Now that Brit Jonathan Church has fled Australia, unable to come to terms on seeing out his job as artistic boss of Australia’s largest theatre troupe, it will be all hands on deck at Sydney Theatre Company’s wharf HQ. The Australian reported today that “about 60%” of the 2017 program — due to be launched in September — was in place before Church’s departure. Though Ms Tips had heard it was quite a bit less than that with less than three months to go.

With no replacement for Church due any time soon, a committee will be in charge of pulling together however many holes are left in the all-important program. That’s likely to be led by Rachael Azzopardi, the company’s director of programming and artistic operations, with the help of literary manager Polly Rowe and, probably, fine resident directors Kip Williams and Sarah Goodes. If you have a stage-ready play, now might be the time to knock on their door …