A local theatre company has won a prestigious international award for its decades of producing high-quality works.
Geelong’s Back to Back Theatre was awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in Theatre at the Venice Biennale in Italy last Wednesday (February 14).
The award will be presented at the close of the 2024 Biennale festival in Venice on Saturday, July 30, which will be the 60th edition of the biennial international art exhibition.
Formed in Geelong in 1987, the company has produced a multitude of works created and performed by people with disabilities, touring internationally over the last two decades and spending around 20 weeks a year on the road.
Many of Back to Back’s works have received international acclaim and last year the company won one of international theatre’s biggest prizes, the International Ibsen Award.
Back to Back artistic director Bruce Gladwin, who has been with the company since 1999, said the award was “totally unexpected”.
“We’re totally thrilled and really honoured, it’s the first time an Australian theatre company has won the award,” Mr Gladwin said.
“When you make theatre, you want audiences to see your work and you want attention and this award brings attention on the company.
“I think the company is recognised as being quite unique, the fact that we’re an ensemble-based company that employs artists with intellectual disabilities or (are) neurodiverse, and that work is written by them as well.
“It’s not just the company itself, in many ways (the award) recognises the broader ecology of artists that we work with; designers, writers, dramaturgs or lighting designers. And with a lot of those relationships we’ve been working with those people for multiple decades. So it’s a bigger team.”
