Backstage

Iain Sinclair

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 dramaturgy Iain has had a rich and successful career alternating between bold new plays and the classics, he has directed celebrated major productions for state companies at STC, Belvoir, MTC and Queensland Theatre, he has directed for numerous mid level professional companies and also consistently works outside of the mainstream paradigm creating top level independent productions.

 

Bert LaBonte

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 A Raisin in the Sun, All My Sons, The Grenade and Spelling Bee, and his Malthouse Theatre credits include: Cloudstreet, I am A Miracle, Time Share. 

Musical theatre credits include: The Book of Mormon (Watchtower Productions), Helpmann Award Winner An Officer and a Gentleman (Gordon Frost Organisation), Chess (The Production Company), Grey Gardens (The Production Company), Pippin (Kookaburra Theatre), Full Monty (IMG / David Atkins), Jesus Christ Superstar (Really Useful Group), Showboat (Livent/Marriner Productions), Guys and Dolls (Ambassador Group). 

Screen credits include FISK (ABC), The Newsreader (ABC), Surviving Summer (Netflix/Werner Film Productions), Literary Lethargy (Baby Banksia), Jack Irish (ABC), With Intent (Freemantle Media), a recurring role on Wentworth (Foxtel), Playing for Keeps (Network Ten), Upper Middle Bogan (ABC), Tomorrow When The War Began (ABC), Lowdown (ABC), Wilfred (ABC), The Let Down (ABC/Netflix), and Squinters (SBS). Film credits including Animal Kingdom (Porchlight Films) and The Very Excellent Mr. Dundee (Kathy Morgan International). 

Katie Pollock

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 numerous short works, including Contact  and as part of The Curve an so much more...

Ryuichi Fujimura

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 that failed.

 "I really want to show this work to people in all walks of life. Even though I tell my stories as a dancer, I believe that my stories of failures and disappointment are relatable and hope that my dance is enjoyable to my audience."

Samah Sabawi and Bagryana Popov

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

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 Queensland Premier's Young Publishers and Writers Award. She has written for many magazines, journals, and broadsheet newspapers including Frankie magazine, The Griffith Review, and The Saturday Paper. Her stories and essays have been anthologised in books such as After Australia, Best Australian Comedy Writing, Destroying the Joint, Women of Letters, Growing up Asian in Australia, and more.

In 2014, she co-wrote a comedy book called Sh*t Asian Mothers Say with her brother Benjamin Law.

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.