This staged reading will be directed by Jeneffa Soldatic and features a diverse cast which includes noted LGBT actors and actors with a disability. The Normal Heart is a powerfully important play that highlights the struggles of LGBT people and an important part of history which is rarely spoken about but echoes the fight we are in for equal rights today. All funds from this staged reading will be donated to Australian Marriage Equality and additional donations and pledges will also be accepted on the night.

WHAT: Staged Reading
WHEN: 7-9:30pm
WHERE: Darlinghurst Theatre Company Eternity Playhouse, Darlinghurst
HOW MUCH: $27.33, more info

Can a robot produce art? Join Takashi Ikegami for an eye-opening talk on developing the world’s first android-led opera “Scary Beauty”, performed by Skeleton of Osaka University’s Ishiguro Lab, and consider the deeper implications and future possibilities for artificial intelligence, or AI, in the arts.

WHAT: Talk Event
WHEN: 6-7pm
WHERE: Japan Foundation Sydney, Chippendale
HOW MUCH: Free, more info

For Kudos Live: Volume 2 performance is explored as a practice intersecting the persona, the spatial and the ephemeral. The exhibition frames the body as an instrument to activate and navigate the space of Kudos Gallery. Kudos Live: Volume 2 mediates what residue, marks, and material will remain following the body’s temporal engagement with the space. The exhibition hosts a range of student work that assembles and plays with capacities and modes of the performative. This series proposes the gallery space as a site for investigating the codes present in the space and relationships of the spectacle and the spectator.

WHAT: Curated Performance and Video Exhibition
WHEN: 5-7pm
WHERE: Kudos Gallery, Paddington
HOW MUCH: Free, more info

The Invisible features new work by artists Khadim Ali, Elyas Alavi, Avan Anwar, Rushdi Anwar and Abdul Karim Hekmat, who draw on their refugee backgrounds to create evocative and powerful works in painting, video, sculpture, installation and photography. The exhibition explores effects of displacement, dispossession, migration, vilification, trauma and memory. ‘Refugees are blemished figures in Australia, which has become a global pattern now,’ says Abdul Karim Hekmat. ‘Art is a powerful way to emphasise our humanity and commonality and create a humanising space for others to connect. We refugees after all are not so different.’

WHAT: Exhibition Opening
WHEN: 6-8pm
WHERE: UTS, Ultimo
HOW MUCH: Free, more info

You have a colossal, risky, experimental, strange and wonderful idea for a festival. You hold it to your heart and run the gauntlet of audience expectations, funding and partnership obligations, bureaucratic red tape, rapid gentrification, more paperwork, an overworked and apathetic populace, economic arguments… You emerge… What is the size and the shape of this thing after this shredding? What was lost? What remains? Is it worth fighting for? This workshop, hosted by Fictions for Underbelly Arts, invites you to inhabit possible festival futures. Whether you are an organiser, artist or enthusiastic festival-goer, you are welcome to contribute your voice, your stories, and your visions. 

WHAT: Workshop
WHEN: 6-9pm
WHERE: National Art School, Darlinghurst
HOW MUCH: $10 on the door (free with Underbelly Arts Festival Ticket), more info

What happens if the place you call home vanishes beneath your feet? The world you once knew, now gone. “Home” is unfamiliar, strange. In an intimate performance Tantrum’s Trajectory Ensemble weaves a sea of stories from original poetry, found texts, songs, myths and music in a personal exploration of what it means to feel at home – in the world, in your country, in your suburb, in yourself.

WHAT: Theatre Production
WHEN: 7pm (shows until Saturday 7th)
WHERE: Pact Theatre, Erskineville
HOW MUCH: $20-25, more info

Heaps Gay and Trans Sydney Pride Presents In Bloom: The Art of Becoming. A celebration of trans and gender non binary artists with support from LUSH! All proceeds go to charity!

WHAT: Exhibition Opening Night Party
WHEN: 6-10pm
WHERE: 107 Projects, Redfern
HOW MUCH: $5, more info

Sydney poetry and prose powerhouse Subbed In is putting on their lab coat and firing the literary canon, literally.  Join Subbed In and Underbelly Arts for a night of oscillating octets and caustic centos from the apocryphal apothecary as a whirlwind of writers present their awful, anachronistic alchemy.

WHAT: Poetry Performance
WHEN: 6-9pm
WHERE: National Art School, Darlinghurst
HOW MUCH: $10 on the door (Free with Underbelly Arts Festival ticket), more info

Celebrate the opening of Leila El Rayes first solo exhibition ‘Did I dream you dreamed about me’. Featuring a series of new photographic, video and sculpture based works. Leila El Rayes’ multidisciplinary practice explores the impact which cultural heritage has on the way in which we view the world and the way in which we in turn are viewed. Also exhibiting is Sydney-based artist Liam Benson who presents his latest body of embroidery based works exploring notions of Australian identity. ‘I have a wealth of unconditional love, and it’s yours if you want it…’ is an exhibition which converses about the connection with others. Liam Benson embraces connectedness, kinship, empathy and fellow-feeling.

WHAT: Art Exhibition Opening
WHEN: 6-8pm
WHERE: Artereal Gallery, Rozelle
HOW MUCH: Free, more info 

Visit Firstdraft for the opening of the October 2017 exhibitions! Featuring:

Masaharu Sato’s ‘Tokyo Trace 2’ which elaborates upon Sato’s guiding artistic and conceptual concerns, shadowing his recent solo presentation, at the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo.

