Growth and Opportunity (Early 1980s)
In 1980 founder Judy Morton received funding for AAV from the State Government. This set up AAV up as an organisation that could plan for the long term. Dinny Downie took on the job of Executive Director.
1981 was the International Year of Disabled Persons. In honour of this, the Australia Council for the Arts gave money to AAV to work on a theatre show with Chilean Theatre Director Aldo Gennaro. He had earlier worked on a performance at the Sydney Opera House with residents of the Lorna Hodgkinson Sunshine Home. You can stream a documentary on this performance called Stepping Out, on SBS On Demand.
Theorem was the title of the project developed by AAV. The core team included Director Aldo Gennaro, dramatist Bronwen Barton and puppeteer Greg Temple. It was performed at the Melbourne Concert Hall (now called Hamer Hall) in 1982 and was a smash hit. Four shows were originally scheduled and it had to be extended to seven shows to meet the huge demand.