The Taming of the Shrew

0:30Welcome to the next episode of the For the Love of Theatre podcast, which aims to bring the South Australian Community Theatre scene to you. My name is Annabelle Whitford and I will be your host. Why there's a wench, come on and kiss me Kate. The intention of this podcast is to celebrate our quality community theatre productions. They're creatives and create a further sense of connection between all the theatre groups, their audiences and you, our listeners. We hope that in future episodes we will cover other companies, their productions and have more guest hosts. If this sounds like something you'd want to be a part of, let us know. Email for the love of theatre podcast at gmail.com As always we like to start with a creative quote and this one comes from Shakespeare himself. The object of art is to give life a shape.

1:35This is Adelaide University Theatre Guild's first production for 2026 and our first as the newly renamed Adelaide University Theatre Guild. This is Taming of the Shrew and tickets are available from Tribalking.com forward slash DKFLB. This first production of 2026 began life as another Shakespeare comedy, the Mary Wives of Windsor, directed by Mark Wicket. In fact the show was the real Mary Wives of Windsor Gardens. However an unexpected turn happened and we emerged a new as the Taming of the Shrew. We extend our sincere thanks to the original Mary Wies production team, especially director Mark Wicket. That early vision, the groundwork and the commitment laid the foundation for what followed. The efforts were far from lost or instead they became the stepping stones for a production that while different entitled carries that same spirit and included amongst that is an excellent cast and we'll

2:37hear from two of them in a moment and we will hear from former cast member of Mary Wives turned director of Taming of the Shrew a little later in this podcast. But to begin with we're going to hear from what you'll find is a very resourceful woman, our costume person. Sue Kaiser and I'm doing costumes for Taming of the Shrew. Hello, Sue. You came to this project back when we were doing the other Shakespeare comedy, Mary Wives of Windsor and you decided to stay with us but how did this project come to your attention in the first place? I was actually at a 50th birthday and speaking to Lily who was doing stage manager, it was going to be the stage manager of the previous show and talking to her mother and it's always been a passion of mine costumes and what I have you but I haven't ever done it in any sort of official capacity outside my workplace which is the Adelaide costume shop. So and initially I thought I was doing Medieval which we have a lot of Medieval stock at work

3:42and then it changed and then changed again. So yeah, we've just adapted. So yeah, so I'm just making it up as I go. I'm a resourceful girl. So yeah, hopefully we're adaptable. That's right. So yeah, so I'm not really, I'd love to think one, you know, I could be a costumeer but just a resourceful costume lady. I remember it was Lily who recommended you. Yes, it was lovely to have the opportunity and it's really been great to meet all the cast members and it's been fun. Oh good. You've touched on your work. Can you give us a little bit more on your background and how you became interested in costumes? Yeah, so I think when I look back we've probably always done a lot of dressing up in our family and I had quite a bit of experience sourcing a lot of costumes for year five productions. We had a great drama teacher at Rose Park Primary School

4:45where our children went and they used to do productions there. So I'd get about town and resource a lot of stuff. There was obviously a lot of people that that have good dress up boxes of what have you and other families that really don't have have much at all. So because it's a passion and I hate seeing people not being able to, you know, fit in or be part of the crew because they don't have access to those sorts of things. And then it turned into being really a bit of a serial op shopper. The good thing is at work because I work at the Adelaide costume shop with a young fellow Matthew Rossi. He actually took over that business where he worked during COVID so that's a really big step for a young businessman. And working in there gives you a really good idea of what sort of things people are tuned into and also what I really recognise as a bit of a niche strength of mine was fitting more challenging people with costumes because obviously it's easy to

5:53put on a size 10 to 14 costume if it comes in your size but for a lot of people we have to be very resourceful with two or three other elements of a costume. And the good thing about the Adelaide costume shop is we have a lot of sort of base garments that we can then dress up and you can do, you know, you can do Murray on Luigi with tutus and I don't have to have overalls and we can get creative with that sort of thing. And I love it if we have a customer in there that comes in and really doesn't want to dress up, they don't want to go to the thing. And then in the in the prancing up and down the aisles in something they found and really captured their imagination. So I love, yeah, I like helping people to realise something that dress ups is fun. You know, people drop the guard and it's really good. Have you ever found anything surprising?

