Backstage

Emme Hoy

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 then went on to write additional scenes for the Company’s 2018 production of Saint Joan starring Golden Globe Award-winner Sarah Snook. Shortlisted for the 2019 Bruntwood Prize and recipient of the Belvoir’s Philip Parson’s Fellowship for Emerging Playwrights, the 2020 NIDA STC Pathways Commissions and Melbourne Theatre Company’s Writer in Residence Program, Emme completed her Master of Fine Arts in Writing for Performance at NIDA.

Her original television series Nobody’s Perfect was longlisted for the Australian Writers' Guild’s prime time screenwriting competition, shortlisted in the ABC/AWG Laugh Out Loud competition, the Monte Miller Awards, and was a semifinalist in WeScreenplay’s international television competition. In 2020 she won the AWG/Audible On Air Competition with her original series Left Behind.

In 2017 Emme’s play Extinction of the Learned Response was shortlisted for the Patrick White Playwrights Award, the Griffin Award and the 2018 Theatre 503 Playwriting Award; her co-written play Bathory Begins was awarded the 2019 ATYP co-commission; whilst her original play Cry Havoc won the 2020 ATYP Foundation Commission.

Emme’s plays include: Salem (NIDA); Strangers (Bondi Feast); Five Year Plan (Silent Theatre); Saint Joan (Additional Text, Sydney Theatre Company); La Finta Giardiniera (Queensland Conservatorium), Extinction of the Learned Response (Belvoir’s 25a); and Bathory Begins (ATYP, Q Theatre).

In June 2022, Emme’s play, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall will premiere at Sydney Theatre Company’s Roslyn Packer Theatre. Emme currently has various projects in development, including commissions with Malthouse Theatre, Melbourne Theatre Company and ATYP, as well as an audio series with Audible.

Emme also has original television shows in development with Disney+ and Clerkenwell Films, Moonriver TV, Firebird Films, Val TV and Jungle. She is a writer for Sally Wainwright’s The Ballad Of Renegade Nell and Nautilus for Disney+; as well as The Jump – an upcoming Australian dark comedy for Stan and Sundance.

 

Michael Honeyman

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, including for Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour in 2014. 

 

Scott Silven

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 unexplainable guided him to the craft of illusion at a young age.

Scott has over 15 years of experience performing at some of the world's most exclusive events and theatres. From recent sell out runs at some of the world's biggest art festivals, including at Sydney Festival and Melbourne International Arts Festival, an off-broadway smash-hit, and 3 world tours.

 

Dino Dimitriadis

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, De Profundis with Paul Capsis, Omar and Dawn, multi-award-winning productions of Tony Kushner’s Angels in America Parts I & II and Mary Zimmerman’s Metamorphoses, All My Sleep and Waking, Doubt and The Girl / The Woman.

 

Dino has – Produced across many festival and is the director of CLEANSED by Sarah Kane…playing at the Old Fitz Theatre from the 9^th June, 2022.

Alana Valentine

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 Musical and Green Room for Best New Australian Work.

Also Alana is a long time dramaturg with Bangarra Dance Theatre and most recently worked on Wudjang Not the Past for Sydney Festival . She has recently worked on Watershed: The Death of Dr Duncan, writing the libretto with Christos Tsiolkas and was directed  by Neil Armfield for Adelaide Festival.

She has more than 20 published works including two books of non-fiction including BOWERBIRD: The art of making theatre drawn from life (2018). She has written for radio television and screen and is here to talk about ….Wayside Brides - Till the 29^th May, 2022.

Chris Ryan

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-workers has seen her fast become a crowd favourite. Chris turned to comedy later in life after working as a journalist and running her own communications business for 20 years.

 

Marg Horwell

Marg joins Regina to talk through a life as a theatre designer and in particular The Picture of Dorian Gray.

