Performing Lines is proud to announce the launch of The Wendy Tapes, a four-part interview series honouring the extraordinary life and legacy of Australian performing arts pioneer Wendy Blacklock AM. The series will be released on Tuesday 19 May via the Performing Lines website.
Through intimate interviews, personal reflections and archival material, The Wendy Tapes offers a rare and deeply human portrait of a producer whose vision and tenacity helped shape the national performing arts landscape. As the founder of Performing Lines, Wendy Blacklock was instrumental in building pathways for independent artists, fostering innovation, and championing stories from across Australia to reach audiences locally and internationally.
In 2024, after commencing his role as the current Executive Producer and CEO Simon Wellington decided it was time to capture the story of Wendy’s journey from stage actor to industry powerhouse.
“Through conversations with colleagues and a major archiving project at Performing Lines, it became clear that we had no material capturing the voice, experience and achievements of our extraordinary founder, Wendy Blacklock. It felt like a significant gap—not only in our organisation’s history, but in Australia’s performing arts story more broadly. Being able to help address this, alongside the many iconic artists and leaders who have shaped, and been shaped by, that journey, has been an absolute privilege.”
Bringing together the voices of artists, collaborators and cultural leaders, the four-part series explores Wendy’s enduring influence, not only on the work that has been seen on stages around the country and the world, but on the generations of artists whose careers she helped create, inspire and sustain.
“I wouldn’t be where I am now without the invaluable and consistent support of Wendy Blacklock and Performing Lines. They were my life raft as an independent artist, particularly through tough times when I was close to giving up hope of ever having a career as an artist.” reflects acclaimed director and choreographer Kate Champion (Artistic Director – Black Swan State Theatre Company WA).
At its heart, The Wendy Tapes speaks to the art of producing: the largely unseen labour of recognising talent, building trust, and creating the conditions for artists to thrive. Wendy’s approach was defined across more than three decades by an unwavering belief in the importance of artists and storytelling.
“Wendy Blacklock shaped the producer’s roadmap for developing and touring new Australian work,” says Annette Downs, former Senior Producer at Performing Lines Tasmania. “She sought out the untold stories held by artists across the country and carried them onto national and international stages.”
The series also highlights Wendy’s ground-breaking support of First Nations artists and her role in ensuring their work reached audiences across Australia and beyond, advancing a more inclusive and representative national arts ecology.
Professor Wesley Enoch AM (Chair of the Australia Council Board of Creative Australia) reflects on her profound personal and cultural impact: “Wendy Blacklock is a legend. The little white woman who almost all black theatre makers call Aunty. She has been at the start of so many Indigenous careers with a supportive word, an eager offer of help and her dry sense of humour. My career is because she was in my corner.”
Across four episodes, The Wendy Tapes trace the evolution of Performing Lines—from its early roots and emergence as Australia’s only national organisation nurturing, producing and touring the work of independent artists — and the networks, partnerships and possibilities Wendy created along the way.
Her contribution to Australian theatre is widely regarded as transformative. As inaugural Performing Lines Chair Ian Temby AO KC observes:
“It is an exaggeration, but not a great one, to say that Wendy Blacklock created Australian performing arts. Without her, theatre in this country would be immensely poorer. She is in my mind a living national treasure.”
More than a historical record, the series is both a celebration and an invitation to reflect on the values that sustain artistic communities and to consider how mentorship, generosity and bold vision are integral to shaping the future of the arts.
The Wendy Tapes stands as a tribute to a remarkable career, and to a legacy that continues to resonate across stages, communities and generations.
CLICK HERE to see all four episodes and find out more about Wendy and our four exceptional interviewers.
