Barking Gecko Theatre Company, the successor to Acting Out, is a Western Australian professional theatre company for children and families. the artistic director is Sam Longley.

History

Acting Out was founded by artistic director John Saunders as a theatre company for children, touring schools and rural areas in WA. Barking Gecko Theatre Company was established in Perth in 1989 by the succeeding artistic director, Grahame Gavin, as an independent, not-for-profit company for young people and families. The company has performed plays by award-winning playwright Suzie Miller, including Driving Into Walls (2012) and Onefivezeroseven (2014). The company's most notable productions include Rabbits in 2015; Bambert's Book of Lost Stories in 2016; and House, first performed in 2021, and reprised in 2024.

Description

Barking Gecko Theatre is a resident company at the State Theatre Centre of WA, performing in the Heath Ledger Theatre and Studio Underground. It also performs in school classrooms, halls, site-specific non-theatre venues and outdoor locations. The company tours productions across Australia, and has also toured to Canada, the United States, Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, Korea, Thailand, Indonesia and Mexico. The company also delivers drama programs for children aged 4 to 18 across Perth, regional and remote WA. Barking Gecko Theatre is a not-for-profit company governed by a board of directors. Receiving federal and state government arts funding, as well as corporate sponsorship and ticket revenue, the company has an annual turnover of more than $1.2 million and employs more than 60 primarily Western Australian artists each year. The CEO as of 2024 is Ryan Taafe.

Artistic directors

Awards

2015

The Rabbits won several awards in 2015, including:

2016

Bambert's Book of Lost Stories had a nomination and a win in the Helpmann Awards:

2017