Backstage

Regina Botros

Regina Botros talks with the best theatre makers of our times about their life on and off the stage.
Theatre, Dance, Comedy and Performing Arts.

Theme music by Dave Wray
Image by Tuo

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100 episodes
Updated July 7

Episodes100

Newest first

Feb 19, 2023 · 17 min
Daniel Clarke
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 development. He has championed the works of many visionary LGBTIQA+ artists throughout his career from independent producing to within large cultural institutions.
Feb 15, 2023 · 28 min
Annalouise Paul
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 Photo credit: Binu Photography
Feb 15, 2023 · 24 min
Lewis Treston
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 STC Patrick white award winner. This production is Presented in association with Sydney WorldPride and directed by Dean Bryant (Fun Home), this modern homage to the celebrated, nineteenth century English novelist – which had a development at STC as part of the Rough Draft program (2021) and won the 2021 Australian Theatre Festival New Play Award in New York – is a high-camp exploration of love, family and commitment topped off with a twist of Regency period charm.
Feb 2, 2023 · 23 min
Blair Cutting and David Hooley - In A Little Room
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 in to a very informative chat about the times of this play's history and what may have happened...
Jan 31, 2023 · 16 min
Rachel Healy
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 so much more. We delve into the new space and what theatre looks like after a pandemic.
Jan 31, 2023 · 15 min
Melanie Tait talks A Broadcast Coup
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 lack of accountability from controversial public figures. Cut-throat journalist Jez Connell is out for her next sting. It’s been a year since she brought down one of TV’s most lauded stars for behaving badly and now she’s got Michael King, the top-rated darling of public radio, in her sights. This time, it’s personal. With the loyalty of his longstanding radio show producer wavering, and a charting ex-media podcaster eager to take the mic off Mike, has the plug been pulled on Michael King’s career?
Jan 13, 2023 · 29 min
Sydney Festival Show 11th January 2023
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.
Nov 30, 2022 · 28 min
S Shakthidharan
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 Festival 2019, followed by the Adelaide Festival, with rave reviews and a profound impact on the Sri Lankan community. The script won the Victorian Premier’s overall Literature Prize and the NSW Premier’s Nick Enright Prize for Playwriting. The production has gone on to win 7 Helpmann Awards including 2 for Shakthi – Best New Australian Work and Best Direction of a Play. It also won the Sydney Theatre Award for Best New Australian Work and was nominated for Best Direction of the Mainstage Production. The play toured the UK in August 2022 including a run at the Edinburgh International Festival.
Oct 27, 2022 · 35 min
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.
Oct 11, 2022 · 34 min
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).
Aug 31, 2022 · 25 min
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...
Jul 31, 2022 · 19 min
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."
Jul 26, 2022 · 27 min
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.
Jul 20, 2022 · 12 min
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.
Jul 13, 2022 · 16 min
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.
Jun 30, 2022 · 18 min
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.
Jun 16, 2022 · 20 min
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.
Jun 8, 2022 · 25 min
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 9th June, 2022.
May 25, 2022 · 26 min
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 29th May, 2022.
May 9, 2022 · 20 min
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.