🌘 Sunday Night In #23
The Living Library, a friendly Laugh Lab, and a truckload of opportunities.
Sunday Night In brings you the news about South Australian books, theatre and stories that the algorithm doesn’t show you. No ads, no clickbait, and it’s free!
Hello friends!
This last week (or two) in South Australia: the Thunderbirds lost their first game of the season which was the first game they’ve lost in (I think) eleven games (don’t worry they’ll be back on top by the end of this round); the lost dachshund on Kangaroo Island has been found; and a cautionary tale if you’re thinking about going into politics, Mike Smithson will pull no punches.
Looking forward: in this week’s edition of Sunday Night In we’ve got the housewarming for Pink Shorts Press; a mentorship for emerging arts writers; and a teeny tiny new festival. And don’t miss the introduction of a new section in the newsletter Venues, Spaces and Places (trust me, it’s excellent!).
Let’s get started …
News
🗞 I started this newsletter because there is so little (so very, very little) arts coverage in our local media. And that’s also why I love that the partnership between InReview and the Helpmann Academy continues. They are providing a ten-week mentorship for an emerging arts journalist. Applications currently open.
🏳️🌈 Penny McAuley is the new chair of the Feast Festival board.
Quick Reminder! Do note that I usually only include an event in the newsletter once. If you want to look back over the last few issues to see what’s still on, all previous issues are available on the Sunday Night In page here.
Theatre and performance
🎭 Do you want to try stand-up comedy? Laugh Lab is a regular open mic night, and with the next night hosted by Nona Mona and featuring Vida Slayman this is a great chance to give it a go in a friendly atmosphere.
🇫🇷 Stand-up comedy in French? Pourquoi pas? See Tania Dutel at the Arkaba.
⚓️ Galleon Theatre open Wrong Turn at Lungfish at the Marion Cultural Centre this week.
🍅 Coming up next at State Theatre it’s Looking for Alibrandi based on Melina Marchetta’s much-loved coming-of-age novel.
🎟 Tickets for next week’s opening of Comic Potential by Blackwood Players are now on sale.
Social media has worked really well for the arts for many years. But now? Who has any real idea where it’s heading? Local news is getting harder to find, local news about the arts harder still. Sunday Night In connects South Australian artists with audiences and South Australian audiences with artists. Share this newsletter with anyone you think might be interested. Suggest they subscribe … it’s full of great information and it’s free!
Books, readings, storytelling and writing
🎤 No Wave poetry is back at The Wheaty later in May.
🍷📗 Dymocks continue their fabulous Books in Bars series with the consistently excellent James Bradley talking about his new book Landfall.
🍷📕 The SA Professional Historians Association presents History at the Historian where editors Wilfred Prest and Kerrie Round discuss updates to the Wakefield Companion to South Australian History. (I love this book, and I highly recommend you get yourself a copy for your own shelves. This new edition features new biographical memoirs, updated entries and several thematic articles.)
📗 A Living Library session at the City of Charles Sturt as Aunty Leanne shares stories, knowledge and Culture passed down through generations.
📗📗 And you can expect more Living Library sessions, with the City of Charles Sturt announcing their receipt of a grant from the federal government for their program Don’t Judge a Book by its Cover. This brilliant initiative is designed to ‘bring people together through storytelling to celebrate diversity and strengthen community connection.’
✍️ The Light Regional Council Library Service hosts a meet the author session with Fleur McDonald at the Hewett Centre. On the other side of the city the City of Marion is also hosting Fleur McDonald this time at the Cove Civic Centre.
🧒🏽 📕 National Simultaneous Storytime is coming. Now in it’s 25th year, I remember being part of one of the first of these events when I was a children’s library decades ago. If you’ve got a little person in your life who you love sharing stories with look up your local library for details.
📚 Ern Malley readings this week feature SJ McKenzie, Aphrodite Haylock, Christopher Charles and Peter Goldsworthy.
✍️ Young Writer’s Club at the Burnside Library.
Enjoying Sunday Night In? Share it with a friend … it’s another way to contribute to a vibrant local arts scene.
In the regions
🎡 Patch Theatre are touring their wonderful show Wonderverse to Pt Pirie, Whyalla, Renmark and Mt Gambier. Bookings now open for family and school performances.
Festivals
🍻🔬 Here’s a festival I hadn’t heard of but it looks cool! The Pint of Science Festival has three sessions at The Wheaty in May. I’ll be interested to hear what it’s like if you’re planning on getting along.
💭 The biennial DreamBIG Children’s Festival is about to begin. The cardboard city we built on the lawns of a Port Pirie school is one of my first memories of an immersive arts experience. Two highlights:
I love the look of Behind the Curtain an opportunity for students to see the lighting, set design, stage management, marketing and publicity that underlie any theatre production. (And then they can go on to be independent artists and realise that having a different person for each job is LUXURY and mostly being in the arts means doing all the jobs 🤣).
Write Now Festival with a big bunch of workshops and panel discussions led by many excellent writers, publishers and editors.
🔥 The History Festival kicks off this week, with a really varied program including one of the most-clicked links of any I’ve ever included in a newsletter, so I’ll give it to you again in case you missed it. An Audience With Don Dunstan.
