LAKESPEARE & Co have sealed a deal with Manuka’s Typica café to stage a musical theatre restaurant event, “Songs & Sonnets Over Dinner” on December 4 and December 12, preceding a new venture, “Shakespeare Down the Pub” featuring “Measure for Measure” directed by Christopher Stollery. Co-artistic director Lexi Sekuless says the Covid-affected company probably won’t present a free park show during the summer season. Book here. 

STORY Week (formerly Story-Fest), Australia’s largest performing writers festival, will go virtual and international from November 6-14, with poetry slams, talks and shared story-telling experiences from attendees around the world. The Australian Poetry Slam finals will be part of the festival program, with the National Final on November 14. Full program here.

COMEDIAN and TV personality, Wil Anderson will host the University of Canberra’s 30th anniversary Facebook Live celebration, “Future Bright”, with a limited, socially-distanced live audience at The Street Theatre and online from 7.30pm on Friday, November 6. Questions from the online audience will be answered by a panel of UC experts, with music from Alice Ivy. Register here. 

BUNGENDORE Wood Works Gallery is celebrating the work of a favourite sculptor in wood, Silvio Apponyi, who was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia this year, showcasing a new array of Apponyi’s sculptures which range from abstract creations to life-sized animals. 22 Malbon St, Bungendore, November 14 until March next year.

THE National Gallery of Australia’s 2020 Annual Lecture, “Decolonise Your Feminism”, features First Nations’ scholars Crystal McKinnon, Kimberley Moulton and Paola Balla questioning whether feminism has been relevant to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women in the arts. The online event will sit alongside the NGA’s “Know My Name” virtual conference, from November 10-13 and will also celebrate NAIDOC Week 2020, postponed because of COVID-19. Book here. 

CANBERRA author Peter Papathanasiou, who published his memoir, “Little One” with Allen & Unwin, made a splash in 2019, and now has a deal with British publisher Transit Lounge for his debut crime fiction novel “The Stoning”, a ‘rural noir’ thriller introducing fictional Greek-Australian detective George Manolis. Papathanasiou began writing the book as part of the City University of London’s creative writing MA program.