Backstage

Two directors from this new musical Metropolis - wow - join Regina Botros to talk theatre. Julia Robertson is an actor, director, and musician. She is the current Artistic Director of the award winning devising group, the Little Eggs Collective. Acting credits include Jess and Joe Forever (25A Belvoir, 2019 dir. Shaun Rennie), The Astral Plane (25A Belvoir, 2019 dir. Charlie Garber), The Real Thin...

Zoe joins Regina Botros to talk about her life in the arts and in particular, Collapsible, playing at the Old Fitz. Zoë Hollyoak is a director and creative producer with nearly 10 years of experience working across a range of organisations including Belvoir, Performing Lines, Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (PICA) and Black Swan State Theatre Company of WA. Zoë is currently the Program Produc...

Justin Smith joins Regina Botros to talk all things theatrical. His life in the theatre and how he's come to be thrilling audiences in the role of the Baker in  Into the Woods , with music by mastermind Stephen Sondheim. Justin has starred in numerous stage productions, most recently Hayes Theatre’s Dubbo Championship Wrestling and Bangarra’s, Wudjang: Not The Past, with some of his other theatre...

Tom Dawson and Meg Hyeronimus join Regina Botros to talk Cherry Smoke and theatre! Cherry Smoke follows four young kids trying to grow in to the adults that the society that neglected them will accept. We can try to build the dream, but at what cost? When you're not taught to use your words but your fists can you ever truly change, or are you destined to repeat the past? 

Nick joins Regina to talk Sex Magick his new work to hit the Griffin Stage. Nicholas Brown has forged an international career as an actor, singer, writer, and Bollywood leading man since graduating from NIDA. Brown recently featured in Belvoir St Theatre’s Counting and Cracking, which won the Helpmann Award for Best Play, and The Long Forgotten Dream and Still Point Turning for Sydney Theatre Comp...

Sydney Pride Festival director Daniel Clarke joins Regina Botros to get the insight into the festival colours. Listen up - listen proud! Daniel has worked as an Artistic Director, Creative Producer, Executive Producer, Director, Programmer and CEO across Australia and the UK. He is a respected arts leader with a commitment to inclusivity, bold voices, independent artists, new works and artistic de...

Annalousie Paul joins Regina Botros in this episode to talk about her experiences as a flamenco dancer; how she came to it, the stories she tells and the new @Salon Flamenco series she is curating for Sydney World Pride.   Tickets and general info for https://prideamplified.au/events/salon-flamenco/ Facebook event page with full program details https://www.facebook.com/events/654379352729685   Pho...

Lewis talks with Regina Botros about his play Hubris and Humiliation - on at Sydney Theatre Company at the moment. Lewis is an AWARD Winning playwright and In this Sydney world pride (and prejudice ) production…think Jane Austen’s drawing rooms and country estates are switched out for the dizzying dancefloors and leafy avenues of post-plebiscite Sydney---is what it says online Lewis is a former ST...

Actors Blair and David talk to Regina about the life and times Queen Elizabeth I's reign in 1593. Double agent, spy and famous playwright, Christopher Marlowe has been called to a lodging house in Deptford on the Thames to answer to his secret double dealings...In a Little Room written by David Allen. A deep dive into the much speculated happenings on that fateful night and a knife fight. Listen i...

Rachel Healy joins Regina Botros Backstage. Rachel is the Interim Director of The Pavilion Arts Centre, Sutherland, which has just opened with its first show, Bangarra’s ---Waru. Rachel has been working in the arts and cultural sector for more than twenty years including Director of Performing Arts for Sydney Opera House and ten years as General Manager of Belvoir St Theatre. Adelaide festival and...

Trisha Starrs talks with Melanie about her new work. Ensemble Theatre is thrilled to stage the long-awaited world premiere of writer and broadcaster, Melanie Tait’s (The Appleton Ladies’ Potato Race) thought-provoking, sharp comedy, A BROADCAST COUP, from 26th January to 4th March 2023. A major highlight of the 2023 Sydney Festival, A BROADCAST COUP incisively delves into the abuse of power and la...

Sydney Festival fills our Backstage podcast this week.   Tracker with Artistic Director of ADT -Daniel Riley. Neighbours with Albanian contemporary dancer, and choreographer Brigel Gjoka.  Werk It with  fierce-as-hell director Malia Walsh. Antarctica composer Mary Finisterer.

