HIT Productions was formed in 1993 by award-winning actor and producer, Christine Harris, and began touring Australia in 1999 with Hannie Rayson’s Hotel Sorrento. It has since grown into a dynamic producing house where experienced and emerging Australian Creatives work together to present new work or re-imagined Australian classics, which are then toured to remote, regional, outer metro & metro areas. Typically, those shows are accompanied with educational and/or community outreach programs.
In recent years, HIT Productions has had a major focus of working with First Nations Artists, and using decades of touring experiencing, connecting them with Aboriginal Communities across Australia. In 2019, HIT Productions collaborated with celebrated Yorta Yorta Man, Tony Briggs, which saw him direct his now classic story The Sapphires. The ground-breaking tour not only saw the show staged in regions/venues for the first time, it created a version that was taken On Country where it played directly to Aboriginal Communities, offered free of charge to Indigenous Corporations and including outreach programs that were jointly managed. The project has a life until 2022. In 2019 to early 2020 (pre COVID stoppage) alone, the tour reached:
- 84 locations including some of the most remote regions of Australia…and played to
- 37,00+ patrons across 31 weeks.
In the last 25+ years the company has earned some impressive achievements:
- A combined total of 2700+ Australian venue visits involving over 320 different venues and 4950+ performances.
- Over one million kilometres traversed by HIT Productions across Australia.
- 1.1 million patrons have seen HIT Productions’ shows returning $57+ million to the Australian economy.
- 115 major theatre tours across 1180+ weeks (1999 – early 2020) of touring including some of the most extensive national tours ever staged in Australia including:
- Jeanie Linders’ Menopause The Musical® (2008-2012)- 152.5 weeks across 276 venues and also toured to New Zealand ,
- David Williamson’s The Club (2007-2008)- 35 weeks across 80 venues,
- David Williamson’s Let the Sunshine (2012)- 24 weeks across 59 venues,
- Jonathan Biggins’ Australia Day (2015-2016)- 25 weeks to 59 venues.
Along with quality theatre productions, HIT Productions has also tour coordinated some of Australia’s high-profile music artists including extensive tours (2017-2021) of Australia’s Eurovision finalist and Yorta Yorta Man, Isaiah Firebrace.