6:58What's the most surprising thing you've always done that? We had a gentleman one day come in and he wanted to be Batman and our Batman is a very big latex suit with a great big cape and I could tell that that really wasn't going to suit him and there was that there's a number of different options but I bought the whole Batman thing out and that really made him unhappy and very upset but unfortunately, you know, when people have something in their mind, if you don't sort of pursue that first, they can't then widen their horizons. Anyway, he ended up leaving in a gold llama suit with a waistcoat, jibbo, frilly cuffs, shoe buckles and just warm the cockles of my heart. The other day we had a guy come in and he just needed a touch of sequins. He was after some sequence suspenders and in the end he left in a sequins shirt, a sequin bow tie, a sequin jacket with fringing and then

8:01put on a beautiful sequin hat that he added that last piece himself so started off just really wanted to go lucky and then just going all out. So yeah, it's good to see people try on new things and I really enjoyed fitting people and finding clothing that I can see that they feel comfortable in. Excellent. So how creative have you been with this particular production? Yeah, well it's been a bit sort of make it up as we go. It's lovely meeting the cast and a lot of them have their own personal style and because of how Olivia's set this, it's quite contemporary, band, better rock and roll. So people that we've been able to use items of their own clothing, we've been able to find two or three key pieces and we're obviously looking at the music industry which people generally have quite a bit of swagger and style in that industry anyway. They have

9:05you know the artists have their own looks. So we've got quite a few main or key elements in place but lots more accessorising and it is important just to get a few of those key pieces fitting and then we can embellish from there. So yeah, what I've enjoyed most of all is meeting all the cast, you know they're different personalities and looking at where they're comfortable, making sure they're comfortable and obviously also what they're wearing they have to be able to perform their role in the outfits and are good having the fabulous outfit if you've got a crawl across the stage and you can't any pants too tight or yeah you've got other sort of physical challenges too. So yeah that's coming together, it's coming together well. I think the the music setting is an interesting one especially paired with Shakespeare. So what was the brief that Olivia gave you? Was it oh it's music and she then let you get on with it or was it a collaborative thing

10:09of we need sparkles, we need sequins and then we need some lower two pieces as well. Yeah last two short not to wear sequins and so I like to sort of sort of go there and then bring it back and really you know these, a lot of these pieces I've been collecting for years and it's just really nice to have an opportunity for them to be realised on a stage and there's a lot of resourceful for example a sequin coat that that John is wearing is actually a ladies sequin dress which I adapted because you know when I when I go out looking for items this you know there's sparkles and the sequins and the colour really draw my eye and it's been interesting to watch obviously the the challenge with this is too a lot of music industry people wear a lot of black on a leather a lot of black a lot of fringe in a lot of studying that sort of thing but because of our black backdrop we've kind of gone for a lot of pops of colour and a lot of primary colours so that's made

11:15it a bit of fun too and now our white boy van group and and Bardot group so and also a lot of the a lot of the music industry people there's a lot of flesh and that's not something that some people are comfortable with you know in their in their roles so it's a matter of just taking elements of those looks and finding something that people are you know are looking comfortably yeah so we're Olivia's main great and we're working hand in hand and the vision marinate and mature as we're going along so yeah and you know we try and we try to look with someone and if it doesn't if if you can tell that they're not that it's not grabbing them you know we can we can go off in another direction yeah so do you have a favourite costume so far on this probably it's good to see the the prince jacket getting an airing on on Ben there's

12:16something about satin high neck satin and princes some I mean some of those some of those pop culture icons have such key looks and so it's it's good to see a few things like that filter theory obviously the boy man thing with sort of baggy pants and the white a lot of white and that that'll look good when we get them all together hopefully we'll embellish their outfits a bit we've had you know it's challenging some of the cast very tall and then others have other challenges or opportunities that's right and actually that's one thing I've really that's that's really great not concerned to me but something that I really make sure that I've spent a lot of time doing at work and a lot of outfits fit people without breasts or without hips and it's important to

13:17me to find to find clothing that's adaptable for all shapes and sizes and you know it's quite challenging for for shorter people to find outfits that that look great so sometimes you can do a lot more with their shoulders and their shape so we all you know does does take a bit to to dress people to their assets and make sure that they also look the part and the character as well yeah this is your first time working with us maybe worked with any of the other community theatre companies in in that way no so only the only exposure I've had to local theatre or community theatre has been people coming in to work so as into the Adelaide costume shop so I know you know some of our other staff members have done a bit of work in that regard but what is interesting is seeing how that commercial aspect or hiring or buying things you know

