ANYWHO?

Anywhere Theatre Festival Limited is a Brisbane based not-for-profit company with a vision to propel a world-wide trend for exciting, engaging, passionate theatre anywhere but traditional theatre spaces. AnywhereFest is a first for Australia and the world. 

Anywhere Theatre Festival Ltd provides a new model for performers, businesses and audiences to engage for community benefit. Performers can produce in a sustainable way regardless of theatres, businesses can see direct benefits to their brand and bottom line and the barriers normally attached to traditional theatres are removed..

Facts and Figures

Anywhere Theatre Festival 2011 from Arts Queensland on Vimeo.

The 2013 Anywhere Theatre Festival features 49 productions, 270 performances and the work of over 265 local producers, actors, dancers, comedians, directors, vocalists, playwrights, puppeteers, designers, production

In just three years, Anywhere Theatre Festival Ltd has provided the infrastructure, professional and creative development for 117 locally produced world premieres, more than any Queensland arts organisation

The 2012 Anywhere Theatre Festival had 66,000 attendees, up from 4,000 in our first year (2011).

We are the only festival in Brisbane to be nominated in  QANTAS Travel Insiders “Top Nine International Festivals”

We have been invited to Milan, Melbourne, the U.K.and presented to TEDx to explain how our model works

We have partnered with over 57 different organisation providing in kind support from Queensland Rail and Heritage Bank to local small business not traditionally engaged with the arts

A festival that turned the attendance pyramid on it’s head  with two thirds of the audiences being people who normally go to performance once or less a year.

A festival that in its first year had more performances than Brisbane Festival and in it’s second year had more performances than Brisbane Festival and World Theatre Festival combined.

Anywhere Theatre Festival Festival ir run by Paul Osuch and Alex McTavish on a volunteer basis.

The festival receives $30,000 from Arts Queensland

 

Key Staff

Anywhere Theatre Festival is run by a core of two volunteers, which grows up to 300 people in the lead up to the Festival.

Paul Osuch – CEO/Artistic Director

Paul Osuch is the Founder and Volunteer Artistic Director of Anywhere Theatre Festival Ltd, a festival for performance anywhere but a theatre. Paul Osuch holds a Bachelor of Business from the Queensland University of Technology and is a graduate of the NIDA Playwrights Studio. Most recently he gained a place on the Australia Council for the Arts 2012 Emerging Leadership Development Program.

He was Artistic Director of Borderline Defamation Productions for several years, producing and directing the world premiere of many new works, including the Australian Film Industry nominated All My Friends Are Leaving Brisbane, which has since been adapted into a feature length film. He has created and marketed major productions from the Soho Theatre and Battersea Arts Centre in London to the Cement Box Theatre in Brisbane and been responsible for the rebranding of organisations including the U.K’s Rose Bruford College

Paul has always been focused on new ideas and ways to make theatre a bigger part of everyone’s life.

Alexandra McTavish – General Manager

Alex brings a decade of experience in the arts to her role here at Anywhere Theatre Festival.

She is an actor, writer, producer and director and uses her varied talents to motivate Anywhere Theatre Festival participants to realise their creative aspirations.

“For me, cultural leadership is about empowering others to find inspiration in their own abilities, to build an evironment in which experimentation and discovery is celebrated…”

Alex has a Bachelor of Journalism, Masters in Writing and she studied acting at Rose Bruford College in London.

Alex is interested in ensuring artists profit from their efforts.

Board of Directors

The Anywhere Theatre Festival board of management is an expert panel of leaders drawn from the arts, business and government sectors.

Doug Brimblecombe – Chair

Doug has been in the live entertainment industry for over 30 years. His career started in the Queensland country town of Dalby and has led him to travel the world many times over. His specialty is lighting but his involvement in performance art has seen him in many roles from company management and design consultancy to loading 124 ton Antonov aircrafts in Russia for rock bands. He is now Manager of Lighting at QPAC.

Doug is a Technician of the Illuminating Engineering Society of Australia and New Zealand (IESANZ) and is a member of the Queensland IESANZ Chapter Management Committee.

