Backstage

Kate Gaul

Director Kate Gaul joins me, Regina Botros, to talk about her show The End of Winter at Griffin Theatre.

Kate Gaul is a theatre and opera director, creative producer, festival director, and designer based in Sydney, NSW. She is a graduate of NIDA (Directing 1996) and Artistic Director of Siren Theatre Co. Kate undertook a residency with SITI Company (NYC) and was Associate Director at Ensemble Theatre.

 

 

Bernadette Fam

Regina Botros talks with director Bernadette Fam and her show Chewing Gum dreams on at the Old Fitz theatre.

Bernadette Fam is a multidisciplinary artist working across Dramaturge, Directing, Writing and Creative Producing. Her recent directing credits include: directing the Young Artist Ensemble for Q Theatre and assistant director for Young Frankenstein (Hayes Theatre), and Lady Tabouli (National Theatre of Parramatta/Sydney Festival).

Bernadette is a past Create NSW Young Creative Leaders Fellow, current Creative Producer of Green Door Theatre Company and Critical Stages Touring and Artist in Residence at PYT, Fairfield.

Sydney Festival 2022 special with Olivia Ansell

Olivia joins Regina to talk all things Sydney Festival.
Catch up on what's hot.

Olivia Ansell is the Sydney Festival Director and comes from a family of performers. She is a curator an artist and the woman at the helm of Sydney Festival 2022.

Julian Meyrick

Regina speaks with theatre historian and cultural policy analyst Julian Meyrick.

Julian is an award-winning theatre director having directed over sixty theatre shows, and is winner of the Helpmann Award for Best New Work in 2012 and is Professor of Creative Arts at Griffiths  University.

He was AD of his theatre co---Kickhouse theatre which ran from 1989-98.

Previously he was Associate Director and Literary Advisor at Melbourne Theatre Company, and was founding member and Deputy Chair of Play Writing Australia 2004-09.

He has been published widely on the Australian theatre, culture, and cultural policy.

He is a member of the Currency House editorial committee, General Editor of the PLATFORM PAPERS for Currency House ----the brain child of Katherine Brisbane after currency press and they have released their latest papers.

Rajan Velu

Regina Botros talks with Rajan about his life and his role in Norm & Ahmed.

Rajan Velu is a graduate of Actors Centre Australia and has worked extensively across Theatre, Television, and Film in Australia and the United States.

His credits on stage include Counting and Cracking (Belvoir), Life of Galileo (Belvoir), The Last Highway (Urban Theatre Projects), The Drum (Sydney Opera House),

Friends in Transient Places (Fresh Produced LA), The Changeling (Independent Shakespeare Company LA ), Henry V (Independent Shakespeare Company LA).

His  screen credits include All Saints, Doctor Doctor, RFDS, Diary of an Uber Driver, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Scandal, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and Criminal Minds-Beyond Borders.

Lex Marinos

Actor Lex Marinos has worked across all areas of the entertainment industry as an actor, director, writer, radio commentator, producer and festival director.

Awarded an OAM for his services to the performing arts.

Presented by Regina Botros

Geraldine Hakewill

The gorgeous Geraldine Hakewill joins Regina in this episode of Backstage.

You may have seen her on the stage of Sydney Theatre Company, Belvoir, Darlinghurst Theatre and Bell Shakespeare in The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, Peter Pan, Dangerous Liaisons, The Real Thins, Macbeth, Chimerica, Platanov, Tartufee and Baal to name just a few.

You may have seen her on television or in many films. She was in a live reading of Homebody Kabul by Tony Kushner raising funds for Afghanistan. 

We talk about all that and more in this episode.

 

Glenn Hazeldine

The actor Glenn Hazeldine joins Regina to dive deep into the craft, the psychology of acting and the importance of the Actors Benevolent Fund for the industry.

