New lead cast at Arena

EXECUTIVE director of Arena Theatre Company, Sharon Custers, will have her final curtain with the youth production group next month.

After four years, Custers will take her last bow as the company’s leader and pass the baton to Gemma Robertson, who has worked as producer for the past nine months.

When she joined Arena, Custers said it was a time of exciting, new beginnings as the organisation made the tree change from Melbourne to Bendigo.

“The company had been in Melbourne for 50 years and we had permission to start fresh and do new things,” she said.

“We hired a whole new team of staff and were embedding ourselves in Bendigo, saying ‘yes’ to every opportunity that came along.

“It was a really exciting time to be part of Arena. A lot has happened since then.”

Her fondest memories include winning a Helpmann Award in 2019 for Arena’s original show, Robot Song, and more recently collaborating with a group of local South Sudanese women to create the film Baai, which explores their culture.

Topping her list, however, is the team she works with.

“For me the highlights have always been the staff that have joined us and the relationships that I’ve built with them over those four years,” Custers said.

She will soon make the big move to Western Australia to lead a new performing arts centre, as Robertson prepares to take over the company’s newest work, Journey.

“[It] is Arena’s most ambitious non-touring project,” Robertson said.

“Journey is about celebrating the Bendigo community and bringing people to Bendigo. That’s a project that we’re doing with the Discovery Science and Technology Centre so that’s a huge focus for us from now until the end of the year.

“I’m tremendously excited about that and incredibly grateful to Sharon for getting us in a position where we can make that happen.”

Robertson was previously the general manager of the Victorian Association of Performing Arts Centres and executive producer of Showcase Victoria.