Performing Lines announces new Senior Producer VIC

We are pleased to announce the appointment of Samantha Butterworth as our new Senior Producer (Victoria) leading the company’s Melbourne / Naarm office.

“Sam’s unwavering advocacy for artists and her passion for the industry make her an invaluable addition to the Performing Lines team, building on our important efforts in Victoria. She has nurtured a host of artists, toured works nationally and internationally and invested considerably in the local Victorian sector.” says Performing Lines Executive Producer Marion Potts.

Samantha joins Jeremy Smith (Senior Producer WA) and Annette Downs (Senior Producer TAS) as part of our national producing network across WA, Tas, Victoria and NSW, working across Australia and internationally.

On joining the organisation Samantha stats: “I am thrilled to work with extraordinary artists like Fat Fruit (soon to premiere their newest work, Fart Fabulous at RISING), The Rabble (we are about to take the critically acclaimed show, YES!, To Vitalstastix),  Amrita Hepi  and Samara Hersch (who is part of the innovative new initiative, HYPERLOCAL, which reimagines the way that metropolitan venues support local artists to commission new work). II feel very passionately about supporting new Australian work and ensuring that that work represents the diversity of the world we live and supports First Nations artists first.”

Performing Lines is a national company with offices in NSW, Tasmania, Western Australia and Victoria. It was recently awarded Creative Victoria funding through its Unlocking Capacity Program to support its Victorian activities, enabling Performing Lines to increase its activity in Victoria, support and employ more Victorian artists, operate more sustainably, and deliver more creative products and services. Samantha’s appointment comes at a pivotal time of growth for Performing Lines in Victoria. Since establishing a Victorian base in 2019 Performing Lines has:

• Produced 4 new Victorian works including a Major Festival commission and a cross cultural mainstage collaboration between Melbourne, Singapore, and Indonesia
• Delivered activity (presentations, creative developments, community engagement activity) in 17 regional Victorian communities
• Performed to over 20,000 audience members in Victoria
• Employed more than 100 Victorian artists and arts workers
• Supported 4 Victorian independent works to pitch at APAM
• Piloted HYPERLOCAL, an innovative presenter-led collaboration creating new ways of resourcing and presenting new work in Melbourne
• Maintained Victorian turnover on average of around $700,000 per annum representing around 20% of national company turnover
• Played a critical role internationally, using our vast networks to profile Victorian artists on the world stage

Performing Lines’ Victorian office is supported by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria.  

Performing Lines is supported by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body, the NSW Government through Create NSW, the Western Australian government through the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries, and the Tasmanian Government through Arts Tasmania.

Samantha Butterworth Biography

Samantha is a Programmer and Creative Producer based in Melbourne. Samantha is thrilled to join the team at Performing Lines. For the last 5 years, Samantha has worked as Arts Programmer at Darebin City Council where she programmed and delivered the annual Darebin Arts Speakeasy season, including designing and facilitating the award winning program, Let’s Take Over. Previously, Samantha has worked as the Creative Producer of Elbow Room, as Tour Coordinator with Regional Arts Victoria (where she has also been engaged to produce both 2014 & 2015 Showcase Victoria events in conjunctions with the Victorian Association of Performing Arts Centres), Producer of the inaugural Poppy Seed Festival, Operations Manager for Red Stitch Actors Theatre; Administrator for Rollercoaster Theatre Company; and has sat in many roles as a Freelance Creative Producer.

Performing Lines

Performing Lines produces provocative contemporary performance by Australia’s most audacious independent artists.

We curate a portfolio of work that is propelled by pressing questions and new ways of seeing the world. We champion the unconventional, the marginal, the rebellious and the new. Our purpose is to embrace risk and to ensure that the breadth and plurality of Australia’s creative potential is represented and celebrated. Performing Lines is led by Executive Producer Marion Potts, and manages teams in Sydney, Perth, Hobart and Melbourne, with a network of producers and presenters around the country and the world.