SPARE PARTS puppet theatre is bucking Fremantle’s gloomy cultural landscape and is looking to redevelop and expand.

The list of Freo arts organisations that have closed or are on their knees makes for grim reading but the puppeteers are financially healthier than they’ve ever been, beams artistic director Philip Mitchell.

The company pulled in both business of the year and outstanding cultural enterprise awards at last Friday’s Fremantle Business Awards, and Mr Mitchell says it’s great to have the organisation’s business acumen recognised.

“We are one of the few arts organisations with a repertoire,” he says. That allows it to tour popular shows such as The Deep or The Arrival nationally, and with puppet companies over east moving into more adult, interactive works, the locals are in hot demand.

• Spare Parts artistic director Philip Mitchell and business manager Megan Roberts celebrate their Business Awards win with a friend. Photo by Steve Grant

Mr Mitchell says Spare Parts is also packing locals in, and is hoping to more than double the Short Street theatre’s capacity from 190 to about 400. That’ll match most theatres it tours to, making logistics much easier.

Spare Parts is also hoping to revamp its foyer so it’s more interactive for today’s kids.

On the creative side, it’s about to tour nationally and is working with the WA Museum on an interactive work based around the Christmas truce between ANZAC and German troops on the Western Front.
There’s also a major collaboration with WASO planned, an adaptation of Saint-Saens’ The Carnival of Animals.

Mr Mitchell says the award recognises the role the company plays in promoting Fremantle across the world.

by STEVE GRANT