Tonight, NORPA brings back the performing arts! For the next three nights (July 2-5), you can listen to livestreamed new short works by some of Australia’s best playwrights for Dear Australia.

Dear Australia explores the recent pandemic which “exposed and prised open many cracks in our society”, according to Playwriting Australia chair David Berthold.

Playwrights such as Nakkiah Lui, Jada Alberts and actors like Jack Thompson and Miranda Tapsell will be livestreamed into your home as part of NORPA’s new collaboration with Playwriting Australia (PWA).

The Dear Australia project involves 50 postcards, described as comforting, confronting, and a unique celebration of Australian voices.

At a time when a pandemic has forced reflection and change, these playwrights have responded to questions that get to the heart of where our nation is and where it might go.

“These 50 micro works address major questions, allowing us to see into some of those cracks, but also inviting us to see light ahead,” Mr Berthold said.

Commissioned by Playwriting Australia, the 50 monologues have been recorded by 50 actors, many in their own homes.

Playwriting Australia is the national body for the development of Australian plays and playwrights. For the project, it invited 25 theatre organisations from across Australia to each nominate two playwrights and then commissioned them to write a short monologue, which were then filmed by 50 extraordinary actors.

These moving and sometimes provocative stories will be grouped over three nights and live streamed by the partner theatres, along with major performing arts centres such as Arts Centre Melbourne, Sydney Opera House, Queensland Performing Arts Centre, Canberra Theatre Centre and Darwin Entertainment Centre.

A Dear Australia panel discussion will be broadcast from the Joan Sutherland Theatre by the Sydney Opera House on Saturday, July 4 at 7pm.

Dear Australia livestreams over three nights (Thursday 2 July, Friday 3 July and Sunday 5 July) on the NORPA Facebook page and on Playwriting Australia’s YouTube channel).