatre Company production, in November 2023.

WHITEFELLA YELLA TREE will make its US debut at the Australian Embassy in Washington (1601 Massachusetts Ave NW, Washington DC), on November 13, at 6:00 p.m. (doors open at 5:30 p.m.) followed by its New York debut as part of the Australian Theatre Festival (1350 Avenue of the Americas, Suite 2400 New York), on November 16, at 7:30 p.m. (doors open at 7:00 p.m.). The events are free and open to the public, and both screenings will be followed by live Q&A's with Dodwell, Clements, Wright and playwright Dylan Van Den Berg. To register your interest in attending either screening, please fill out this form.

Additionally, having recently shifted its attention to servicing the education sector through ATL ON DEMAND: EDUCATION, ATL is excited to promote its newly launched education-specific subscription platform, as a tool for educators in primary, secondary, and advanced institutions working across the fields of Music, Drama, Dance, and Physical Education. The catalog includes 26 Australian digital live performances, spanning text-based theatre, physical theatre, opera, and circus. As part of their visit, ATL will share this education tool with American institutions, offering students and educators the opportunity to engage with Australian performance content, such as the poignant First Nations story WHITEFELLA YELLA TREE, a stunning and educative exploration of young, queer love and Country set in the midst of invasion.

Van Den Berg's WHITEFELLA YELLA TREE starring Callan Purcell as Ty & Guy Simon as Neddy is a story of first love told with a fierce poetic vision and razor-sharp wit. Presented in August/September 2022 by Griffin Theatre Company, before transferring to the Canberra Theatre Centre, and later winning the 2023 NSW Premier's Literary Award for Playwriting, this new Australian play deserves a permanent position in the international canon. 

“First love: voices breaking, words coming out in all the wrong ways, a mess of limbs and too-wet kisses, earnest declarations. Imagine two boys falling for the first time - the giddiness, the joy - in a context without shame. And then imagine that love threatened by invaders wanting to colonize their Country, their bodies, their love. That's the world of Whitefella Yella Tree,” remarks playwright Van Den Berg. “I've written this play in the hope that you might reflect on the rich and real detail of lives that were disrupted when those ships hit the shore. The queer love stories that never got to be written.”

WHITEFELLA YELLA TREE  Co-Directors: Declan Greene & Amy Sole; Designer: Mason Browne; Lighting Co-Designers: Kelsey Lee & Katie Sfetkidis; Composer & Sound Designer: Steve Toulmin; Dramaturg: Andrea James; Stage Manager: Isabella Kerdijk; Intimacy Coordinator: Akala Newman (courtesy of Key Intimate Scenes); Community Engagement Consultant: Neville Williams Boney; Elder-in-Residence: Uncle Graham Simms.

WHITEFELLA YELLA TREE  Content Warnings: contains haze, loud noise, blinding lights, sex scenes, and weapons. It contains descriptions and representations of colonial violence.

Dylan Van Den Berg's WHITEFELLA YELLA TREE will make its US debut at the Australian Embassy in Washington (1601 Massachusetts Ave NW, Washington DC), on November 13, at 6:00 p.m. (doors open at 5.30 p.m.) and its New York debut as part of the Australian Theatre Festival (1350 Avenue of the Americas, Suite 2400 New York), on November 16, at 7:30 p.m. (doors open at 7:00 p.m.). To register your interest in attending either screening, please fill out this form.

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