14:23something that I've really focused on is really recycling a lot of things and resourcing other collections around Adelaide and look whilst there's a place in last change for Teemu and Sheen and what have you really haven't gone there and that's not sort of a direction that we'll also with the time frame to it's not something that I'm keen to do a lot of ordering online it's something I've really avoided and it's a lot of the young people it's really cost effective to do that but there's a there's an enormous amount of clothing and costuming out there that some I mean the the op shops the salvos and vines and these guys really do a magnificent job of of displaying their wares and luckily as I say I've been at this for for some time so no community this is my first rodeo it's the absolute first for me and it's been a really good learning process to

15:27see that because like everything you can find the look but it may not be in the size or you find something that's appropriate in the size but it really doesn't have the styling so but yeah I'm looking forward to embellishing a bit of this some a bit of this gear so that we get a you know a bit of a look going through the the production you're drawing the challenge yes well it's I don't know that you know it really does it's really been a bit of an eye out now for costumers that work on big productions like Outlander or many evil Viking shows or what have you my mind boggles at how much work would go into all of that we've got 15 or 17 cast and that's enough for the time a lot of but some of those big shows yeah there'd be a full team obviously yeah I don't have the money that's right I mean yeah budgets you know a big budget would make things a whole lot easier

16:31but I'm used to really working with well not from scratch but yes as I say one of my main assets is bang resource folks yeah yeah that resourcefulness is really coming in handy and hopefully this is your first of many yeah just with us so yeah so yeah I mentioned community theatre and this is something I ask everybody I interview for this podcast you might have a different perspective on this actually but why is community theatre so important in Adelaide oh look it just it's so important the arts are just so important at every level and specifically I mentioned you know I I go to great lengths at work to help any drama teachers or any teachers working in that area because you just know that they're not getting paid to do the hours that they're having to put in and it's so important for young people to get the opportunity and then even it's really wonderful

17:35to see cast members in different professions around Adelaide that come together in a production and it's the camaraderie and it's something that you share together and build together and it's exhausting and it's you know there's nerves involved and you know really people have to put themselves out there and it's so easy for people to be critical but wow it's incredible to see a production come together and without funding and without community theatre you just don't have that groundswell of artistic expression and it's it's really really important that's a fantastic answer yeah and I think we're really incredibly lucky to have this space and spaces like this and it's really important to continue to source funding and keep these areas well maintained and in use and I think it's really interesting to get it have a bit of an

18:35understanding of how the guild operates and and keeping across the administrative side of that too within insurances and and being able to operate you know so you know that sort of fundraising and that sort of aspect you know without all the people that have gone before us to sit on these boards and committees and what have you and and set up these structures you know you just wouldn't be in a position to do these sorts of productions so we're really lucky that Adelaide values the arts and South Australia values the arts and especially schools keep young fresh talent coming through and I think South Australia bets above its weight pretty well in a lot of these areas and we're very very lucky yeah yeah well thank you Sue it's been lovely to chat to you beautiful thank you thank you

20:25you under the lights you're pulling your hair to want to be your Hi, I'm Heather Crawford, I'm playing Catherine. I'm Tom Tassoni and I'm playing The Trick You. Welcome! We know you were cast in another show to begin with. If it's not too personal a question but what made you stay with this production? You wanted to carry on, you wanted to do a show, you already had the time book obviously. But was it an easy decision? For me, absolutely it was an easy decision.

21:27So, yeah, I've already carved out this time to do Shakespeare. It has been some years since I have done Shakespeare and to have Olivia directing. She directed me last year in Revlon Girl, Centruids and really enjoyed that. Had a wonderful experience, she had a very collaborative, very easygoing rehearsal space. A rehearsal space, a safer rehearsal space. So, yeah, there was no question, no doubt. And also, there were a lot of people that I had worked with and wanted to work with as well. So, yeah, it seemed like a really great group of people as well and really enthusiastic group. So, I still wanted to be a part of that. Oh, good. Was it the same for you, Tom? Yeah, so I think people that know me know that I'm very much somebody who likes to keep busy in the bit of world. So, on the one hand it was, you know, I had the time booked out and so it was nice to have something very quickly and easily come and fill it.

