Long Biography
Early Life and Education
Born on April 12th, 1984, Joanne grew up in the North Eastern suburbs of Adelaide with her family. She attended Primary School from 1989 to 1997, and then attended Annesley College from 1998 to 2001. Joanne began dance lessons at Debbie Thomas Dance School in 1989, where she learnt Ballet, Jazz and Modern Dance. The school closed at the end of 1997, so Joanne enrolled at Cheryl Bradley Dance Studios, where she took Ballet, Jazz, Modern and Drama lessons until 2000. After graduating year 12, Joanne auditioned for and was accepted into Flinders University Drama Centre – specializing in Acting and Drama for a Bachelor of Creative Arts. Joanne graduated with Honours in 2005. She continued her teritiary studies in 2012 by completing a Graduate Diploma in Education (Secondary) at the University of South Australia.
Flinders University Drama Centre credits include: The Rivers of China (Play), You Gotta Have Hart (Cabaret), Portrait of a Woman (Play), Hamlet (Play), Some Girl(s) (Play), UND (Film), Crawlspace (Film).
Early Career
Joanne’s first theatre show after graduating from Flinders Drama Centre was Fitting Rooms in the 2006 Adelaide Fringe. She also participated in the 2006 Adelaide Cabaret Festival in Sing Your Own Musicals. Then she went to the 2006 Melbourne Fringe with a reprise of Fitting Rooms.
Joanne moved to Sydney in 2007, taking up a role at Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum playing the mascot Zoe. During her time in Sydney, Joanne created shows to bring home to the 2008 Adelaide Fringe – including directing Long Gone Lonesome Cowgirls and writing and performing in the cabaret Ripple Effects.
Later in 2008, Joanne was cast by Guy Masterson in a 6 month UK tour of David Mamet’s Oleanna, produced by Theatre Tours International. She was also hired as Publicity Liaison for the 2008 Edinburgh Fringe by Theatre Tours International. Joanne partnered with Guy Masterson and Theatre Tours International to bring Oleanna to the Queens Theatre for Adelaide Fringe in 2009. Oleanna also toured to the Gold Coast Arts Centre the following month. For her performance of Carol in Oleanna, Joanne was nominated by the Adelaide Critics Circle as Emerging Artist of the Year.
Founding of the Centre for International Theatre (CIT): 2010-2013
Joanne moved back to Adelaide in 2010 to create the Centre for International Theatre (C.I.T.) with Guy Masterson. Located at Higher Ground in Light Square, C.I.T. ran for three seasons over Adelaide Fringe 2010, 2011 and 2012. Joanne continued working with Guy Masterson throughout this time, returning to the UK for the 2010 Edinburgh Fringe as Theatre Tours International General Manager, and then working in their London office until 2011 as General Manager and Tour Booker. Joanne and Guy reprised Oleanna in the 2011 Adelaide Fringe as part of their C.I.T. season.
In May 2011, Joanne performed the title role in Molly’s Shoes by Alex Vickery-Howe at The Bakehouse Theatre. In July, Joanne played Nurse Annie Wilkes in Stephen King’s Misery, also at the Bakehouse Theatre to much critical acclaim, including a Nomination for Adelaide Theatre Guide’s award for Best Female Performance (Professional). Misery was reprised in the final C.I.T. season in 2012.
Joanne presented Guy Masterson’s Animal Farm at the Adelaide Centre for the Arts during the 2013 Adelaide Fringe.
Shift to Independent Producing: 2013-2015
Joanne returned to the Edinburgh Fringe in 2013, working as General Manager for Ines Wurth’s season of shows. In 2013 she also played a police constable in the film short Two Sides.
In 2014, Joanne began producing and presenting shows under her own banner – starting with Jethro Compton’s The Bunker Trilogy in the 2014 Adelaide Fringe. This trilogy of shows – set in a bespoke World War 1 bunker – won the overall BankSA Best Theatre Award. In June 2014, Joanne played the role of Clementine Churchill in Foxtel’s Deadline Gallipoli (Aired 2015). She also returned to London and Edinburgh Fringe in July 2014 to General Manage for Theatre Tours International’s season of 7 shows. In June 2014, Joanne played the role of Beatrice Flanagan in The History Channel’s Changed Forever: The Making of Australia (Aired 2016).
Joanne produced and presented a sold-out season of Call Mr. Robeson by Tayo Aluko & Friends at La Boheme for the 2015 Adelaide Fringe. She also produced Elena Carapetis’ The Good Son at the Bakehouse in April 2015, which won Best Ensemble (Professional) at the Adelaide Theatre Guide Awards. In the second half of the year, Joanne collaborated remotely with KADM Productions to produce Matt Morillo’s Off-Broadway comedy Allen Wilder 2.0 at Theater for the New City in New York.
