Here’s arts editor HELEN MUSA’s latest Arts in the City column.

Quantum Leap Australia (formerly QL2 Dance) presents Mettle, a new dance work by choreographers Alice Lee Holland and Jack Ziesing with 13 young dance artists. Costumes by Aleisa Jelbart, a soundscape by Sascha Budimski and visuals from Creswick Collective, the work explores transformation through the pressures of life’s darkest moments. The Vault, Fyshwick, July 24-26.

Canberra actor Pippin Carroll has been cast in the pop-rock, dark comedy murder mystery musical We Are the Tigers, playing Clarke, the devoted boyfriend of one of the cheerleaders. Directed by Chiara Assetta, with Kim Gilbert as musical director, the production opens at Sydney’s Hayes Theatre in October.

Artist-curator Alexander Boynes has been appointed the new curatorial adviser to the ACT Legislative Assembly, replacing long-time curator Merryn Gates. He will oversee the care of, and new acquisitions for, the Assembly’s growing collection of Canberra-related art.

ArtSound Radio Theatre returns with a live radio play adaptation of The Wind in the Willows, adapted by Bart Meehan from the classic novel by Kenneth Grahame and directed by Lexi Sekuless. Audiences can watch actors perform at microphones while live Foley artists and sound effects create the world of the River Bank and Wild Wood in real time. Mill Theatre, Fyshwick, July 24-August 1.

A new portrait of Australian drag icon Courtney Act by contemporary artist Paul Yore will be unveiled in October, celebrating the performer’s more than two decades of influence on queer culture.

The Australian Chamber Orchestra’s From Winter’s Stillness brings together artistic director Richard Tognetti, vocal ensemble Trio Mediæval and Norwegian jazz trumpeter Arve Henriksen for a program inspired by ancient Nordic landscapes. Llewellyn Hall, July 25.

News all day, every day at CityNewsQBN.com.au.