Merrigong Theatre Company Announces 2025 MERRIGONGX Artists’ Program
Merrigong Theatre Company proudly announces the 2025 MERRIGONGX Artists’ Program, an inspiring showcase of the extraordinary breadth of local talent from the Illawarra region. MERRIGONGX places artists and their practices at the heart of the community. From in-house creative developments to fully staged public presentations of new work and everything in between, MERRIGONGX provides independent artists with essential financial, technical, marketing, and artistic resources.
The program launches in February with Yandha Djanbay (Go Slowly) by acclaimed Gunai artist Kirli Saunders. This powerful meditation on resilience, connection, and healing blends intimate storytelling with audiovisual projections. Drawing from her deep connection to Country, Saunders creates a work honouring land as a source of solace and strength in times of hardship.
Lucy Heffernan’s Dog People takes the stage in June, exploring love, loyalty, and loss. With a blend of alt-rock, pop, and heartfelt ballads, this work delves into what it means to be human, using music to channel our primal instincts.
September brings Squatch Watch: LIVE by Vaguely Adjacent, a new performance collective led by Nick Vagne. Interrogating conspiracy, hoaxes and how they are proliferated through modern social media, they are sure to entertain with a hilarious, darkly comedic take on live podcast shows.
Rounding out the year in October, The Corinthian Food Store presents Public Access, transforming Wollongong City Library into a vibrant, inclusive performance space. This innovative work explores the places where people come together to be seen and heard – and who decides what truly matters in these
shared spaces.
Beyond the staged season, MERRIGONGX will support over 40 local artists across various projects throughout the year, including talents such as Bonnie Curtis, Bradley Ward and Jordon Mahar. The program also continues its annual Made From Scratch multi-artform performance nights in March, June and September. These events allow emerging and established artists to experiment and present new ideas to live audiences in a supportive environment.
Leland Kean, Artistic Development Manager of Merrigong Theatre Company, says, “Now in its eighth year, the MERRIGONGX Artists’ Development Program’s impact has changed not only the ecology for independent artists in the live performing arts in the Illawarra but is felt now across the nationalm performing arts landscape. The program, sighted as best practice by many of our industry peers, once again in 2025 moves to innovate the opportunities for a diverse and fiercely independent group of creators from the Illawarra, with work from the First Nations community, neurodiverse artists, innovative new Australian work and form, and site-specific performances all taking the program into exciting new communities and audiences opportunities experiences.”
More information about the MERRIGONGX 2025 Season can be found at www.merrigong.com.au/merrigongx
MERRIGONGX 2025 SEASON
–DATES PRODUCTION PRESENTED BY
20 – 22 Feb Yandha Djanbay (Go Slowly) Kirli Saunders
19 – 21 Jun Dog People Lucy Heffernan
25 – 27 Sep Squatch Watch: LIVE Vaguely Adjacent
23 – 25 Oct Public Access The Corinthian Food Store
About Merrigong Theatre Company
Merrigong Theatre Company is a not-for-profit company that operates Wollongong’s premier performing arts venue, Illawarra Performing Arts Centre (IPAC) and the city’s key civic and community venue, Wollongong Town Hall. The company’s name ‘Merrigong’ reflects the Dharawal word for the Illawarra region’s distinctive escarpment, a landmark of supreme cultural importance. This name serves as a constant reminder that their venues rest on unceded First Nations land. In all that they do, Merrigong Theatre Company seeks to acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land, seas and skies, and to show respect to all First Nations people who call the region home.
