Australian arts online guide: The best live streams and on-demand comedy, music, theatre, exhibitions and more – ABC News

Galleries have reopened (albeit with reduced numbers and scheduled attendance) and while live performing arts are returning to Queensland, it's still far off for some states (sorry Victoria!) and it will be a little while yet until we can contemplate sweaty, shouty live music gigs.

In the meantime, there is plenty of theatre, comedy, dance, writers' talks and all that jazz to be found online.

This guide focuses on Australian content, with occasional international gems thrown in too.

There will be a genuine world premiere, live-streaming arts, streams from the archive, on-demand dates, bite-sized bits of content from Australian artists, galleries and theatre companies, and recommendations for the best "virtual" exhibitions.

7:00pm AEST: Katie Noonan (live)

Fresh off being shortlisted for Best Independent Classical Album at the Australian Independent Record Labels Association Awards, Katie Noonan will be performing highlights from her career, live from QPAC. Buy tickets and stream on the Melbourne Digital Concert Hall website.

Weekly, 7pm AEST: Sound Gallery Sessions

Monash University is live streaming recitals from its David Li Sound Gallery into your home, every Wednesday evening from 7:00pm. Tonight: MAS (cellist Anita Quayle and violinist Xani Kolac) perform original compositions using their amplified string instruments.

Weekly: ACMI Cinematheque

Each Tuesday, the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) Cinematheque announces via its Facebook page a double feature of streaming films, information on where to watch the selected films and accompanying notes for the next day's virtual cinematheque. This week, ACMI begins a four-week program dedicated to and inspired by Mark Cousins' 15-hour-long documentary series, The Story of Film: An Odyssey. Each week, the cinematheque will focus on one episode of the documentary, accompanied by a feature film inspired by that episode. First up, catch Buster Keaton's game-changing silent film The General.

Fortnightly, 7:30pm AEST: MSO Live

The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra has moved from a weekly to a fortnightly schedule for its popular streaming series, and returns this week with a concert featuring Beethoven's Symphony No.9 (Ode to Joy), accompanied by performers from Brisbane troupe Circa, and Australian composer Deborah Cheetham's Beethoven-inspired piece Dutala, star filled sky.

Weekly, 7:00pm AEST: Easey Comedy

This is a new weekly Zoom stand-up comedy night hosted by Adam Hills at Melbourne's Easey Comedy. Tonight: Dave Hughes, David Quirk, Alex Ward, Danielle Walker and Aidan Jones. Tickets start at $15.

10:00am AEST: Melbourne Queer Film Festival

From 10:00am today until midnight Sunday, you can stream films from the MQFF. 2020 marks the 30th year of the festival, which was originally slated for March. Over the weekend you can watch films like Tim Travers Hawkins' documentary about Chelsea Manning, Samantha Lee's coming-of-age Tagalog and Filipino queer love story, and Walking with Shadows, an adaptation of Nigerian novelist Jude Dibia's groundbreaking novel.

12:55 AEST: Isol-Aid x MovemberHead to Instagram for this edition of the popular weekender, which is dedicated to the men in your life specifically, getting them to talk about their feelings and mental health. Men's health organisation Movember have curated the headliners Kav Temperley from Eskimo Joe and Melbourne's David Cosma - and the rest of the line-up features artists from Geelong and The Bellarine.

5:30pm AEST: Queerstories

Storytelling project Queerstories is returning to Sydney's Giant Dwarf theatre, with a number of capped-attendance IRL performances today, as well as an Auslan-interpreted live stream from 5:30 to 7:30 for those playing at home. Queerstories is hosted by cabaret performer Maeve Marsden, and this lockdown edition features stories from Patrick Lenton, Enoch Mailangi, Farz Edraki, Michael Sun and Alex Gallagher. Tickets (with costs to suit all circumstances) are available on the Giant Dwarf website.

7:00pm AEST: Keeping The Curtain Up

The Art Centre Melbourne is hosting this musical theatre fundraiser for the Actors Benevolent Fund, hosted by Shane Jacobson and featuring Lisa McCune, Lucy Durack, Alinta Chidzey, Zahra Newman, Reg Livermore, Jemma Rix, Hayden Tee, iOTA, Paul Capsis, Esther Hannaford, Eddie Perfect, Kate Ceberano and Genevieve Lemon.

7:00pm AEST: Keep The Circle Unbroken

Memo Music Hall is streaming a new reimagining of American country rock group Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's Will the Circle be Unbroken album. The original 1972 album brought together two generations of musicians to "plant the seeds of hope for a better future". This 2020 Australian version includes performances from Tim Rogers, Kylie Auldist, Mick Thomas, Kee'ahn, Grim Fawkner, Brooke Taylor, Jimmy Phoenix, Olivia Nathan, Bobby Valentine and Joyce Prescher.

9:30pm AEST: In the Shadow It Waits (live screening)

This new Australian project is a horror film performed live and edited in real-time. The premise is a pretty straightforward online horror meets urban legend, about four 20-somethings. What's remarkable is that the cast are performing it for you live from their own homes (in different states), and the live footage (from 58 cameras!) is being cut together as you watch. This is one of two live screenings as part of the online edition of Revelation Perth International Film Festival (running until July 19). Tickets to In the Shadow It Waits are $12.