Cybele Cox’s ‘Ornamental Hallucination’ which is a glimpse into the cave where the Sibyl Sphinx presides. This is an enchanted kingdom, with sphinxes, hybrid animal/human forms, revelling in the connection to the divine, the psychic function of our ancestral selves.

Aaron Christopher Rees’s ‘Tenome ‘Eyes of the Hand’ which is a participatory work utilising wearable home security cameras, a “VR” helmet and the screen to explore altered perception. It invites the user to re-encounter their environment with eyes in their hands.

Min Wong’s ‘If You Are Struggling You Must Be Happy :)’ investigates the spectacle associated with US cults from the 1960’s and 70’s and aims to reflect the paradoxical search for spiritual collectivism, human failure and future possibilities.

WHAT: Art Exhibition Openings
WHEN: 6-8pm
WHERE: Firstdraft, Woolloomooloo
HOW MUCH: Free, more info

Between people flows an energy beyond words. Since its 2012 premiere, Rafael Bonachela’s multi award winning tour de force has left critics and audiences speechless and must be felt to be believed. Crackling with exultant power and intricate physical conversation, a pulsing pixelated backdrop, baroque-meets-electronica soundtrack and fragments of poetry, 2 One Another is a bright hour of irrefutable sensuality, delivering a visceral charge that has rocked audiences the world over.

WHAT: Dance Production Opening Night
WHEN: 8pm
WHERE: Roslyn Packer Theatre, Walsh Bay
HOW MUCH: $50-95, more info

As part of Underbelly Arts Late at the Lab, Liquid Architecture hosts an evening of coastal listening, sloppy digressions and tidal thinking. This Lab will offer ideas and discussion led by curator Camila Marambio and lecturer Astrida Neimanis, with the goal of opening participants’ ears to a set of subjects: water, rocks, sand, weeds, shells and things that live in them. Let your ideas rise with the tide during this experimental process of shore-listening, where water and earth are two moments of a p a s s a g e.

WHAT: Talk Event
WHEN: 6-9pm
WHERE: National Art School, Darlinghurst
HOW MUCH: $10 on the door (Free with Underbelly Arts Festival ticket), more info

Have you ever aspired to be an actor? Ever wondered what drama school is like? The play “Hypnagogism’ gives you an insider’s perspective on the strange and confusing journey that is drama school, where the line between fantasy and reality is blurred. Border-lining on the absurd this comedic play, shines a light on the mental health of students under the pressure of studying, especially in a place where pain is glorified and delusions are praised. It opens the door for serious discussion about the industry and the questions surrounding psychological and emotional well being of artists in training and the ethics surrounding that.

WHAT: Play

WHEN: 7pm (until 14th October)

WHERE: The Factory Theatre, Marrickville

HOW MUCH: $40. More info here.

This transdisciplinary, interactive exhibition presents renaissance engineer, Professor Melissa Knothe Tate’s multifunctional textiles and smart materials inspired by nature, tying together the fields of biotechnology and textile design on “The Cellular Catwalk.”

WHAT: Art Exhibition
WHEN: 9am-5pm
WHERE: Australian Design Centre, Darlinghurst
HOW MUCH: Free, more info

Campbelltown Arts Centre would like to invite you to visit Little Orange as part of Sydney Craft Week. Little Orange is an inclusive studio for ten emerging Western Sydney artists with disabilities and a diverse range of artistic practices, including; drawing, painting, ceramics, sculpture and mixed media. The studio is facilitated by contemporary artist David Capra, and fosters high quality artistic practice in the visual arts and provides dynamic networking opportunities for participants to link in with other artists, galleries, collectors and the broader community.

WHAT: Studio Opening
WHEN: 10am-2pm
WHERE: Campbelltown Arts Centre, Campbelltown
HOW MUCH: Free RSVP, more info

Immerse yourself in sad goth party jams, visceral electronic beats and roaming performances to celebrate the opening night of Underbelly Arts Festival! Develop bad habits on the dancefloor with Melbourne’s HABITS as they take the stage for their only Sydney show, debuting their new single SHAME / DESIRE!

WHAT: Festival Launch Party
WHEN: 6-10pm
WHERE: National Art School, Darlinghurst
HOW MUCH: $20 bf (or $65 incl festival ticket), more info

In contemporary Western culture death and dying are generally regarded as something to fight against, deny, hide from public view and above all fear. But what if we were to look at them differently? Despite understandable fear and denial, we may have very good reasons to want to learn more about death and dying. During the festival there will be over 20 participatory workshops, performances, talks and ceremonies on different aspects of death and dying over two days. In addition to talks and discussions, you will have experiences, which do justice to the full spectrum of what is at stake in mortality.

WHAT: Festival
WHEN: 7th-8th October
WHERE: Critical Path, Rushcutters Bay
HOW MUCH: One day – $149 Both Days -$275-299, more info

The Australian Design Centre is holding a special Makers Market on Palmer St, Darlinghurst on Saturday 7 October in conjunction with Sydney Craft Week. You’re invited to spend the day with a selection of makers who weave, hammer, throw, bend, twist, fire, decorate and create day in, day out, right across the greater Sydney area to sell their wares in a special one day market event at ADC. Shiso Fine will be on hand to keep you fed and hydrated with delicious Japanese food.

WHAT: Market Fair
WHEN: 10am-4pm
WHERE: Australian Design Centre, Darlinghurst
HOW MUCH: Free, more info

Over 90 market stalls by artists, designers and providores. Enjoy free art activities, food stalls and market stalls by a variety of artists and makers.

WHAT: Market Fair
WHEN: 10am-3pm
WHERE: Hazelhurst Regional Gallery and Arts Centre, Gymea
HOW MUCH: Free, more info