Adelaide’s own Patch Theatre (Patch), based in The Mill, is Australia’s flagship theatre company performing for an audience of 4 to 10-year-old children.
Patch has created and performed 113 new works to more than 2 million children and their families since their inception in 1972. With a broad range of inspiration from storybooks to science and beyond, light is an integral part of their work. It plays a strong role in the way they tell their stories and provides audiences with an opportunity to join in on a journey of curiosity and delight.
After premiering new works in Adelaide, Patch tours extensively, performing in over 90 towns and cities around Australia. Internationally, they’ve completed over 30 tours in countries including the USA, Canada, Singapore, Korea, Japan, China and New Zealand.
Patch connected to GigCity at the end of 2018, after moving into an office at The Mill on Angas Street. General Manager Penny Camens said the speed of GigCity was a big selling point.
“[Gig City] allowed us to consolidate accounts for the office Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) phones, mail server and internet connection, reducing the monthly costs to less than half,” Penny said.
When connecting to GigCity, Patch was overhauling all IT protocols, to modernise systems and streamline both mail exchange and servers by utilising cloud-based storage. Fast, reliable, and affordable internet was the key to enabling this update to succeed.
“The update project was very successful and continues to grow, keeping our touring party connected to the company from anywhere in the world,” Penny said.
This connectivity also allowed Patch to easily switch to remote working during COVID-19 lockdown periods, vital for the continuation of work throughout the pandemic.
As well as the core team of nine staff, Patch works with a range of up to 50 creatives, artists and technical crew when making and presenting performances. Having capacity for the extended team to work in the office during crucial projects has been very valuable, supported by unlimited fast internet. Some artists have even been coming in to use the office specifically for the transfer of large video files.
Patch’s work has a strong digital element to the live performance – music and sound files, animation, video and more needs to be uploaded to the cloud to be shared with theatre venues where they tour.
Since the pandemic started and borders closed, there has been limited opportunity to travel and present Patch’s work beyond South Australia. To ensure they stay connected with the industry globally, Patch has been attending online conferences and marketplaces to showcase their productions with colleagues from around the world.
Sharing high resolution videos and presentations of their work has allowed Patch to continue fostering relationships and planning presentations as far away as Canada, USA, Korea, China, New Zealand and Saudi Arabia.
While their work is in live performance, they couldn’t do it without the administration team that relies on fast and reliable internet.
“Using GigCity has enabled us to thoroughly modernise Patch’s operations, increasing accessibility, reliability and streamlining of the behind-the-scenes operations, to allow our on-stage productions to shine,” Penny said.
