The Northshore Hub — Alex Podger's contribution to the Anywhere Theatre Festival — is expanding Brisbane's theatre scene.
An experienced performance artist and director, Alex aims to “celebrate the idea of theatre and performance happening outside conventional spaces” of the city by hosting four unique shows at his Northshore Hub. “The ultimate goal is to get a whole new audience out there and experiencing some very new ideas and approaches to performance that Brisbane doesn't typically see.
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“We have to build everything, create our own audience, our own atmosphere,” Alex continues. “It's quite interesting to start from a completely blank canvas and build it up from there, rather than having an existing culture and audience with their expectations.”
Created with the assistance of longtime collaborator Jenna Koda, the Northshore Hub is fully equipped with a bar, lounge, and three separate performance spaces. While this may sound like heaven for theatre junkies, the Hub is only a temporary fixture. “It's completely temporary. It'll be up for two weeks, then it'll all be gone in about a day,” Alex explains. “It's a pop-up venue, basically. It may come back in the future, it may not.”
Over those two weeks, the Hub will exhibit a variety of shows, ranging from science-themed cabaret act 'Do It With Science' to the more conventional 'Speaking Freely'. Rounding out the roster is 'A Romeo/Juliet Complex' and Alex's very own 'Little Boxes'. Written and developed over a period of one year, 'Little Boxes' gives the audience a realistic look into the lives of half-a-dozen isolated residents of an apartment block.
Having very little dialogue in the script, 'Little Boxes' relies heavily on the visual experience, with Alex breaking conventions once more by putting a spin on the seating arrangement. “It's the opposite of theatre in the round, with the audience in the middle and the stage around them,” he says. “The action happens about 180 to 270 degrees around them, so they'll have to turn on the spot.” 
With showtime drawing near, Alex expresses nothing but excitement and maintains that, despite common consensus, theatre is not dead. “Performance as an experience and as a creative venture is very alive. You can see that all over Brisbane in the types of shows companies are putting on now. And I think that's absolutely brilliant.”