22:33But I didn't really know that many people that well coming into this one. I knew a handful and I hadn't necessarily worked directly with the handful that I did know. I'm one or two, I think I have, but something I really like is working with new people, getting to know new people. You kind of learn from people that you don't know when you work with them. So, I think a mix of that, wanting to do another Shakespeare I do whenever a couple of years, if I can, because it's always a bit of fun. And yeah, the part that I was offered as well with Triccio is a nice meaty one. It's got a bit of complexity towards it, so something to really dig my hooks into has been quite nice, actually. So, have you two worked together before? No. Was it love at first sight? I mean, have you did you get along straight away? Because from what little I've seen, you guys worked very well together. Oh, thank you. Well, so I came and saw the Watson's last year, which Tom was in. So I saw him perform in that and then saw him again in Promenade where then was actually properly introduced.

23:33And yeah, I mean, easy to talk about a rubbish. Tom? I will always yes out. So really easy to, yeah. I don't know. Cool vibe, cool easy. Yeah. Not a diva, not yet. Not yet, not yet. We just sort of got along pretty quickly. Always nice to meet somebody that will yes and to the degree that you will go off on any tension. Sorry. Yeah. Okay, so tell me about your characters. I mean, some people may be familiar with them, whether it's Bruce Shakespeare or if it's Bruce, say Kismicate or something like that. Catherine, she knows her own mind and she is not there to please anyone. And I think, I mean, you obviously want to give her a bit more depth other than just being an angry woman. I think maybe as far as for me, like she's been let down before, you know, she's grown up to be very cynical and bitter with certain respects to

24:43as far as her relationship with her mother in this played by the wonderful Dan Walsh. And also, obviously, the relationship with Bianca played by Jess Merrick. Bringing in some of that, yeah, other spiciness, just to give it a bit more depth rather than just being, or she's Catherine as mean and she's a shrewd. She just yells and she's angry. I mean, she is those things, but there are reasons for being those things. So then, someone like Petruchio coming in and sort of very much appreciating that, but also obviously seeing something more than what everybody else sees, rather than the complete front that she's always displaying to everybody if that makes any sense. I think it's much. Well, that's Petruchio coming and you tell us about your character. Yes, well, one of the first things I say is one of the things that we've kind of done is generally,

25:44I think, roughly directed to, but also something I normally do anyway is look at how other characters talk about your character. Look at what they say when you're not on the stage. It tells you a bit about what that character's like. So I have gone through, the vast majority of it is just people say he's mad. So he is absolutely eccentric. I think he's a bit off the beaten par, beats to his own drum. I think similarly to Catherine, he can very easily be played, very to dimensional, very stereotypically, is just a misogynist that wants a, you know, a subservient, obedient wife. But I think similarly I don't want to play in just like that. I want a bit of debt to him, a bit of character. I think he is a man that likes to be challenged. He doesn't want somebody that will just sit down and do as he says. He is looking for somebody with that fire of life in them. And so I think he's not so concerned with everybody liking him. Everybody agreeing with him necessarily.

26:45But he does want a partner that will, that will challenge him. And that will stand up to him at times. And that, you know, that he can have a bit of enter with from time to time. And they can joke and gestate each other. And at the end of the day, you know, they might go a bit a little grumpy at each other once or twice. But, you know, they both had fun and they both know where they stand. And they both know that if the other does something they don't like, they don't be able to stand up for themselves and say something. So you touched on some of those themes that might be a little problematic in today's world, under today's lens. So has some of that been removed or have you worked around it somehow? We're sort of working on it a little bit differently, being rehearsals. We are working on it. And it's a nice, nice challenge as well. And I mean, it's nice to give it some other undertones. Yes, try to remove it from being completely problematic. Horrible, um, Stockholm syndrome.

27:46Oh, my God. Oh, wow. Do you have a favourite exchange or... Well, I mean, my favourite is obviously the first scene with Patricio and Catherine when they're meeting for the first time. Yeah, and this is just like the, you know, clash of... Exactly. I mean, yeah, equals. Yeah. And it's a very... I don't know. And it's just a beautiful... Clashing of wits. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, there's one... It's kind of like a boxing match. One gets one, Eddie, and the other gets back. Yeah, the line that's strong to my mind was what with my tongue you would tell you? It's always a fun one. All right. Go to it. Action. Of course. Of course. I believe it's a good day, Kate. For that's your name I hear. It's the first impression Patricio gives.

