Performing Lines began life in 1982, as the Australian Content Department of the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust (AETT). In May 1990, the Department incorporated as Performing Lines, an independent non-profit organisation.

Performing Lines has worked with many of Australia’s leading contemporary performing arts Australian companies. Highlights over the years include Nigel Jamieson and Paul Grabowsky’s extraordinary collaboration with Indonesian artists, The Theft of Sita; Wesley Enoch and Deborah Mailman’s The 7 Stages of Grieving, William Yang’s Sadness, Tanja Liedtke’s construct and Twelfth Floor; the Chooky Dancers and Nigel Jamieson’s Ngurrumilmarrmiriyu (Wrong Skin) and Wesley Enoch’s I am Eora.

Of the outstanding shows presented by Performing Lines, several have notably influenced the national theatrical agenda. Performing Lines toured Robert Merritt’s The Cake Man to Denver, Colorado in 1982 – the first time an Australian Indigenous production received an invitation to a World Theatre Festival. Other significant works include Jack Davis’ The Dreamers, No Sugar and Honeyspot, Meryl Tankard’s first work as a choreographer and director, Echo Point, Handspan Puppet Theatre’s Secrets and Four Little Girls, Sydney Front’s Don Juan, Sally Morgan’s Sister Girl and the Indigenous musical Bran Nue Dae.

More recently, Performing Lines has produced or toured some of the most exciting and significant contemporary theatre and dance practitioners, including Lucy Guerin, Force Majeure, version 1.0, Chamber Made Opera, Back to Back Theatre, Animal Farm Collective, post and My Darling Patricia.

For information on past productions, visit the Archive.