Company History

Intimate Spectacle is an independent performing arts producer established by Harley Stumm in 2012. It works across genres, from contemporary theatre, dance and dance theatre, to live art and music.

In its first ten years, Intimate Spectacle has worked with some of Australia’s most exciting contemporary performance makers, including Latai Taumoepeau, Brian Fuata, Jack Prest, Nick Power, Branch Nebula, post, Vicki Van Hout, Sam Routledge, Cambodian Space Project, Erth, Team MESS and Lenine Bourke. We’ve produced 20 new works, and well over 100 seasons, in every Australian state and territory, as well as Hong Kong, Malaysia, Cambodia, Germany, Spain, Netherlands, Hungary, Austria, Finland, and Chile.

Most recent highlights include MONUMENTAL (working title), curated by Latai Taumoepeau & Brian Fuata, initiated by Intimate Spectacle, and co-produced with Art Gallery of NSW, a four hour program of 15 performance works taking over the Gallery’s Entrance Court and other spaces (April 2022, revised and re-presented in partnership with Sydney Festival, January 2023). In December 2021 we premiered Jack Prest’s music-led interdisciplinary work, commissioned by Phoenix Cultural Centre.

Pre-pandemic highlights include Nick Power’s French/Australian collaboration featuring hip hop dance crews in Sydney and Paris, commissioned through the Major Festivals Initiative by Sydney, Adelaide & Brisbane Festivals, Two Crews (2020).  Nick’s Between Tiny Cities opened in Sadlers Wells London on 30 April 2022, the first Australian work touring as part of the UK/Australia Season, after with over 20 seasons to date, including Tanz im August (Berlin) to imPulsTanz (Vienna), Noorderzon Festival (Netherlands), as well as to Sydney Opera House, Arts Centre Melbourne, Adelaide Festival, Bleach Festival (Gold Coast) and throughout remote Northern Territory communities.

Branch Nebula’s High Performance Packing Tape was commissioned by Performance Space for Liveworks 2018, and since toured to Homo Novus Festival (Riga, Latvia), Arts House with Melbourne Festival, Adelaide Festival, and Sydney Opera House. Other international highlights include post’s Oedipus Schmoedipus bilingual presentation in Santiago Chile (2017), and adaptation into Cantonese with Hong Kong Repertory Theatre & West Kowloon for the Hong Kong International Black Box Festival (2018).

In 2014-15, we produced The Cambodian Space Project’s Cosmic Cambodia, in Kampot, Cambodia, in collaboration with Khmer Cultural Development Institute, and in residency at Casula Powerhouse, later touring to Sydney Festival, World Theatre Festival Brisbane, and OzAsia Festival Adelaide.

Lenine Bourke’s The Walking Neighbourhood, a live art project featuring guided tours of neighbourhoods by children under 12, we presented in Redfern and Kings Cross with Art & About, and in Kuopio Finland with ANTI Festival.

We’ve also commissioned, produced and presented three series of short works events, Out of Iso (2020), with four programs over four weekends at our home base, 107, curated by Nick Power, Latai Taumoepeau, PACT and Branch Nebula; Out of Iso Again! (2021, curated by Latai Taumoepeau, Malcolm Whittaker & Phil Downing; and Near and Now (2017), curated by Moogahlin Performing Arts (the inaugural Koori Gras), Martin del Amo, post and Theatre Kantanka.

Harley Stumm has worked in performing arts producing and management for over 25 years. Prior to founding Intimate Spectacle, he undertook the National Touring Framework consultancy with Rick Heath for the Australia Council in 2011-12, leading to major and continuing reform of the touring sector. He was Producer at Performing Lines 2005-11, managing the Mobile States contemporary initiative, more than a dozen major national tours, and numerous premieres including MFI commissions and international collaborations. He was Executive Producer and joint CEO at Urban Theatre Projects 1995-2003, producing a body of more than 20 new works honoured with the 2003 Sidney Myer Award.