He is a member of the Australian Lighting Industry Association (ALIA) and holds a Graduate Diploma in Physics (Lighting). He is currently undertaking a Masters.

David Cotton – Director

David is a joint founder of New Ventures Australia and is an experienced and successful high-level Senior Manager with recognized turnaround and start up expertise. He has previously held roles as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Executive Officer.

David has worked in a number of different industries, including retail, IT, exploration, commercialization, and financial services. He has been the Chief Financial Officer of UniQuest, the University of Queensland’s main commercialization company and Mitchell Drilling, an exploration company involved in coal seam gas with operations in Australia, China and India. He has also been the Chief Executive Officer of Precision Eyewear, a retail operation with 40 stores, where the company more than doubled its value before its trade sale to OPSM.

Commencing his career as a Chartered Accountant, David worked with leading Chartered Accounting firm Ernst and Young.

Elliott Dalgleish – Director

Elliott Dalgleish works as a Barrister-at-Law and is a board/committee member of Anywhere Theatre Festival Ltd, New Musique Australia Ltd, East Brisbane Community Centre Inc, The Wilderness Society Queensland Inc and saxophonist.

Elliott holds degrees in four disciplines – law, business, music, and arts – and has worked at all levels of education (tertiary, vocational, secondary, and primary) as a coordinator, lecturer, teacher, educator and administrator.

As a saxophonist he has toured to over 40 countries but loves to return to Byron Bay, his home town, whenever he can.

Kathie Kelly – Director

Kathie Kelly has over 18 years’ experience in sales and marketing roles, at least half of them in a managerial capacity. Her professional background is in both transport/logistics (freight forwarding, courier and general freight) and the not for profit sector (arts, community education, corporate partnerships and fundraising). Kathie was recognised as one of the first female managers in the New Zealand transport industry.

Since moving to Australia Kathie has worked in the recruitment industry for over eight years specialising in the industrial, resource and transport/logistics sectors. She provides not only workforce solutions but an in-depth understanding of the marketplace and motivators for both employer and employee, along with personality profiling and attitudinal drivers. Kathie has also worked as a Corporate Partnerships Manager for two large Australian charities and negotiated significant social responsibility programs with ASX listed organisations.

Kathie travelled the world during the 1990’s as a professional cabaret dancer and also performed with the Royal London Circus (formerly known as Chipperfields).

Amber Moran – Director

Amber is a highly-skilled communication and marketing professional with over 16 years experience in the public and private sector.

Throughout her accomplished career, she has led multi-million dollar communication campaigns for the Queensland Government; worked as a journalist, editor, presenter for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation; and written children’s television for Southern Star Concept.

In recognition of her marketing accomplishments, Amber was awarded the Premier’s Award for Excellence in Public Service Delivery (Highly Commended) and the Department of Environment and Resource Management Excellence Award in Leadership. Amber is also a freelance photographer with a passion for historic architecture.

Lynn Smart – Secretary

Lynn Smart is a CPA with more than 20 years senior commercial experience in accounting, business and financial analysis, internal audit,governance and risk. Lynn is a fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and completed her MBA at the University of Queensland in 2008. As an employee or consultant Lynn has worked with SME’s, multinationals, private and public companies across broad industry segments such as construction, mining services, web hosting, energy, he avy industry and food manufacturing, assembly, FMCG, franchise, and transport.

Lynn has a results oriented and outcome based approach linking strategic goals to real operational performance while understanding the implications for compliance, governance and risk.

Jeremy Wicht – Director

Jeremy is a Chartered Accountant with over 15 years experience assisting small and medium businesses to grow and thrive. He also brings a commercial focus to assisting businesses and their owners in both compliance and leveraging existing financial information flows to assist them in better managing their businesses. He holds and M.B.A. from the University of Queensland, together with business accounting degrees from Q.U.T. He is also a graduate of the Institute of Company Directors course. He is passionate about sharing his skills and knowledge with the broader community and assisting Anywhere Theatre Festival in its success.