Barking Gecko Theatre is a

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

n professional

theatre company Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perfor ...

for children and families. Established in

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth i ...

in 1989, Barking Gecko Theatre has put on over 100 original Western Australian productions, toured 12 countries and reached almost 1 million children. Barking Gecko Theatre is a resident company at the State Theatre Centre of WA, performing in the Heath Ledger Theatre and Studio Underground. It also performs in school classrooms, halls, site-specific non-theatre venues and outdoor locations. The company tours productions across Australia, and has also toured to Canada, the United States,

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, Japan,

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and Mexico. The company also delivers drama programs for children aged 4 to 18 across Perth, regional and remote WA. Barking Gecko Theatre is a not-for-profit company governed by a Board of Directors. Receiving federal and

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

government arts funding, as well as corporate sponsorship and ticket revenue, the company has an annual turnover of more than $1.2 million and employs more than 60 primarily Western Australian artists each year.

Artistic Directors

2015 – Present Matt Edgerton 2010 – 2014 John Sheedy 2006 – 2010 Jeremy Rice 1989 – 2006 Grahame Gavin 1985 – 1989 John Saunders (Acting Out)

Awards

2017

Performing Arts WA Award Winner – Best Supporting Actor, St John Cowcher for ''My Robot''

2016

Helpmann Award Winner – Best Presentation for Children, ''Bambert's Book of Lost Stories'' Helpmann Award Nomination – Best New Australian Work, ''Bambert's Book of Lost Stories''

2015

Helpmann Award Winner – Best Presentation for Children, ''The Rabbits'' Helpmann Award Winner – Best New Australian Work, ''The Rabbits'' Helpmann Award Winner – Best Costume Design, Gabriela Tylesova, ''The Rabbits'' Helpmann Award Winner – Best Original Score, Kate Miller-Heidke with Iain Grandage, ''The Rabbits'' Performing Arts WA Award Winner – Best Production, ''The Rabbits'' Performing Arts WA Award Winner – Best Lighting, Trent Suidgeest, ''The Rabbits''

References

{{authority control 1991 establishments in Australia Theatre companies in Australia Culture of Western Australia