Australia’s longest-running regional multi-arts festival, Castlemaine State Festival is delighted to welcome award-winning theatre-maker, producer and arts leader Lyall Brooks as its new Festival Director.
Bringing more than two decades of experience across Australian performing arts, cultural leadership and community engagement, Brooks joins the organisation as preparations begin for its 2028 edition.
A passionate advocate for new Australian work and regional arts, Brooks’ extensive career spans acting in theatre and music theatre, directing, animation, producing and education. He is the founding Artistic Director of independent theatre company Lab Kelpie, which he established in 2012 and has since led in developing and touring acclaimed Australian plays to audiences across the country.
Most recently the award-winning Education Manager at Melbourne’s Malthouse Theatre, Brooks also serves as Deputy Chair of Theatre Works St Kilda and is completing a Master of Fine Arts in Cultural Leadership at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA).
Originally from a small Gippsland farming community, Brooks experienced first-hand the transformative impact of access to the performing arts in regional Victoria, shaping a lifelong commitment to the creative possibilities that exist beyond metropolitan centres.
“I’m genuinely thrilled to be taking this on, and feel a real responsibility,” said Brooks. “The festival has played such a significant role in the cultural life of regional Victoria, bringing artists, audiences and communities together since 1976. It’s older than I am – although only just!
Castlemaine State Festival Board Chair Gary McClure welcomed the appointment. “Lyall brings a terrific combination of artistic vision, practical experience and a genuine commitment to community. He understands how to bring artists and audiences together, and we’re excited to see what he brings to the Festival in 2028,” said McClure.
For Brooks, the Festival’s unique sense of place is central to its future. “I keep coming back to the idea of the Festival as Castlemaine ‘thinking out loud’: a chance to share with each other, and with the world, something about who we are, what matters to us, what fires us up and who we might want to become,” said Brooks.
“I want us to make a festival that could only happen here, in this place, at this particular moment. Something distinctive, ambitious, a little bit quirky, and unmistakably Castlemaine.”
The 2028 Castlemaine State Festival will take place from 17 – 26 March 2028, with opportunities for local and regional artists to contribute to the program via an EOI process to be announced shortly. For more information, visit: www.castlemainefestival.com.au for details.
Image: Lyall Brooks – photo by Jack Lewis