The late great man of Canberra Theatre, Ralph Wilson, will be smiling from above on the inaugural Ralph Indie Program which opens next week at the Ralph Wilson Theatre at Gorman Arts Centre. Co-creative producer Rochelle Whyte has the exciting task of bringing this ambitious program to fruition. Her co-creative producer, Adelaide Rief, and director of Ainslie and Gorman Arts Centres Joseph Falsone last year envisioned the Ralph Indie Program as a way of reactivating the Ralph Wilson Theatre since the departure of the former tenant, Janine Ayres Aerial Dance Theatre.

Whyte says, "We wanted to find a way that we could support our local artists, really challenge their practice, challenge their ideas and give them space and time to really develop those ideas to performance presentation, and we felt that that was really a celebration of who Ralph Wilson was himself as a pioneer and adventurer and theatre maker."

Their vision has taken a year to come to fruition. Of the many applications received, three were selected to form the program. They include a collaboration between dancer Alison Plevy and aerial acrobat troupe Solco Acro in Wiggle Room, which begins the program when it opens at the Ralph Wilson Theatre on September 28. In November, Zsuzsi Soboslay's compassion play, Anthems and Angels will be modelled on the medieval passion plays, and finally Cathy Petocz and Hannah de Feyter's new company, COUP; Canberra, will collaborate with a diverse range of Canberra artists to present their adaptation of playwright Caryl Churchill's Vinegar Tom, set during the witch trials of the 17th century.

Canberra audiences will have the unique opportunity over three months to see new experimental works that explore a range of subjects and styles and are sure to entertain and provoke. Wiggle Room has been inspired by British professor Sara Ahmed's essay, Wiggle Room, which negotiates the embodied politics of space. The artists explore how the ways in which we move our bodies and occupy space is inherently guided by existing social, cultural and gender norms.

Plevy says, "We want to to invite thinking and provocation about wider spatial behaviours and accepted norms and conventions that often restrict us – for example the difference in the way we move when we're alone, to when we know we're being watched."

Angels and Anthems, written and devised by Soboslay, explores the status of refugees and how we accept people from other countries, and what other stories people have when uprooting themselves from their countries and going to a new place. It will involve collaboration with an AV artist and members of the Sudanese community. Audiences will experience the medieval passion play form during which they will be led on a journey that will take them out of the theatre, and through part of Gorman House before returning to the theatre.

Finally, Caryl Churchill's play Vinegar Tom will be used as a foundation piece when it opens in December. Directors Petocz and de Feyter have described their adaptation as a "rock concert hung around a play" that will integrate the mediums of music, theatre and storytelling. The performance is set in a small village. Things start to go wrong and the villagers begin to look for scapegoats and make accusations. "What is interesting about the piece," Whyte says, "is that every single woman voices how they feel about those accusations differently."

By offering artists the space needed to explore bold and brave artistic ideas, Ralph Indie encourages innovation, experimentation and cross-disciplinary investigations in the performing arts. "The Ralph Wilson Theatre is a unique space for artists to make original work, challenge their work and create new collaborations. I'm excited by what this collaboration will create." Whyte says.

The spirit of Ralph Wilson lives on in the revitalised theatre that bears his name.