Weekly: Poet Laureates of Melbourne

The Melbourne City of Literature office sends out a new poem by a different poet straight to your inbox every Saturday. Sign up for your weekly dose of poetry reflecting on and responding to these strange times.

Weekly, sunset to sunrise AEST: Spectra live stream

Every Saturday from sunset to sunrise, MONA streams Ryoji Ikeda's light and sound artwork Spectra on its website.

Decameron 2.0

Theatrical monologues have thrived during lockdown, with new writing commissioned by just about every major theatre company. Stand-outs so far have included Malthouse Theatre's The Lockdown Monologues, and Playwriting Australia's Dear Australia: Postcards to the Nation. Decameron 2.0 is a new monologue series by State Theatre Company of South Australia and ActNow Theatre. The first episode features 10 monologues by emerging and established South Australian writers, inspired by the provocation "those who make sacrifices" and performed by actors including Elaine Crombie. Watch it on YouTube.

The Telephone: a one-act comic opera

West Australian Opera have transformed Gian Carlo Menotti's short comic opera The Telephone for our era of shut-ins and Zoom. Filmed for YouTube, the production stars young soprano Chelsea Burns and baritone Lachlann Lawton in a story about a young man who is trying to propose to his girlfriend if he can manage to interrupt her serial video calls. At just 27 minutes, this is about as short as opera gets.

Brandenburg One

Australia's premiere period-instrumentalist ensemble, the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, has launched a digital music platform called Brandenburg One as a showcase for new and existing performances by the orchestra and individual players. The platform launched with the Bach Series, a new series of short solo performances of Bach's music. New material will be released on a fortnightly basis, with a tiered content offering for Brandenburg subscribers (paid) and the general public (free).

Hamilton

Lin-Manuel Miranda's musical phenomenon (it won a Pulitzer as well as all the Tonys and the Oliviers), a hip hop epic that tells the story of one of America's founding fathers, is now available to stream on Disney+. It was originally slated for release in cinemas in October 2021, but the streaming service didn't want you to wait for it, so hopefully you'll be satisfied by the opportunity to see the film of the original Broadway cast in action and won't say no to this.

Jack Charles V The Crown

From July 10-24 you can stream this 2016 recording of ILBIJERRI Theatre Company's Jack Charles V The Crown. Accompanied by a three-piece band, veteran actor, musician, Koori elder and activist Uncle Jack Charles recounts his life "from Stolen Generation to Koori theatre in the 70s, from film sets to Her Majesty's prisons". Stream on the Arts Centre Melbourne website.

Broken by Mary Anne Butler

Thanks to the City of Melbourne COVID-19 Arts Grants, director Susie Dee's 2018 production of Mary Anne Butler's award-winning play has been transformed into a free 46-minute sonic experience. Written for three voices, Butler's play is a masterclass in storytelling, as the intertwined stories of three people unfold against the outback night.

Australian films on iview

Head to ABC iview for a line-up of more than 35 Australian films to get you through the winter months from classics (Wake in Fright) to blockbusters (Strictly Ballroom), game-changers (Samson and Delilah) and indie gems (Somersault). New titles are being added throughout June and July.

ABC Arts on iview

On Arts iview you can stream productions by Opera Australia, The Australian Ballet, Bangarra Dance Theatre and Sydney Theatre Company.

William Robinson: By The Book

Experience the art of Queensland landscape master William Robinson in a new virtual exhibition, based on the physical exhibition at Brisbane's William Robinson Gallery in Old Government House at QUT. William Robinson: By The Book showcases seven decades of practice across seven rooms, including his two Archibald Prize-winning self portraits. What he's best known for, however, are his perspective-bending large landscape paintings. The exhibition draws on Nick Earls' 2018 book about Robinson, and the virtual tour includes audio excerpts of the author's audiobook version.

Friendship as a Way of Life

This group show at UNSW Galleries in Sydney is reopening on July 9 but is also available now online as a virtual walk-through. Featuring 20 artists from Australia and abroad, the theme is "queer kinship and forms of being together" and the showstopper artwork is a 70s-style lesbian bar created in cardboard and wood (Eulogy for the Dyke Bar, by US artist Macon Reed).

Hannah Bront: mi$$-Eupnea

Artist Hannah Bront has created a series of six short video meditations about nature and intuition for BLEED a new festival of digital art cooked up by Arts House (Melbourne) and Campbelltown Arts Centre (Sydney). Each of the videos in mi$$-Eupnea features a different storyteller (including artist Megan Cope, and theatre-maker Ayeesha Ash) talking about their experiences of sitting in nature, and of intuitive knowledge. The videos run about 10 minutes and feel like soothing portals into nature.

Making Art Work

Brisbane's Institute of Modern Art (IMA) has commissioned 40 artists to make new works as part of a new initiative titled Making Art Work, conceived in response to COVID-19 and its effect on artists. The first 12 works have been delivered, and most of them can be viewed online including Tony Albert's take on Miley Cyrus's Wrecking Ball clip.

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Australian arts online guide: The best live streams and on-demand comedy, music, theatre, exhibitions and more - ABC News