Curation, Solo Shows and Artistic Direction: 2016-2017
Adelaide Fringe 2016 was a particularly busy season for Joanne. She became the Artistic Director of The Queens Theatre curating a season of 12 shows, including The Flanagan Collective’s trilogy of Babylon, Fable and Sherlock Holmes. Joanne performed at The Queens in that season as well, in Liam Ormsby’s family drama The Storm. At the same time, Joanne created and directed a devised production called A Minute In The School Yard, with her acting students from ActorsInk. Across the city, Joanne presented a return season of Jethro Compton’s The Bunker Trilogy at the Noel Lothian Hall in the Adelaide Botanic Garden. Joanne also presented David Calvitto in Thom Pain (based on nothing) by Will Eno at The GC Adelaide, and Guy Masterson’s one man Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas at the Norwood Concert Hall.
Later in 2016, Joanne produced at Edinburgh Fringe under her own banner for the first time, with Delia Olam’s ‘Just let the wind untie my perfumed hair…’ or WHO IS TAHIRIH? at Assembly George Square Studios and All Aboard The Marriage Hearse by Matt Morillo (KADM Productions) at Gilded Balloon Teviot.
For Adelaide Fringe 2017 Joanne turned the Noel Lothian Hall in the Adelaide Botanic Garden into the Black Box Theatre for the first time. As Artistic Director she curated a season of 7 shows, including the world premier of her first solo-show The Girl Who Jumped Off The Hollywood Sign. This season was similarly the launch of Casey Jay Andrew’s first solo show Night Creature. It was also the first collaboration between Joanne and Eva O’Connor from Sunday’s Child Theatre. Joanne presented Eva’s solo show My Name Is Saoirse and collaborated on a new production of Nuclear Family with Eva and an Australian cast. Another inclusion in the Black Box season was Phil Porter’s Blink by the Cabbages and Kings Collective which Joanne also directed and was a founding member of the new company. Joanne repeated her mentorship and direction of ActorsInk students with a self devised piece called We Are Anonymous. Across town, Joanne presented Justin Butcher’s The Devil’s Passion at St Peters Cathedral, and at the RCC on Pinky Flat, Joanne presented We Live By The Sea by Patch of Blue Theatre Company.
This season was particularly accoladed, with We Live By The Sea winning an Adelaide Critics Circle Award and the Peace Award, and Joanne winning the inaugural Made In Adelaide Award and the Holden Street Theatre Award for The Girl Who Jumped Off The Hollywood Sign.
Global Touring and Black Box Theatres: 2017-2020
Straight after Adelaide Fringe 2017, Joanne travelled to Los Angeles to work with KADM Productions and Matt Morillo, located at The Lounge Theatre in Hollywood. She produced and stage managed a return season of Matt Morillo’s The Inventor and the Escort, and assistant directed, produced and stage managed a remount of Allen Wilder 2.0. She also partnered with KADM Productions to present The Girl Who Jumped Off The Hollywood Sign at the 2017 Hollywood Fringe, which received a host of nominations and awards including Best Solo Show (Female), Best International Show, Pick of The Fringe and the Encore Producer’s Award. Whilst in Hollywood, Joanne was invited to have a photoshoot on the ‘H’ of the Hollywood Sign by the Hollywood Sign Trust.
Joanne then took The Girl Who Jumped Off The Hollywood Sign to Edinburgh Fringe in August 2017, performing at Assembly Festivals – Downstairs Roxy. The season was sold out and very well reviewed.
In January 2018, The Girl Who Jumped Off The Hollywood Sign premiered in New York, at Theatre for The New City, in conjunction with KADM Productions. Joanne’s Off Broadway debut was named in the top 10 things to do in New York by TimeOut.
Whilst in New York, Joanne wrote her next solo show That Daring Australian Girl, about the South Australian actress and activist Muriel Matters. The show opened in Adelaide Fringe 2018 at Holden Street Theatres (part of the Holden Street Theatre Award) and won the Best Theatre Award on International Women’s Day. Joanne also continued her role as the Artistic Director of the Black Box Theatre (Noel Lothian Hall) in the Adelaide Botanic Garden. The 2018 Black Box Theatre Adelaide Fringe program of 14 shows included the fringe debut of Orpheus by Wright & Grainger, Years to the Day with Jimmy Lyons and James McClusky-Garcia, and Naughty Hands- Signs of Love, Lust & Insults by Barry Priori. The Cabbages & Kings Collective (which Joanne produced) also had their second fringe season, with One Long Night In The Land Of Nod by Duncan Graham.
