Australian arts online guide: the best livestreams and on-demand comedy, music, theatre, exhibitions and more – ABC News

We miss the arts as much as you do, so we're trialling this new guide to where you can find theatre, comedy, dance, writer's talks and all that jazz, which will be updated a few times per week, for the week ahead.

The recommendations will focus on Australian content, with occasional international gems thrown in too.

There will be a genuine world premiere, live-streaming arts (gold!), streams from the archive, on-demand dates, bite-sized bits of content from Australian artists and theatre companies, and recommendations for the best 'virtual' exhibitions (ideally something that gives you the feeling of 'being there').

Weekly: ACMI CinemathequeThe Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) Cinematheque is forging ahead through the lockdown: each Tuesday via their Facebook page they announce a double feature of streaming films, information on where to watch the selected films and accompanying notes for the next day's virtual cinematheque. You can even watch with friends, via Metastream. Tonight, a double bill of westerns: Decision At Sundown (1957) and Gunman's Walk (1958).

Weekly, 7pm AEST: Sound Gallery SessionsMonash University are live-streaming recitals from their David Li Sound Gallery into your home, every Wednesday evening from 7pm. Tonight: Nu Soul and jazz from Allysha Joy, a member of Melbourne hip hop collective 30/70.

8pm AEST: Chelsea Manning in conversationThe Sydney Opera House brings you a conversation from their 2018 Antidote festival, between Chelsea Manning - who had been released from a US military prison the year before - and journalist Peter Greste. Their conversation covers Manning's activism in the areas of data privacy, surveillance, and trans politics, and will be available on Sydney Opera House's website.

Weekly, 7.30pm AEST: MSO LiveThe Melbourne Symphony Orchestra releases a recent performance from their archive every week on their YouTube channel. Performances remain on their YouTube page after the initial stream, including last week's release: the 2019 world premiere performance of Eumeralla: A War Requiem for Peace by Australian composer and soprano Deborah Cheetham.

Weekly, 8pm AEST: The Lounge Room SessionsAn initiative of the Riverboats Music Festival, every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday night at 8pm musicians livestream a 30-minute set from their lounge rooms on The Lounge Room Sessions Facebook page. Tonight: Oh Mercy (solo). Viewers have an opportunity to donate to the artist during the stream, offering musicians a much-needed source of revenue.

Weekly, 8.30pm AEST: Lust in the Time of Coronavirus Every Thursday evening, award-winning novelist Krissy Kneen and guest readers read new erotic stories, hosted by Brisbane's Avid Reader bookstore. An 18+ live event, tickets are available up to 4pm on the day of the readings.

Fortnightly: Australian Dance Theatre ADAPTAdelaide-based company Australian Dance Theatre kick off their online season ADAPT tonight, with a 2018 recording of their Helpmann Award-winning show The Beginning of Nature. This is a rare chance to see contemporary Australian dance for free. Sign up to the ADAPT newsletter and ADT will deliver a new show to your inbox fortnightly on Fridays.

7pm AEST: Helen Bidou's Bidou ZoomsAnyone who is familiar with the oeuvre of Helen Bidou (alter-ego of comedian Anne Edmonds) either through her Get Krack!n appearances or through her acclaimed stand-up show Enter the Spinnaker Lounge, would know that a Bidou performance via Zoom will be both strange and thoroughly entertaining. It's being described as "THE Zoom event of this pandemic!" and the 40-minute show will feature old and new songs, special guests, a Q&A element and Bidou's signature sarongs. Tickets available on Eventbrite and there's another session at 8.30pm the following night.

Weekly: Prototype Care PackageEvery Friday until mid-June, Prototype will be delivering screen works (including short experimental films and video art) to your email inbox for you to watch over the next week. This includes new works made for the digital exhibition from Soda_Jerk collaborator Sam Smith (Hollywood Burn), Chilean experimental filmmaker Malena Szlam (Altiplano), documentary maker Sari Braithwaite (Paper Trails) and Australian Malaysian/Bidayah artist Tiyan Baker (Hard As You Can). Sign up on the Prototype website.

Weekly: Poet Laureates of MelbourneThe Melbourne City of Literature office will be sending out a new poem by a different poet straight to your inbox every Saturday, beginning this week. Sign up for your weekly dose of poetry reflecting on and responding to these strange times.

Weekly, 12.55pm AEST: Isol-aid music festivalHead over to Isol-aid's Instagram towards the end of the week to see who will be appearing in the latest edition of this weekly weekender. Previous iterations of the festival have seen Courtney Barnett, Ngaiire and Missy Higgins perform pared-down 20-minute live sets from their homes.

Weekly, 7pm, AEST: East Arnhem LiveIn the second concert of this series, the Andrew Gurruwiwi Band will be performing live from their home in Northern Territory's Gove Peninsula. It's a much-needed creative outlet for performers in remote areas cut off by COVID-19 restrictions, and an opportunity to get to know some of the music that's regularly featured on Yolngu Radio. Jump on the East Arnhem Land Facebook or Instagram pages to watch the performance.

Weekly, sunset-sunrise AEST: Spectra live stream Every Saturday from sunset to sunrise, MONA streams Ryoji Ikeda's light and sound artwork Spectra. This soothing work comprising 49 searchlights and a sound system and set up at the grounds of MONA's gallery in Hobart feels like a light-filled beacon of hope in this isolated and challenging time. Check out Spectra on the MONA website.