 

Marg has an extensive list of design credits spanning theatres across Australia. For STC, Marg has designed for The Picture of Dorian Gray, Avalanche (with Barbican Theatre), How to Rule the World and The Histrionic (with Malthouse). As Costume Designer she also worked on STC productions of Lord of the Flies and The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui. She has worked on a wide range of productions for Malthouse including Because the Night (interiors), Blasted, Melancholia, Bliss, Caravan, The Testament of Mary, The Real and Imagined History of The Elephant Man, Revolt She Said Revolt Again, The Homosexuals Or ‘Faggots’ (with Griffin Theatre Company), Edward II, I Am A Miracle and The Good Person Of Szechuan. Marg has also designed for many other leading theatre and opera companies including English National Opera, Opera Queensland, Victorian Opera, Melbourne Theatre Company, Bell Shakespeare, Belvoir and Griffin Theatre Company. She has also worked with Circa, Performing Lines, Dee and Cornelius, Angus Cerini Doubletap and Chunky Move. Marg has won seven Green Room Awards and two Sydney Theatre Awards including one for The Picture of Dorian Gray (2021).

 

Leeanna Walsman

Leeanna Walsman talked with Regina during her run of Opening Night at Belvoir Theatre.

Leeanna Walsman has enjoyed an extensive career in film, theatre and television. Leeanna previously performed at Belvoir in the production of Peribanez. Selected stage productions include Solaris, Melancholia (Malthouse Theatre),Stockholm, Saturn’s Return, The Shape of Things and La Dispute (Sydney Theatre Company), Speaking in Tongues (State Theatre Company of South Australia), Othello (Bell Shakespeare) and so many more.

Leeanna is perhaps best known for her role as Zam Wesell in Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones (2002), for playing Carly Bishop in the Australian film Looking for Alibrandi (2000), for her role as Erica Davidson in the Australian television series Wentworth, and for her starring role in the mini-series Jessica. Walsman also starred in Home and Away: An Eye for an Eye (2015).

 

Amber McMahon

Amber is starring in North By Northwest, playing at the Lyric Theatre.

Here she talks with Regina about how she came to the stage and how to take this classic Hitchcock film to the stage. She's playing the femme fatale Eve Kendall with all her complexities.

Best known for her work in theatre, Amber boasts an extensive list of credits. Recent credits include; Stop Girl for Belvoir and Rules for Living for Sydney Theatre Company. Other theatre credits include; Dance Nation, Bliss, Atlantis, Twelfth Night, Angels in America, and The Power of Yes for Belvoir; Banging Denmark, Accidental Death of an Anarchist and The Popular Mechanicals for Sydney Theatre Company; Girl Asleep and School Dance for Windmill; Tribes and The Appleton Ladies Potato Race for Ensemble, Small Mouth Sounds for Darlinghurst; North by Northwest for Kay & McLean Productions and Optimism and Picnic at Hanging Rock for Malthouse, which included two seasons at Royal Lyceum Edinburgh and Barbican London. Amber was also a member of the Sydney Theatre Company Actors Ensemble, appearing in War of the Roses, The Season at Sarsaparilla, The Lost Echo, Gallipoli, and The Art of War. Amber’s screen credits include the feature film Girl Asleep, and the SBS mini-series The Hunting. She has received two Helpmann Awards for Best Female in a Supporting Role one for Girl Asleep for Belvoir/Windmill and School Dance one for Windmill

Glace Chase

Glace Chase joins Regina Botros to dive into the world of theatre through Glace’s new work Triple X, playing at Sydney Theatre Company.

Glace is a multiple award winning multi-disciplinary “trans-queen” / performer / playwright / comedienne / screenwriter / tour guide / bon vivant.

As a playwright Glace has won two Griffin Awards and the Queensland Premier’s Literary Award, and has been shortlisted for almost every playwriting award in Australia. Glace’s play Triple X, which she created, wrote and stars in, ran at the Queensland Theatre and has subsequently moved to Sydney Theatre Company. Glace was a finalist for the 2021 Susan Smith Blackburn Award for Triple X, which was additionally shortlisted for the Nick Enright Prize for playwriting.

Described as “delightfully satanic” by Time Out NY, Glace’s work defies easy categorisation. Glace created the world’s first Drag Queen Tour Guide business – Dream Queen Tours – named “Best Alternative Tour” by the International Travel & Hospitality Awards.

She also has a limited television series in development entitled Falleni. Other plays include Whore, A Hoax, Oranges & Lemons, GULL or the lamentable comedy called love (hereto known as the Trannies’ Revenge) and Nobody’s Girl. Her plays have appeared at Griffin Theatre, Belvoir St Theatre, La Boite, The Public Theatre NYC and NJ Rep.