Elsewhere in the 2018 fringe, Joanne produced a series of public monologues called A Soapbox For Democracy, featuring iconic South Australian political figures and written by South Australian playwrights and supported by the Muriel Matters Society. The free events outside the Centre for Democracy on North Tce, Adelaide, won an Adelaide Fringe Best Event award.
Other presenting credits in 2018 include: We Live By The Sea returning to the RCC for a second time, Wordshow by Gavin Robertson and Your Bard by Nicholas Collett – both at Treasury 1860, and several pilot performances from across the season at the Stirling Fringe in the Adelaide Hills.
In June 2018, Joanne performed The Girl Who Jumped Off The Hollywood Sign in the Adelaide Cabaret Festival, and took part in the closing Gala with a section of That Daring Australian Girl to commemorate the UK’s centenary of Women’s Suffrage.
Joanne returned to Assembly Festival’s George Square Studios in the 2018 Edinburgh Fringe, performing both of her solo shows in an alternating “rep” season. She then travelled to London to perform That Daring Australian Girl at the Streatham Space Project, and at Epsom Racecourse to commemorate the centenary of Women’s Suffrage in the United Kingdom.
In the 2019 Adelaide Fringe Joanne programmed 7 shows at the Black Box Theatre including a return season of That Daring Australian Girl, Dietrich: Natural Duty by Peter Groom (winning the Adelaide Critics Circle award), Flood by the Cabbages and Kings Collective (winning the best emerging artist award) and Jden Redding’s Expert at the Card Table (winning best Magic). She also produced A Suffrage Soapbox with the Muriel Matters Society at the Centre of Democracy for the 125th Anniversary of Women’s Suffrage in South Australia. Also that season, Joanne presented at Holden Street Theatres Wright & Grainger’s Orpheus and Eurydice (winning the best theatre award for Eurydice), and Casey Jay Andrew’s The Archive of Educated Hearts (Winning a weekly best theatre award).
Later in 2019 Joanne presented her solo show The Girl Who Jumped Off The Hollywood Sign at Sydney Fringe, which was nominated for best cabaret and musical theatre in the festival.
In the 2020 Adelaide Fringe, Joanne expanded the footprint of Black Box Theatres to include the Open Air Theatre in the International Rose Garden in the Adelaide Botanic Garden and The Bus Stop – a travelling theatrical experience for multiple shows (Partnering with Talk Is Free Theatre TIFT from Barrie, Canada). The Bus Stop led audiences to TIFT’s Tales of an Urban Indian, For Both Resting and Breeding, and Every Brilliant Thing. In the Open Air Theatre, Wright & Grainger returned with Orpheus and Eurydice, and Erin Fowler performed Femme – winning the Made In Adelaide award.
Inside the Black Box Theatre Joanne produced, directed and performed in Brian Parkes’ absurdist comedy Enterprise (alongside Jimmy Lyons, David Daradan and Anton Schrama). She also presented Josephine by Tamisha Harris (winning an Adelaide Critics Circle award), Dietrich: Natural Duty (winning a BankSA ‘Pick of the week’ award) and Wright & Grainger’s The Gods, The Gods, The Gods (winning a Best Theatre Award). Joanne also remounted The Girl Who Jumped Off The Hollywood Sign at the Black Box Theatre, resulting in Joanne winning the 2020 Frank Ford Award.
Joanne also presented Casey Jay Andrews’ new show The Wild Unfeeling World at Holden Street Theatres, which also won a Best Theatre Award.
Digital Innovation (Black Box Live™): 2020-2022
As a response to the Covid pandemic – Joanne created a digital platform for streaming live theatre called Black Box Live™. It began when she wanted to include a live-streaming option to all shows at Black Box Theatres, which was also able to go ahead in covid-safe conditions during the 2021 Adelaide Fringe. Black Box Live™ streamed 52 performances over 5 weeks, and was watched in 37 different countries. Black Box Live™ won the John Chattoway award for Innovation at the end of the festival.
The Black Box Theatre and Open Air Theatre was set up with reduced capacity and cabaret style seating to ensure physical distancing, and Joanne also activated the nearby Wetlands Amphitheatre for performances. Joanne also presented The Arcade Theatre – a tiny digital theatre housing a choose your own adventure experience called The Thought That Counts by Big Man, Small Stories.
The program for the Black Box included Egg by Erin Fowler (which Joanne dramaturged), Still Alive (and kicking) by Gill Hicks (winning the Edinburgh Fringe Award) and Something in the Water by Scantily Glad Theatre Company (winning Best Theatre award). Joanne created in the Black Box Theatre her third solo show called The Reichstag Is Burning which won an Adelaide Critics Circle Award, and the sold out season extended three times.
