Get to Know Andrea
Get to Know
About Andrea
Making the biggest conversations feel deeply personal.Current Projects:
The Fire Project (Performing Lines WA)
The Way We Go About It (in development)
Nothing to See Here (TV Series indevelopment)
To Kid, or Not to Kid (in development)
Writer and Creative Director Andrea Gibbs creates theatre, live storytelling and immersive experiences that help audiences feel the people behind life’s biggest issues. Blending humour with heart and grounded in authentic Australian voices, her work invites audiences to laugh, lean in and recognise themselves in each other.
Her plays have been produced by Black Swan State Theatre Company, published by Playlab Theatre and Australian Plays Transform, and recognised nationally and internationally. Alongside her writing, Andrea is the founder and Creative Director of Barefaced Stories, one of Australia’s longest-running live storytelling organisations, and spent almost a decade as a broadcaster with ABC Radio.
Current Practice
A Jill of all trades, storytelling is at the core of it all
Barefaced Stories
Founded in 2010, Barefaced Stories is one of Australia’s longest-running live storytelling organisations. Each month, ordinary people step onto the stage to share extraordinary true stories, creating unforgettable nights that celebrate humour, vulnerability and our shared humanity.
Theatre
Andrea’s plays explore some of life’s biggest questions through deeply human stories, balancing humour with heart and authentic Australian voices. Her work has been produced by Black Swan State Theatre Company, published by Playlab Theatre and Australian Plays Transform, and recognised nationally and internationally.
Community
Whether recording stories after bushfires, collecting memories from local communities or helping people discover the power of their own voice, Andrea creates projects that connect people through story. Her community work celebrates lived experience and reminds us that everyone has a story worth telling.
Broadcasting
Andrea spent almost a decade as a broadcaster with ABC Radio, interviewing everyone from world leaders and artists to farmers, firefighters and everyday Australians. That curiosity about people—and an ear for authentic conversation—continues to shape everything she writes.
About ‘Barracking for the Umpire’
Andrea Gibbs‘ Barracking for the Umpire tackles blokes and their vulnerability, the fragility of the human body, and the impacts of brain injury on ourselves, our family, and our community.Set in regional Western Australia, Barracking for the Umpire deals with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), toxic masculinity and its impact on the well-being of men in Australia, and homosexuality in AFL, through the story of the failing health of one family’s patriarch.
PRODUCTION HISTORY
Barracking for the Umpire was commissioned by Black Swan State Theatre Company as part of the Funny Girl Initiative through the Malcolm Robertson Foundation. The first draft of the script impressed then Artistic Director Clare Watson so much, it was programmed into their season and premiered at Subiaco Arts Centre in October 2022 to much acclaim.
It is one of three Australian works to be invited to the Australian Theatre Festival in New York City, 2023.
Learn more about Barracking for the Umpire.
“Andrea Gibbs’s play perfectly encapsulates the good, the bad, and the ugly of the AFL” – Pelican Magazine ★★★★★
“What a win! Perth audiences should get excited to see what she writes next” – The West ★★★★1/2
Story
Development
Andrea helps people to be seen and heard through storytelling. Which is no mean feat in a world which sometimes feels divisive and isolating.
Andrea’s work expands beyond the boundary of a single skillset. Not only a director and curator of stories but also a writer, a radio presenter and producer, a performer and a comedian, her mastery of so many artistic abilities make her an incredibly valuable Australian artist. Someone that makes every project better.
How you can use her talents to bring out the best stories you have:
- Story mentor
- Workshops
- Spit balls ideas
- Feedback & editing
Andrea can teach you how to burn new pathways into your brain to become a better storyteller. Whether you are working on a personal story, a script or narrative project – to find out how she can help – get in touch.
“Gibbs is a rare talent. In person – incredibly funny and down-to-earth with no pretence or artifice. Like most great artists, she makes it look easy but there are years of training and exceptional acumen at reading a room behind her performance” – Iain Grandage, Perth Festival
What
People Say
Projects
The Fire Project (with support from MFI)
The Fire Project (with support from MFI)
A brand new audio work that highlights the impact fires have on regional communities, livestock and the environment.
The Chin Wagon
The Chin Wagon
The Chin Wagon, a mobile recording studio that can travel to regional WA or beyond, gathering more stories that are uniquely Australian.
“The Chin Wagon initiative is typical of Andrea’s vision and capacity to make things happen. As an object the Chin Wagon is of curse charming and irresistible in itself and the notion of travelling and collecting regional and suburban stories”
– Jim Cathcart, board member WA Chamber of Arts and Culture, The Last Great Hunt, and Art On The Move
Objects In The Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear
Objects In The Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear
Objects In The Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear was created by the Bachelor of Performing Arts Second Year Performance Making students in collaboration with the Director, Andrea Gibbs, drawn from their own stories and experiences and performed at locations around Kings Park from 11-14 November to a select, in-house audience.
Earshot
Earshot
Andrea produced ‘A Promise Renegotiated | For the love of God’ – the sotry of Charlotte & Casey re-negotiating their marriage for RN Earshot.
Get in Touch
To get in touch with Andrea directly fill out the form below. To reach her agent for acting enquiries please use the details in the footer.