SPOTLIGHT ON MUSC’s Macbeth

Read time: 12-19 minutes INTERVIEW BY CHARLOTTE FRASER The Dialog head editor, Charlotte Fraser, recently sat down with Alana Collins, Giulia Magagna and Flynn Lhuede to discuss Melbourne University Shakespeare Company’s upcoming production of Macbeth. This production takes one of Shakespeare’s most famous plays and re-stages it in 1920s New York, bringing the socially relevant messages around greed, power and corruption present in the original … Continue reading SPOTLIGHT ON MUSC’s Macbeth

Dialog Spotlight: Semester One’s Student Playwrights Chat All Things Theatre-Making

INTERVIEW BY EMMA PARFITT On this cold, drizzly day I met with Bronte Lemaire of Four Letter Word Theatre, Blue Jordan of CIPTA and Avi Walsh-Davis of Eleven Eleven Theatre. These student writers and directors have written the mainstage shows that these student theatre groups are bringing to the stage over the coming weeks. I brought them all together for a round-table chat about their … Continue reading Dialog Spotlight: Semester One’s Student Playwrights Chat All Things Theatre-Making

A Candid Look at ‘Cancelled’ Culture

MILO PENNEFATHER AND JULIAN MACHIN ON THEIR PROBLEMATIC NEW PRODUCTION Cancelled, Four Letter Word Theatre’s brazen new production, pulls none of its punches. The musical stars one Max Richmond, an arrogant lead singer whose disastrously insensitive remarks have spelled the collapse of his musical career. With the help of THEM, a down-and-out pop icon, Max hatches a plan to get back on top and win … Continue reading A Candid Look at ‘Cancelled’ Culture

Dialog Spotlight: Short Straw Theatre Company – “The Effect”

Interview by: Oscar Lidgerwood Two weeks away from opening their debut production of “The Effect”, Short Straw committee members, Charlotte Rogers, Hazel Pigrum, and Freddie Carew-Reid meet with the Dialog to discuss the importance of student theatre, and open up about their experience starting their own company. Charlotte: We all met through Lord of the Flies with Four Letter Word last semester and decided to … Continue reading Dialog Spotlight: Short Straw Theatre Company – “The Effect”

Dialog Spotlight: Benjamin Nichol

Interviewed by: Oscar Lidgerwood Ahead of his upcoming run of kerosene & SIRENS this August at fortyfivedownstairs, VCA graduate Benjamin Nichol sits down with The Dialog to discuss his creative process and grants us insight into his life as performer, writer, director, and true theatrical all-rounder. Right now, you’re really doing it all – writing, directing, and performing in the upcoming kerosene & SIRENS double … Continue reading Dialog Spotlight: Benjamin Nichol

‘Ida’: Interview with Lucy Seale and Emily White

Union House Theatre’s 2018 production Ida follows the story of the first female students at the University of Melbourne. Earlier this week, I spoke with cast members Lucy Seale and Emily White to hear about the show and their experience with the production. So just tell me about Ida E: So, it’s a remount of a 1994 musical that was done here in 1994 L: In the … Continue reading ‘Ida’: Interview with Lucy Seale and Emily White

Interview with Kate Douglas, director of FLW’s Hedda Gabler

Four Letter Word’s production of Hedda Gabler opens this week in the Guild Theatre. I sat down with director Kate Douglas to talk about how the show came together, and what a modern audience can take away from their new adaptation of this iconic play. I’d like to start by getting to know your background a bit. How did you get into directing? I studied … Continue reading Interview with Kate Douglas, director of FLW’s Hedda Gabler

Talking about Things We Should Talk About with Harriet Wallace-Mead and Mavin R Karunanidhy

Things We Should Talk About is a newly devised work directed by Xanthe Beesley. The show is a social commentary on why it is so difficult to talk about things that really matter. I sat down with assistant director Harriet Wallace-Mead and ensemble member Mavin R Karunanidhy to have a chat about the show and why they feel it’s an important work to see. To begin … Continue reading Talking about Things We Should Talk About with Harriet Wallace-Mead and Mavin R Karunanidhy

Talk of ‘Tinder Tales’ and Fails with Writer Mattie McLeod

Mattie McLeod seems to be the typical 24 year old, studying a bachelor of Film and Television at the VCA and in constant post-traumatic turmoil over her previous Tinder flings. Yet unlike most, she is also the writer of a new Australian musical comedy, Tinder Tales, premiering this month at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Recently, I sat down with her to discuss all things … Continue reading Talk of ‘Tinder Tales’ and Fails with Writer Mattie McLeod

Macbeth: Interview with Rachel Shrives

A grey morning. Two tired uni students have a conversation. Claire Ferguson talks with Rachel Shrives, Assistant Director of UHT’s Macbeth + macdeath: a coda. What are one or two of the key elements of your production of Macbeth? Macbeth in a few words is about over turning the natural order. By natural order, I mean privileges that we’re given that we don’t question, being … Continue reading Macbeth: Interview with Rachel Shrives