Windmill Theatre Co (previously known as Windmill Performing Arts), established in 2002 as a

South Australian Government The Government of South Australia, also referred to as the South Australian Government or the SA Government, is the executive branch of the state of South Australia. It is modelled on the Westminster system, meaning that the highest ranking mem ...

initiative, is

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

's flagship professional

theatre company Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a Stage (theatre), stage. The performe ...

for

child A child () is a human being between the stages of childbirth, birth and puberty, or between the Development of the human body, developmental period of infancy and puberty. The term may also refer to an unborn human being. In English-speaking ...

and

young adult In medicine and the social sciences, a young adult is generally a person in the years following adolescence, sometimes with some overlap. Definitions and opinions on what qualifies as a young adult vary, with works such as Erik Erikson's stages ...

audiences. artistic director is Rosemary Myers.

History

Windmill Performing Arts was established in 2001 by the

under the ''Public Corporations (Australian Children's Performing Arts Company) Regulations 2001'', which was superseded by the ''2016 Regulations''. The founding director and creative producer was Cate Fowler (through 2007). The founding patron was children's

author In legal discourse, an author is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work exists in written, graphic, visual, or recorded form. The act of creating such a work is referred to as authorship. Therefore, a sculpt ...

Mem Fox Merrion Frances "Mem" Fox AM (; born 5 March 1946) is an Australian writer of children's books and an educationalist specialising in literacy. Fox has been semi-retired since 1996, but she still writes and gives seminars. She lives in Adelaide ...

(through 2007). In 2007, executive producer Kaye Weeks and artistic director Rosemary Myers first came on board and are still with Windmill . The company has experienced enormous growth and success since then.

Productions and growth

Windmill performs a season in Adelaide each year, with shows also touring through regional

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

and elsewhere in Australia. Windmill have also toured internationally, performing in many countries, including in the US (including

Off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...

), New Zealand, United Kingdom, Singapore and South Korea. It has grown substantially in recent years: in 2014, the company toured to four cities, presenting a total of 144 live performances; in 2018, the number of live performances had increased to 234, and the number of cities and towns visited increased eightfold, to 34. The company was behind the multi-award-winning film ''Girl Asleep'', including the 2016 CinefestOz best film, adapted from its stage production.

Governance and funding

Arts SA Arts South Australia (previously Arts SA) was responsible for managing the South Australian Government's funding for the arts and cultural heritage from about 1996 until late 2018, when it was progressively dismantled, a process complete by early ...

was responsible for the state funding arrangements until Windmill was transferred to the Department of Education in 2018 by the

Marshall government Steven Spence Marshall (born 21 January 1968) is a former Australian politician who served as the 46th premier of South Australia between 2018 and 2022. He was a member of the South Australian Division of the Liberal Party of Australia in the ...

. In July 2019, the state budget slashed funding to the

History Trust of South Australia The History Trust of South Australia, sometimes referred to as History SA, was created as a statutory corporation by the ''History Trust of South Australia Act 1981'', to safeguard South Australia’s heritage and to encourage research and publi ...

, Carclew, Patch Theatre Company and Windmill, as part of "operational efficiency" cuts.

References

External links

Windmill Theatre
{{authority control Theatre companies in Australia Performing arts in Adelaide 2002 establishments in Australia Culture of South Australia