On the 22nd February, Barking Gecko Theatre Company will host the official Perth What If? Forum, to launch the next Platform Paper from Currency House - Not just an audience: Young people transforming our theatre.

Authors of the Platform Paper, Lenine Bourke and Mary Ann Hunter, show how young people are leading a demand for change in the arts and want to rock the balance of power.

To celebrate the launch of the Platform Paper No. 26 What If? Forums are being held in Perth, Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne. Jessica Machin, CEO of Country Arts WA (Former CEO of Carclew Youth Arts and General Manager of the Australian Theatre for Young People), will lead the WA panel of select industry specialists and young artists to discuss the theme ‘Young people transforming our Theatre’.

• What if… the professional theatre community lets go of the outmoded idea that young people’s work is only a stepping stone to the serious stuff of a national theatre industry.
• What if…the theatre sector acknowledges the ways in which youth arts practitioners have already cultivated the networks and collaborations that it struggles to achieve?
• What if …young people were brought in on the act of transforming Australian theatre?

Katherine McLean, General Manager of Barking Gecko says,

“Currency House’s latest Platform Paper is an important essay for the future of performing arts. As Western Australia’s State Theatre Company for young audiences, Barking Gecko recognises young people as the future shapers of our society. It is important to us for young people’s voices to be heard. This forum will allow industry practitioners and young people as artists and audience to discuss the future of theatre.”

Currency House’s Platform Papers, is a series of essays by arts practitioners providing background and proposals for change on topical artistic, ethical and political issues relating to the arts. Small, friendly and authoritative, they are aimed at engaging the reader in areas ranging from theatre and dance, film and television to cultural policy, employment, censorship, the digital world and the creative economy.

Platform Papers have become a significant feature in the landscape of our national

For further information about the event please contact Michelle Weall at the Barking Gecko Theatre Company on (08) 9380 3080.