Fortnightly, 2pm AEST: Digital Dance ClubMelbourne collective All the Queens Men have created this fortnightly online dance party to keep "the rainbow and allied community [connected] during these turbulent times."

Weekly, 1.55pm AEST: Isol-aid music festivalHead over to Isol-aid's Instagram towards the end of the week to see who will be appearing in the latest edition of this weekly weekender.

Head On Photo Festival (May 2-17)

This annual Sydney festival, comprising exhibitions, workshops and panel discussions, is moving online because of the COVID-19 shutdown. Make sure you check out the Head On Awards exhibitions, which feature 100 finalists across three categories, including Portrait and Landscape (NB the winners will be announced at the Festival's launch party held online on Friday 1 May from 6pm).

The Scriptures That Guide The Way, by Chinese artist Jiang Zhe, is a highlight of the Pulse of the Dragon exhibition.(Supplied: Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre)Pulse of the Dragon

This group exhibition at Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre features a line-up of Chinese and Chinese-Australian artists whose work explores themes of "religious witchcraft", folklore and mythology in Chinese culture. It's a pretty spectacular show, in a pretty spectacular venue (if converted industrial is your aesthetic vibe). Pulse of the Dragon is curated by Chinese Australian artist Guan Wei and his Beijing peer Cang Xin.

Biennale of SydneyThe Museum of Contemporary Art have brought their part of the Biennale online, with a selection of artworks and galleries now available as 360-degree virtual experiences.

Rite of PassageEleven contemporary Aboriginal artists reflect on the 250 years since James Cook's arrival in this exhibition at QUT Art Museum in Brisbane and what a line-up: Glennys Briggs, Megan Cope, Nici Cumpston, Karla Dickens, Julie Gough, Lola Greeno, Leah King-Smith, Jenna Lee, Carol McGregor, Mandy Quadrio and Judy Watson. The online iteration uses software that allows the viewer to navigate through the exhibition galleries and 'stand' in front of artworks, then pan out to jump to another part of the exhibition.

NGV virtualThe National Gallery of Victoria has launched immersive virtual tours of its exhibitions: you can currently 'walk' through the their blockbuster (and normally ticketed) exhibitions Keith Haring | Jean Michel Basquiat: Crossing Lines (and listen to the audio guide at the same time) and Kaws: Companionship in the Age of Loneliness.

Bessie Davidson and Sally SmartBendigo Art Gallery have created an online version of their exhibition Bessie Davidson and Sally Smart: Two artists and the Parisian avant-garde. The exhibition, which was open for just one day before the gallery had to close, features more than 50 paintings by lesser-known Australian Impressionist Bessie Davidson, who found success in 19th-century Paris, alongside works by her great-niece: renowned Australian artist Sally Smart.

On Arts iview from Friday May 1, you can stream productions by Opera Australia, The Australian Ballet, Bangarra Dance Theatre and Sydney Theatre Company. Highlights include Bangarra's breakthrough production Ochres (originally staged in 1995), STC's dreamlike production of Michael Gow's Away, and all of the Handa Operas on Sydney Harbour. Seven productions go online May 1, four more on May 8 and another four on May 15, and the roll-out will continue through to the first week of June.

Tasmanian Breath of Fresh Air (BOFA) Film FestivalThis annual festival taking place in Hobart and Launceston has a social-change mission, focusing on films that (explicitly or implicitly) question the status quo at home and abroad. This year's line-up of 17 films all available to stream, for free, from May 1-17 include a documentary about a new generation of French vinters making organic and natural wines; an Aussie thriller about a young female slam-poet in Bankstown, who goes missing; and the tale of a little boy dreaming of TV fame while growing up on the wild Mongolian steppes. Many of the films feature ravishing landscapes from Greenland ice-sheets to the lush deltas of Southern Africa so there's plenty of chances to escape beyond your lounge room.

The Australian Ballet perform Romeo and Juliet

From May 1-15, you can stream this production of Prokofiev's ballet, choreographed by Graeme Murphy. This week is your last chance to catch master choreographer Alexei Ratmansky's Cinderella, set to Prokofiev's score and created specially for The Australian Ballet.

Fran Lebowitz in ConversationResurfaced as part of Sydney Opera House's weekly digital program, this talk from the 2018 All About Women festival features the legendary writer, cultural commentator and New Yorker in conversation about her life, her home city, cultural nostalgia, and the world at large. Sharp is the word.

STC VirtualThis series by Sydney Theatre Company features bite-sized videos made by their artists and former collaborators during lockdown. Watch Tim Minchin performing a monologue from Hamlet in his living room; Kate Mulvany reading from the opening chapter of Ruth Park's Harp in the South; and Shari Sebbens performing monologues from seminal Indigenous Australian plays The Seven Stages of Grieving and Stolen.

Together in ArtThe Art Gallery of NSW Together in Art project features online performances (like singer Sarah Belkner performing inside the now-closed Shadow catchers exhibition), artist interviews (right now there's a video interview with Torres Strait Islander visual artist Gail Mabo) and art how-to-guides (including a face-drawing lesson from Ben Quilty, accompanied by his daughter Livvy).

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Australian arts online guide: the best livestreams and on-demand comedy, music, theatre, exhibitions and more - ABC News