The identification of special roles for Playbox and Company B and the suggestions for the orchestras are welcome. Whether the branding and clarity of focus will ensure an effect on fundamentals such as rehearsal time and workshopping remains to be seen. I expect, if asked, the review team would subscribe to the trickle-down theory of economics. But the report has a real concern for the arts. The trouble is that strategies are orderly and the arts aren't.
Artists move around.
Audiences are fickle. One tour works, the next one crashes. A brilliant new director fails to deliver. The most innovative work often happens off centre - at La Mama or Black Swan perhaps. Astra plays more contemporary music to a more dedicated audience than anywhere.