28:49I'm so screwed. I believe it's your lie in faith. That's you. No, it's you lie in faith. You call me Katerina that do know me. God, I'm so sorry for everybody. You can fact check me on my first line. That's yours. You said your next line. It was like my line. I said, well, have you heard there's something hard of you? I'm alright. Oh, I go from my top. I'm going from my first line of year. No, that's it. Good morning. You're right. It's your name I hear. Excellent. Good morrow, Kate. For that's your name I hear. Well, have you heard but something hard of hearing? They call me Katerina that do talk of me. You lie in faith. For you are called playing Kate. And then it goes on for quite some time.

29:59I'm going from the start and when you caught my eyes in the hole. You pretended you didn't know me at all. I'm not buying what you're trying. Do you take me for a fool? Do you take me for a fool? Do you take me for a fool? Do you take me for a fool? Do you take me for a fool? You don't get this hour over me. Only kiss me because you've got time. You keep telling yourself what you want to hear. You know I know you're running from your fear. Keep this a secret. Don't tell a soul. Then just get that all together and be better. If you...

31:00Just let me alone. I thought there was a spark. Do you guys do not play instruments? No, I don't. I'm not on the show, I do. I try playing violin, but I'm bad at it. Do you sing in this? don't, but I can sing, but I don't sing in this. That's not helpful at all. I think Jessica's to sing, Jessica's to sing, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So yeah, Jessica's to sing, but not you. Yeah, that's right. We talked, you talked a bit about, you know, the community spirit and all that, and I think that's been exhibited in this whole enterprise. So why is community theatre so important in Adelaide? I think that it really is, I mean, I've worked with a few different companies now, and I think the consistent thing is there's always this togetherness, there's always this positive spirit, you're always building something together, not just for yourself, it's not this selfish thing, it's this truly collaborative

32:07thing, and you're building towards something that you can share with the community. And I think it does give another level of experience, another facet of entertainment for the people in Adelaide to experience live theatre that's not, you know, yes, the professional productions are good, but they can be expensive, and that's not something that everybody can necessarily afford, and I don't think that money should be a barrier to entry to live entertainment, because we've had these for hundreds, hundreds of years, probably thousands, don't fact check me on any of that, probably more than thousands even, but I think it is just people getting together doing something they love and showing the community what they built, what they put together, and I think there's something beautiful in that. Fantastic. A hundred percent, yeah, there's something really wonderful with the same goal, and everybody working towards it, and everybody putting in their own expertise,

33:11and I really enjoy those instances where it's a lot more collaborative, and everybody feels heard, even when they've got edges, like everybody just holds a space for that, you know. That's going in. I think you've got to say it's a safe space to try things out. That's how much better. That's true. There you go. A big, too much like my character. Yeah, she's in character folks. Yes, yes, yes. No, I think everybody, and particularly again, in this instance, and I've been very fortunate, generally throughout the long term I've been doing theatre in that late. That, yeah, each, what we were talking about before, actually, theatre is here in the now, and then once it's done, it's just into the universe, it's into the ether, and that's that's that,

34:13which is kind of special, that they have these moments in time for us, and that we can share all these, you know, good turns, good feelings, good ideas, and good vibes. That's excellent. Thank you. The energy, the rehearsal room, anything to go by. I think it'll be a really good show. I'm going to fun to come and see. Agreed. I'm looking forward to it. I am also looking forward to it. I think, yeah, it will be great fun. Yeah. Fabulous. The same person I was back then, I've grown up since then,

35:16but that hasn't made the words less hurtful. My skin still burns, though the heat's unlearned. I was confused. I didn't know what I felt. I'd barely met myself, and it was all new. Now I watch as dust settles onto the shelf. They say hindsight is 2020, but I still don't know. A god damn thing, and I try. I try plenty, but I won't ever know what the future brings. 1,798 days, going separate ways, till I called it on a Tuesday night. But you put mentions and streets my mind now I can't leave you behind. It doesn't feel right. We grew upside-by-side, and I know I shouldn't dwell on the things that I can't control,

36:18or so I'm told. But your absence has me questioning each choice. I've made lists of mistakes. Must all things end? Must we win less than you lose? I miss being friends. Guess what's for the best-can-brews? Now I'm talking to Olivia Jane Parker, and this is a bit unusual, because this time she is on the other side of the mic. And of course, you all know Olivia as the creator of this podcast, and now she's the one who gets to be interviewed. Hello! How about really comfortable on this side? A bit of a change, isn't it? It is, but a good one. It is a good change. And speaking of change, we know this show has changed from what was originally going to be in this slot. I'm interested in your thought processes, why it was important for you to say,

