I’d like to welcome you all to the brand new Black Swan blog, providing you with the latest news and behind-the-scenes glimpses of the work at Black Swan State Theatre Company.

And what a time to launch the Black Swan blog! Kate Cherry, our Artistic Director has put together a fantastic season for 2010. Poor Fleur, our new Ticketing and Administration Officer, is struggling to keep on top of the subscriptions flowing in, and our first production for this year, The Sapphires (a co-production with Company B Belvoir) has proven to be a smash hit in Perth before we even had the first preview! Due to the huge demand for tickets, we’ve added an additional matinee (Wed 3 Feb 1.15pm), and even that performance has less than 200 tickets left for sale. So all of you who secured your tickets to The Sapphires early can count yourself very lucky!

I’m the marketing and sponsorship manager here at Black Swan and the the three of us here in the marketing team are already working on our next production, The Swimming Club by Hannie Rayson. Hannie was in Perth for the launch of our 2010 theatre season back in October, and we were all awed by her fantastic speech at our launch – she’s a very witty, charming and entertaining speaker, and her new play, The Swimming Club, promises to sparkle with her trademark humour, energy and insight into the Australian psyche. Kate Cherry is currently busy in Melbourne rehearsing the play, which opens there before its Perth season. The first preview in Perth is on 27 March, which isn’t really that far away; make sure you secure your tickets soon!