Venues, Spaces and Places
Let me begin this section with a short moment of enthusiastic editorialisng 🤣 📣 Spaces and venues matter! They help to create a sense of vibrancy, energy and momentum. So I’ve added this section to the newsletter to highlight the magic that happens when people have beautiful places to meet, work and create.
🎉 It’s a housewarming and you’re invited! Pink Shorts Press have moved in to their beautiful new space in the Adelaide Arcade. An opportunity to not only see the lovely view, but also learn more about the Wordshops service which includes guidance for businesses and organisations on all things words and wording, like brand voice, editing and more.
🎁 I have talked before about how much I love the Adelaide Arcade, and at the ongoing risk of sounding like a shopping newsletter, I’m going to put in another plug for this gorgeous space. I was in there just before Easter to (re)stock my chocolate bilby stash and discovered that OmMade Meet the Maker have moved into the space previously used by Have You Met Charlie? OmMade is a not-for-profit organisation with several outlets around the city, providing local artists a great outlet for their products.
💎 On a similar note, these opportunities for a space in the Edments Building by Renew Adelaide look great. If you aren’t familiar with them Renew Adelaide is a not-for-profit organisation that matches vacant spaces with emerging businesses to provide rent-free opportunities for those businesses.
🎸 And on the matter of how much venues and spaces matters, don’t just take my word for it! Following the Create SA announcement, a focus on music and venues continued as InDaily reported on Uncertainty as government’s live music venue list yet to be finalised; and the ABC reported on ‘a sore point’: How Adelaide became a UNESCO City of Music without a concert hall.
A Little Bit of This and That That Isn’t Books or Theatre or Readings or Performance (or might be a little bit of them all)
📽 Script consultations with The Mercury writers-in-residence, Roger Monk and Michelle Law. These consultations are free for Mercury subscribers which is, as they say, worth the price of admission alone.
🇬🇷 Also at The Mercury the Adelaide premiere of Charmian Clift: Life Burns High with director, Rachel Lane in conversation with Dr Jessica Ford. Exploring her fascinating life between Australia and the island of Hydra in Greece.
Know someone who might like to have Sunday Night In delivered straight to their inbox? Share it with them now. It’s free!
Opportunities!
Jobs, funding, residencies, fellowships, competitions, and calls for expressions of interest
📣 Expressions of interest are now open for the South Australian Presenters Association Showcase. This annual showcase is a great opportunity for producers and artists to pitch their shows and events to presenters such as venues, promoters and programmers. I pitched a couple of years ago and I got a bunch of bookings many of which have become ongoing relationships, so if you are an artist or producer I highly recommend it. The day of the showcase itself is also an excellent opportunity to see other artists at work and there are usually presentations about industry trends and opportunities.
🎨 Applications for Bundanon’s incredible Artists in Residence program are now open for the 2026 program. Note that there are many residency opportunities, but there is only one call-out per year.
🖌 Closer to home (depending on where exactly you live!), the Grindell’s Hut residency coordinated by Country Arts SA is open for applications. I have looked longingly at this residency ever since it was established many years ago. Imagine three weeks immersed in your project in the incredible Northern Flinders Ranges.
📆 This is outstanding! Artselerate is a social enterprise helping artists and creative workers develop their business skills. They are currently running a program for local artists in South Australia. Led by facilitators with direct experience in the arts and creative industries, there is a four-day in-person event at Fabrik (it might already be full); and a fully-subsidised (that means free!) online program supported by the South Australian Office of Small and Family Business.
🦕 A short term contract as the Program Manager at Inspiring South Australia, South Australian Museum.
🔍 There’s an Engagement Officer job at MOD, but your first task is to try and find the job description (I saw the job advertised on their instagram account and their ‘work with us’ page links to their instagram, but doesn’t have job details. Maybe they’ll be listed tomorrow?
⭐️ National Director of the Arts and Disability Network Australia (ADNA). (ADNA is a consortium formed in response to Creative Australia’s call for a National Arts and Disability Delivery Partner. Access2Arts (SA) is the lead agency for the consortium.)
🎀 Head of Marketing at The Adelaide Fringe
🎀 Head of Development at The Adelaide Festival.
⭐️ HR Coordinator at The Adelaide Festival.
🙋🏽♀️ Events and Engagement Support Officer at the City of Marion.
⭐️ Marketing Content Creator at the Adelaide Film Festival.
♦️ Administration Assistant at Ben Francis Entertainment.
✍️ Entries for the MIKI prize for short stories run by the Ern Malley bar close soon.
💸 A free events grants workshop at the City of Port Adelaide Enfield.
Thank you for reading!
That’s it for this issue. We’ll be back next Sunday. Until then: Read books! See theatre! Listen to music! Be part of a vibrant, thriving culture of arts in South Australia.
Talk soon
Tracy xx
The small print
A disclaimer: I take a lot of care to make sure I’ve got details correct, but I’m often working on my phone or uploading things from word to substack and I spend a lot of time in places with terrible internet connections. So mistakes will happen. Please double check all of the details about events before you head out.
Get in touch: sundaynightnewsletter@gmail.com
If someone has sent you this newsletter and you’d like to get it directly in your inbox, don’t forget to subscribe. It’s free.