Fresh after the success of its acclaimed Sydney season at the iconic The Old Fitz Theatre, New Ghosts Theatre Company presents the WA premiere of The Wind in the Underground, playing at the State Theatre Centre’s Studio Underground, from the 27th January – 3rd February, as part of Fringe World and The Blue Room Theatre’s illustrious Summer Nights 2018.
The Wind in the Underground is definitely a family show – engaging and relatable. The theatre can sometimes be an isolating place for people who aren’t in arts circles, but that’s not the case with our show. I guarantee that everyone in the audience will see themselves in one of our characters – and their siblings in another.
What has been the most enjoyable and the most challenging aspect of touring this show?
It was sheer coincidence that out of the original six members of our Sydney ensemble for The Wind in the Underground, five of us called Perth home. One of the great joys about touring this work to Perth is that we are making our homecoming with a show about homecomings! The play itself is set in Perth too, so it feels very right to be performing it here.
Our biggest challenge I’d say has been developing the script for our touring season. A bit of context on the show; original script was written as part of The New Fitz program at The Old Fitz Theatre in Sydney, which was a program that commissioned Australian writers to write an original, 40 minute play in response to one of their curated, main stage works. Our play was John Patrick Shanley’s Doubt, and would eventually be performed on top of the Doubt team’s set design, in tandem with their show. So the original play was written with a lot of guidelines and restrictions surrounding it… and then when we chose to tour the work separately from New Fitz Program, suddenly all of those restrictions disappeared. What did we want this play to be, now that we could perform on whatever set we wanted, and without the 40-minute capped time limit? The result of these questions was a whole other version of the play that we performed in a fundraising season back in Sydney, and was then rewritten and developed again for our Perth season. It has been an exercise for all of us in never settling with a final product, but instead constantly questioning our choices and striving to make the work the best it can be – even when that might mean hours of extra rewriting and rehearsal time to achieve that.
You’re also the founder and artistic director of New Ghosts Theatre Company. Tell us a bit about the company and, its aims and objectives?
New Ghosts was founded unromantically in 2015, when I wrote, produced and assistant directed my first work Fracture at The Blue Room Theatre. The Blue Room asked, “what’s your theatre company called?” and I replied “ Err… New Ghosts”, and the name has stuck since. Okay, so there was more thought than that which went into the name, but it really was established due to needing an answer to a question on a form. Since then, New Ghosts has been my vehicle for getting the works on stage that I am passionate about, and the aims and objectives of the company are very personal to my taste and philosophies as a director. First and foremost, I call us a playwrights theatre company, as I only ever work with debuting shows. The scripts I produce are chosen because I feel deep connections to the text, and because of that our goal in the rehearsal room is to stay true to the writing. That’s harder to do with the classics, which we’ve all seen so many times, and therefore as a director you have to look for a “new angle” on the work that your audience may not have seen before. With a new work, the audience haven’t seen ANY of it before, so I can solely focus on the best way to tell that story, which is often different from the “boldest” way, which might work against the text.
Now for some fun questions, although I’m sure all our questions are fun. Who is the one person (dead or alive), you would like/would have like to work with?
Haha considering the play I’m doing…I think it’s only fitting that I answer this question with my sister, Alicia, who is an awesome costume and set designer (and – bragging moment – won TWO Sydney Theatre Awards on Monday! Go Alicia!). We had that stereotypical sibling relationship – her, the mean older sister, and me, the little sister who idolized her and who desperately wanted to hang out with her friends. When I first moved to Sydney, I would introduce myself as “Alicia’s sister” rather than with my own name. I think, due to all that, we’d probably make a terrible director/designer combo, but the act of us working with each other would be such a personal win that I’d do it anyway.
Who has inspired you the most personally or professionally?
In 2017 I was lucky enough to spend three months in New York where I assistant directed for the wonderful John Gould Rubin. As one of the original founders of Labyrinth Theatre Company, and more recently his own Private Theatre Company, John is one of the most knowledgeable, talented and experienced directors I have ever had the pleasure of meeting, and he has been a huge inspiration into my way of working. Whether working with university students or established, professional performers, John’s directing method always stayed open and collaborative. His philosophy was to make fewer choices about the work on his own, and instead listen to his performers and creatives intently and let that inspire and shape the work. I think this can be a very daunting idea for directors, who often feel the need to leave their personal mark on a work, and retain control in the rehearsal room and of the final product. I found John’s rehearsal rooms remarkable because, despite all of his experience, they were completely egoless. His actors were more than just technicians who used their trained skills on stage – they were artists who shaped the work. And the results were works of high quality that took risks and left audiences laughing and crying – everything that a director could aim for when he or she first walks into the rehearsal room. My own methodology has been greatly shaped by my time working with John and our rehearsal room for The Wind in the Underground reflects this.
What is the most valuable piece of advice you’ve been given?
To not sit around and wait for people to give you work, but to get out there and create it yourself. That’s something that I always think of Perth as very good at. In Perth everyone is a “theatre maker”. They all do everything. In Sydney, the question I get a lot is “so you write and direct, but are you a writer or director?” We’ll catch up to you some day, Perth!
What book are you reading right now?
Annie Baker’s John – I suppose that it wouldn’t surprise you that most (okay, all) of the literature I read are plays!
If you could send a tweet that would reach the entire world, what would it say?
Hmmmm….“FYI: Our Friday 2nd show of The Wind in the Underground is already selling out so if you’re planning to buy on the night you might need a new game plan!” Got to keep up the publicity!
Why should people go and see TWITU
It’s exceptionally written and wonderfully acted. The next time you get the chance to see these actors might be for $200 on Broadway, not $29 at Perth Fringe. I mean it, they’re that special, and with our flights already booked home on February 5th this season can’t be extended… so yeah, don’t be the one that misses out.
