Hartstone-Kitney Productions Redefine Grassroots Adelaide Fringe Theatre

Made in Adelaide' multi-award winning theatre entrepreneurs Joanne Hartstone and Tom Kitney, with their 'army' of local helpers and artists, are hosting 20 world-class shows coming from 7 different countries and performing across multiple exclusive pop-up venues as part of the 2020 Adelaide Fringe.

Joanne Hartstone quotes, "We have curated theatre, cabaret, music, comedy, dance, bi-lingual, physical theatre, improvised, immersive, gig-theatre, site-specific and travelling shows. Our new multi-venue activation in the Adelaide Botanic Garden will show audiences a truly classy side of fringe, expect chandeliers in the Rose Garden with the best shows from around the world."

Hartstone-Kitney Productions are creating three bespoke performance spaces within the Adelaide Botanic Garden to accommodate their large season. This will be the fourth year Hartstone will transform the Noel Lothian Hall into the newly branded 'Black Box Theatre' which will be home to 14 local and international shows. This is the first year that their 'Open Air Theatre' will be temporarily installed in the International Rose Garden, housing the 2019 Best Theatre Award winning Eurydice and 2018 Award Winner Orpheus by The Flanagan Collective and Gobbledigook Theatre.

HKP's third venue will be 'The Bus Stop' - a voyage point for a theatrical trio of shows as part of the #CanadaCapsule by Talk is Free Theatre (TIFT). A chartered bus takes audiences to 'secret locations' for immersive shows Every Brilliant Thing and For Both Resting And Breeding, whilst the performance of Tales of an Urban Indian happens ON the moving bus.

For the third year HKP are also presenting Casey Jay Andrews (Night Creature, The Archive of Educated Hearts) in her newest solo-adventure The Wild Unfeeling World at Holden Street Theatres, in the Barbara Hardy Garden.

Hartstone-Kitney Productions were the recipients of the inaugural Producers' Grant by the Adelaide Fringe Artist Fund in order to make a season of this scale possible, although there is still a significant amount of risk taken by all Fringe artists.

Hartstone quotes, "Our season is certainly adventurous - independent artists always have significant financial risk in a "pay to play" marketplace like Adelaide Fringe. We don't have big budgets; we can't with ticket prices under $30. It's a huge challenge to overcome but with limits comes innovation. Our grass-roots company model aims to amortise the risk of our artists by sharing up-front costs and resources. Success is never guaranteed but HKP have gone all in, leading the way for diversity and unique programing in 2020."

Hartstone-Kitney Productions' full 2020 program is available at https://adelaidefringe.com.au/favourites/public/xkXwd18Z#_=_

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