Glenn graduated from NIDA in 1994. Theatre work includes, for Sydney Theatre Company: No Pay?No Way!, Cosi, The Father (also MTC), Away (also Malthouse), Disgraced, Arcadia, Love and Information (also Malthouse), After Dinner, Perplex, Tot Mom, Elling, The Pig Iron People, Don’s Party (also MTC), Julius Caesar, Victory, Love For Love, Mongrels, Historia, Two Weeks With The Queen, Dead White Males (also national tour). 

And so so so many more....

Russell Cheek

The charming Russell Cheek joins Regina to talk through his life to the stage, the key to improvisation, where his inner clown lives and the remarkable teachings of Le Coq - and so much much more.

Russell has a BA Hons, University of Sydney, (German) and also studied French

After graduating theatre-school, the École Jacques Lecoq, Paris - Russell performed with companies in Italy and Germany. He created DOUBLE TAKE co. in Paris, playing one season there, touring Holland, and then to the Sydney and the Adelaide Festivals in Australia.
He became a core member of the great musical-theatrical band The CASTANET CLUB, enjoying ten years national and international acclaim - 
(incl. “THE CASTANET CLUB – a movie you can dance to” (directed by Neil Armfield.)
He led a creative lab, then created and guest-directed CIRCUS OZ’s 2003-5 world-touring show.

He performed in three Sydney Theatre Company productions:
“The GOVERNMENT INSPECTOR”, (Dir Neil Armfield,)
“TARTUFFE”, (Dir Barrie Kosky,) and  
“A MONTH in the COUNTRY”.

He appears in the films YOUNG EINSTEIN and RECKLESS KELLY.

Russell was a regular “Brains Trust” panelist on ABC TV’s “EINSTEIN FACTOR”, 2004-2009.

In 2014 – he devise-directed “Clockfire Theatre Company’s
‘A HUNGER SUITE’, in Istanbul and then Sydney.

In 2015 he appeared in The Hayes Theatre production of HIGH SOCIETY as Seth Lord with Amy Lehpamer, Virginia Gay, Bobby Fox and Bert Labonte.

He completed initial season of his one-man show in August 2016 at the 505 theatre in Sydney: “WHO AM I….?” Directed by Steve (The Sandman) Abbott.

“WHO AM I…?” was invited to the Adelaide Festival of the Arts, in March 2017. It then played seasons at The Street Theatre, Canberra, and Riverside Theatres, Parramatta.

2018 – “WHO AM I…?” played seasons in Newcastle, Albury-Wodonga and toured country Victoria. 2020 pre-covid played in Coramba, Coffs Harbour.

 

Steve Rodgers

Steve Rodgers joins Regina to talk about his life stomping the boards as an actor and writer for the stage.

Steve trained at Theatre Nepean at Western Sydney University and has been working as an actor for thirty years. Theatre credits include Every Brilliant Thing, Cloudstreet, Twelfth Night, The Blind Giant Is Dancing, Night on Bald Mountain, The Pillowman, The Kiss, A Christmas Carol and Jasper Jones (Belvoir), Riflemind, Three Sisters, Dance Better At Parties, Democracy, As You Like It, (Sydney Theatre Company), Dreams in White, Eight Gigabytes of Hardcore Pornography and Diving for Pearls  (Griffin Theatre Company), Boys Next Door and Street Car Named Desire (Ensemble Theatre), A Midsummer Night’s Dream , Macbeth, and Antony and Cleopatra (Bell Shakespeare Company). Steve’s most recent television credits include Upright, Kikki and Kitty and The Code while film credits include Goldstone, The Daughter, The Men’s Group and the short Snare, which played at SXSW, Tribeca and Sydney Film Festival this year. Steve’s writing credits include the plays Ray’s Tempest (Belvoir; MTC), Food (Belvoir / Force Majeure), Savage River (Griffin / MTC), and Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam (Belvoir / National Theatre of Parramatta) and most recently King of Pigs for Red Line at the Old Fitz.