In the middle of 2021, Joanne worked with CompanyAT as director and producer to create a digital version of their acclaimed show Impersonal Space. The first stage of this project was completed in 2023 and continues to evolve.
In August 2021, Joanne programmed a series of South Australian shows for Black Box Live™ to be performed at the Bakehouse Theatre (including Erin Fowler’s Egg, Lewis Major’s Spaces Between Us + Satori, and Joanne’s solo shows The Girl Who Jumped Off The Hollywood Sign and The Reichstag Is Burning) These shows were streamed simultaneously into the Hollywood Fringe and the Edinburgh Fringe, and also screened in person at the Asylum Theatre in Los Angeles. EGG won Best Dance at the Hollywood Fringe, The Girl Who Jumped off the Hollywood Sign was nominated for Best International Show and Satori and Unfolding and The Reichstag is Burning won Producers Encore awards. This project won the Adelaide Critic’s Circle Independent Arts Foundation Innovation Award for 2020/2021.
For Adelaide Fringe 2022, Black Box Live™ collaborated on four new shows for on demand viewing – Tracy Crisp’s trilogy You Can’t Hide In The Desert and Dr Lane’s Prepping for Theatre. Black Box Live™ also live-streamed Lewis Major’s Satori and Unfolding from the Hopgood Theatre. The other shows in the Black Box Live™ program were also available that season for on-demand viewing (including Spaces Between Us + Epilogue, The Girl Who Jumped Off The Hollywood Sign, Something In The Water, Egg and The Reichstag Is Burning).
Recent Work and Mentorship: 2023 onwards
In 2021 Joanne became a mentor for the Adelaide Cabaret Festival’s Class of Cabaret – a role that would continue for three years.
Joanne returned to presenting work for the 2023 Adelaide Fringe, where she presented 8 shows in a remarkably award winning season across multiple venues. Joanne presented The Marvellous Elephant Man: The Musical with Guy Masterson and Floating World Entertainment at the Wonderland Speigeltent (winning the Adelaide Critics Circle award), A Place The Belongs To Monsters by Casey Jay Andrews at Treasury1860 (winning the Best Theatre Award), Mustard by Eva O’Connor at Holden Street Theatres (winning an Adelaide Critics Circle Award), and at Gluttony Wright & Grainger’s The Gods, The Gods, The Gods (winning an Adelaide Critics Circle Award), Wright & Grainger’s Orpheus (winning a Best Theatre Award) and Horse Country: A Surreal Comedy by Flying Bridge Theatre Company. Joanne also presented the digital musical Teaching A Robot To Love by doubleclicks stage from Los Angeles as part of the Black Box Live™ Award in the 2022 Hollywood Fringe.
In the 2024 Adelaide Fringe, Joanne continued to present shows across multiple venues. At the Courtyard of Curiosities Joanne presented Wright & Grainger’s Orpheus (which won the overall best theatre award) Wright & Grainger’s Helios (winning a best theatre award), and Arlene Hutton’s Blood Of The Lamb (winning the Adelaide Critics Circle Award) in partnership with B Street Theatre and the Journey Company, Fringe Management LLC.
The Gods, The Gods, The Gods by Wright & Grainger returned to Adelaide in partnership with Joanne and Hey Dowling to The Garden of Unearthly Delights. Wright & Grainger also created Say It and Play It over two nights at Treasury1860.
At Holden Street Theatres, Joanne presented GRAV by Bale and Thomas and Fringe Management LLC (which won a best theatre award and Adelaide Critics Circle Award), and The Portable Dorothy Parker by Grove Goddess Productions and Fringe Management LLC.
Across town at the Goodwood Institute, Joanne presented with Fringe Management LLC Sherlock Holmes: The Last Act by Nigel Miles-Thomas and David Stuart Davies.
Joanne also collaborated with her long time friend Merrilyn Greer to present Meg in the Magic Toyshop at the Warehouse Theatre in Unley. This was Joanne’s first show for preschool children, and it won a best kids and family award.
Joanne is a key figure in the Adelaide arts scene, continuing to push the boundaries of theatre through innovative programming and international collaboration. In the 2025 Adelaide Fringe, Joanne will be presenting 14 shows across 6 venues…
Publications
Joanne Hartstone has published two plays: The Girl Who Jumped Off The Hollywood Sign and That Daring Australian Girl, both of which have toured internationally.
- Hartstone, Joanne (2018) The Girl Who Jumped Off The Hollywood Sign, Edinburgh: 49 Knights, ISBN 9780993197581
- Hartstone, Joanne (2018) That Daring Australian Girl, Edinburgh: 49 Knights, ISBN 9780993197598