Shakthi joins Regina to talk about The Jungle and The Sea and the power of theatre. On at Belvoir Theatre at the moment. Shakthi is a Western Sydney storyteller with Sri Lankan heritage and Tamil ancestry. He’s a writer, director and producer of film and theatre, as well as a composer and performer of original music. Shakthi’s debut play Counting and Cracking had a sell-out season at Sydney Festiv...

Iain Sinclair joins Regina Botros to talk about life, theatre and Pinter. Iain Sinclair is well recognised as one of Australia’s finest directors of actors in performance consistently helping them generate empowered, sophisticated and dignified work. After graduating from The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and King’s College London where he specialised in directing actors and developmental dramatur...

Bert LaBonte joins Regina Botros to talk about life in the theatre and A Raisin in The Sun.  Sydney Theatre company.   One of Australia’s leading men, Bert’s Melbourne Theatre Company credits include: The Truth, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Lungs, Rupert, Birdland, The Mountaintop, Elling, A Behanding in Spokane, Clybourne Park, Richard III and others. For Sydney Theatre Company, he has performed in ...

Katie is an award-winning writer for stage, radio and screen. She joins Regina to talk about her play ROUGH TRADE playing as part of Sydney Festival   Her plays for theatre are Normal ; The Becoming ; The Hansard Monologues—Age of Entitlement ; Blue Italian/Nil by Sea ; The Hansard Monologues—A Matter of Public Importance ); The Blue Angel Hotel; A Quiet Night in Rangoon ; A Girl Called Red ; and...

Ryuichi Fujimura is an independent dance artist and joins Regina to talk about this trilogy of shows based on his life.  Two, How Did I Get Here and How Do I Practice My Religion have toured internationally and the final part (Fall! Falter!! Dance!!!) is his premier performance, taken from his experience at a story telling event where he came second and tells the tale of a dance improv performance...

Writer, Samah Sabawi and Director, Bagryana Popov, both award winning theatre makers join Regina to talk about their production THEM.  This story about a young family facing the decision whether to flea their war-torn city.   Them is playing at the Riverside theatre before going to Casula Powerhouse.  

Michelle Law joins Regina Botros to talk about her Sydney Theatre Company production Top Coat playing at the moment. Michelle Law is a writer working in print, screen and stage. She wrote the highly acclaimed play Single Asian Female – commissioned by La Boite Theatre Company – which earned 5-star reviews before transferring to a sold-out season at Belvoir St Theatre in 2018.  In 2016, she won the...

Emme Hoy joins Regina Botros to talk about her adaptation of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Emme Hoy was appointed Sydney Theatre Company’s new Patrick White Playwrights Fellow, one month before her adaptation of Anne Brontë’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall – opened at Roslyn Packer Theatre. Hoy’s relationship with STC began in 2017 when she became a member of the inaugural Emerging Writers Group; she...

Michael Honeyman joins Regina Botros to talk about Madama Butterfly on at the Sydney Opera House as an Opera Australia production. He is a multi-award winning lead baritone singer including Helpmann and Green Room awards. He has many years experience and takes us back to when he first started singing and how he prepares for a role such as Sharpless.  He has sung this role a number of times for OA,...

Mentalist Scott Silven joins Regina Botros to talk magic and mentalism. Scott returns to Australia to debut his show Wonders in Sydney at the Sydney Opera House from 14 – 26 June 2022. From studying hypnosis in Milan at the age of 15, gaining recognition from David Blaine at 19, and headlining one of the UK's most prestigious theatres at 21 – this innate fascination with the enigmatic and unexplai...

Dino joins Regina to talk about their life as a theatre maker and their current production Cleansed by Sarah Kane.   Dino Dimitriadis (they/them) is an award winning theatre director, creative producer and curator. They have worked widely as a director and founded Apocalypse, an independent engine room for responsive theatre and live art projects.   Recent directing credits include Lady Tabouli, D...

My guest is Alana Valentine. Alana Valentine is a multi-award winning playwright Librettist and screen writer. Her works include:-  The Sugar house, Ladies Day, Paramatta Girls, Letters to Lindy, Barbara and the Camp Dogs with Ursula Yovich which is being adapted to the screen and won both a 2019 Helpmann Award and 2020 Green Room Award for Best Original Score, as well as a Helpmann for Best Music...

Comic Chris Ryan joins Regina backstage. A journalist, a mum and now one of the most exciting new voices on the Australian comedy scene. In 2021, Chris’ solo show was nominated for the Best Newcomer award at the Melbourne Comedy Festival. Two years prior she took home the coveted Best Newcomer title at the Sydney Comedy Festival. Her laconic take on everything from romance to passive aggressive co...