New leadership for WA’s home of independent theatre and performance
The Blue Room Theatre is excited to announce that Sukhjit Kaur Khalsa (she/her) will begin as our new Executive Director on 3 July 2023.
Sukhjit will strengthen The Blue Room Theatre’s essential role in the WA performing arts sector by fostering the creation of new work and deepening our engagement with WA communities and audiences.
For the past 34 years, The Blue Room Theatre has championed WA artists and provided an independent venue for performance artists to develop their practice and share their stories. Our next chapter aims to continue this important work and make our programs and spaces work hard for WA artists.
Under Sukhjit’s direction, The Blue Room Theatre will continue to provide more equitable access to the venue, allowing for the sharing of more diverse stories with, by, and for the WA community.
As a passionate creative with strong foundations in advocacy, artistic program development and delivery, Sukhjit is well positioned to grow The Blue Room Theatre’s impact.
Sukhjit will build on the strong foundations secured by outgoing Executive Director Katt Osborne. She will help deliver The Blue Room Theatre’s Equity and Justice Action Plan, expanding the community of people who engage with The Blue Room Theatre through our programs and partnerships.
“I look forward to nurturing ambitious ideas that foster bold, fresh voices to tell the stories that are important to Boorloo and beyond. Let’s continue to build a future grounded in First Nations history and the full richness of all cultures.” says Sukhjit.
The recruitment process was highly competitive, with applications from across the country. The Blue Room Theatre Board Chair, Monica Kane, says that the recruitment panel was impressed by Sukhjit’s sector leadership experience, multi-disciplinary background and strong networks across artforms and communities.
“The Blue Room Theatre Board is excited to see Sukhjit’s passion and commitment to equity and justice deliver impact for the WA community and national performing arts sector.” she says.
“The Board and Membership extend their sincere thanks to our tireless and brilliant outgoing Executive Director Katt Osborne for steering the organisation through a challenging few years, including major disruptions during COVID-19.”
Media contacts:
Ali Martin (Deputy Chairperson)
alimartinmedia@gmail.com
0415 322 742
Katt Osborne (Outgoing Executive Director)
katt@blueroom.org.au
08 9227 7005 / 0417 187 668
About Sukhjit Kaur Khalsa
Sukhjit is a creative producer, writer and performer, with a background in community arts. Her work as a multi-form artist for the last ten years has been recognised at the Performing Arts WA Awards (2020), Mona Brand Writing Awards (2022), Young Australian of the Year (finalist, 2022), and WA Multicultural Awards (2022).
Her passion for storytelling began as a finalist in the Australian Poetry Slam (2014), semi-finalist on Australia’s Got Talent (2016) and winner of The Moth GrandSLAM (2019). Sukhjit spoke at TedxUWA (2017), TedxNewtown (2019) and has supported Missy Higgins and L-FRESH the Lion on their national tours. Her poetry and community arts projects have led her to tour globally and across her nation.
Sukhjit premiered her sell-out theatre show FULLY SIKH with Barking Gecko Theatre Company and Black Swan State Theatre Company (2019). Since then, she has been developing her comedy series WHAT WOULD SUKI DO? with support from ABC TV and is currently producing A HAIRY TALE, a documentary exploring female body hair. Sukhjit is a story-telling trainer at the Centre for Stories and has produced storytelling and theatre projects for adults and school students. COLLECTABLES, her debut hip-hop single is now streaming on all streaming platforms.