the GREENROOM with Nik n Mik

Send us Fan Mail Nik and Mik reflect on how a cash-strapped project pushed them into “parlor theatre”: tiny, intimate shows (often in private homes) historically tied to taboo, political, and community communication. They unpack what changes when the audience is acknowledged in the room—heightened vulnerability, blurred lines between “play” and “real,” the need for consent frameworks (color-coded...

Send us Fan Mail For their 10th episode, Mik and Nick skip the heavy theory and do a quirky retrospective of standout performing-arts memories: Mik’s terrifying year-7 Peter Pan audition that became his first taste of ensemble belonging; youth dance-theatre double bills (Peter Pan/Grease) and the hazards of skimpy costuming, including a mid-show costume tear. They trade college stories of accident...

Send us Fan Mail Mik and Nik (a long-married theatre couple with decades in the industry and in teaching) unpack a big question: actors learn how to prepare—so are they prepared for the mental, physical, and emotional toll of the work? They reflect on training methods that deliberately alter consciousness and mine personal memory (often triggering trauma) while insisting “this isn’t therapy,” and...

Send us Fan Mail What happens when a lifelong creative and anthropologist walks into an office job? Nikki interviews Mik on the shift from theatre/film life into local government community development through a library service — and the weirdness of being seen as an “exotic” species in office culture. They talk stability, post-COVID recalibration, AI-era creative whiplash, boundaries, and how to k...

Send us Fan Mail In episode seven of The Green Room, Mik and Nik chat about how they fell into teaching and what they’ve learned across 30+ years in performing arts. They contrast different teaching models (institutions, holiday workshops, agency-style courses, private kids’ schools) with their own performance-first approach: every class needs a clear objective and a real outcome, because the “tea...

Send us Fan Mail Mik and Nik reminisce about their training home: Adelaide’s old Centre for the Performing Arts (CPA) on Grote Street, a boutique TAFE acting school set inside a converted teacher’s college with its own theatre. They outline its history while noting how little of this is documented online. They describe CPA as a rough-and-ready, constantly producing “factory” shared with dance, cos...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of the Green Room, Mik and Nik sit down on a scorching Adelaide day to discuss their thirty-year journey as a married couple in the performing arts industry. They recount the highs and lows of balancing their personal lives, careers, and raising a family. From their early days of dealing with ego and competition, to navigating the challenges of becoming parents, an...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Michael and Nikki, a long-term married couple working in the Australian performing arts industry, discuss censorship and its impact on creativity and management within the arts sector. They reference recent events surrounding the 2026 Adelaide Writers Week Festival, where a Palestinian author was uninvited, leading to significant upheaval including board resignati...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of 'The Green Room with Mik and Nik, dive deep into the shifts in audience behaviour post-COVID. They discuss the challenges performers and theatre workers face in re-engaging with audiences who have lost social play skills and respect for traditional audience norms. They also examine the impact of technology and digital spaces on these changes and highlight t...

Send us Fan Mail  📍 This episode explores how audience behave as a collective organism, their rituals, their resistance to disruption, and what their reactions reveal about cultural expectation. Among other things, we talk about our unique audience experiences as well as methods and techniques for shaping an audience. We try to get at the rituals, behaviours, and social scripts that underpin all...

Send us Fan Mail Introducing The Green Room: A Safe Haven for Performers In the inaugural episode of 'The Green Room,' married duo Nikki and Michael Allen, both experienced theater professionals, introduce their podcast. Recorded on the Kaurna country of the Adelaide plains, they discuss the inspiration behind creating this safe space akin to a theater's green room, where performers...