37:18look, I have an idea. Let's do something. Okay. I think I was a member of the original cast, and I think seeing how all these wonderful people had come together to put on a production, and my previous history with the Guild, the Guild was one of the first Adelaide Theatre companies that welcomed me on board as a cast member in the two gentlemen of Rona, and I just felt that canceling a show when you still had people that were eager to put on a production, when you had a season that you're considering, and what that means to the Guild, I thought I'll take off my cast hat and put on my directors one if there's no one else standing up and offering a more suitable production. I thought you replace a Shakespeare with a Shakespeare, watch productions, could you do, and then it was kind of what was I most interested in visiting

38:21or seeing or being a part of, and 10 year of the show was the one. And you did it properly, you submitted a proposal, you had references, you had an idea, a concept, and like you say, replacing Shakespeare with a Shakespeare, we were very fortunate that our first show this year is a Shakespearean comedy, so of course you can replace it with a Shakespearean comedy. Easy is not the right word. No, I think what I was thinking was from a director's point of view, I always put together a brief, I always try and put together a vision with references in terms of visual recordings, anything I can kind of pull that might give somebody an understanding of what I envision, and I left the meeting at the Guild and very quickly, I think it was a turnaround of less than a day that I put my submission in, and just tried to answer any question that I would ask somebody about directing, I have a background in having my own production company, so I'm aware

39:21of what submissions look like, what they should involve and entail, and I think sometimes when you're boxed in, when you have framework that is rigid, like I had a time frame, I had the fact that it was Shakespeare, I had the fact that we were using a public domain material, it helped with the framing of what I could do, and knowing the space as intimately as I do, knowing the members of the committee and having directed here before, like a tip of tiny beautiful things, which was such a wonderful experience, I duck and wove where I needed to to make it work. Yes, it was a quick turnaround and the board did make a quick decision, but it was not a rash decision. I think it was helpful that I was part of the initial cast, because it kind of meant that the leader was already involved in the original production, I also think it helped that we'd had a read through, because then I was very quickly able to slot people where I thought they would fit. Martin has this glorious voice, and I

40:25think most people would cast him as Baptista, and I just thought there's more to Martin than that, and I'd really love to see him do like an eccentric, different version of Gremio, and then you go, okay, so if Martin's playing Gremio, who's playing Baptista and Deb Wolt, I've worked with Deb before, I love working with her, and this was something that I thought she'd been engaged and interested in, and then you just slowly start putting all the players in place, and I was very fortunate that majority of the cast is involved. The only actor I've had to recruit is Leo Lowe, who is a wonderful actor and friend who agreed to jump on board. This is a unique circumstance, where you are directing a cast that you did not cast. Fortunately, they're lovely people, and very talented, and they're having a lot of fun. Oh good! What's that like when you take on a show?

41:25I mean, I know it's part of the consideration, you know, you're essentially directing a show, and you're given a cast. Yeah, so they're not pitching themselves to me, I'm pitching myself to them, is what it felt like. I had a bit of an experience in the UK, where there was a director signed on to do sex cells at the bare pit by Anna Longer ready, and unfortunately that director had to step aside, and David Meers approached me and said, would you direct it? And I thought, I'm not getting rid of the cast that has been selected. They were chosen, and I think that's really unfair, so I'll meet with them and see if they still want to be a part of it, and if they do, we'll make that work. We'll find our version of this play, and that really put me in a good frame of mind coming in and going, yeah, I can do this. I've inherited a cast before, and people are very quick to say, yeah, I'm on board, or no, I'm not. And so I'm really grateful for the two members that are no longer involved, that they were so quick to say, you know what, I signed up to do this, or my circumstances have

42:27changed, and it just allowed me to very quickly get everybody in the rehearsal room, and start working on a new text. But I think there's something to be said that whatever percentage it is, 95% of your cast, your cast. The cast. 95% of the cast has remained for this particular production, so I hope you take that as a good thing. I really do, yeah. It's a really wonderful environment, actually. There's a lot of collaboration. We're having a wonderful time in rehearsals. I'm learning how to relinquish a little bit of control, and collaborate a little bit more, and I think it's been a really wonderful thing for me to do, because I've never directed a Shakespeare before. I've never intended to direct a Shakespeare before. I love Shakespeare. So the stars kind of had to align for me to take on something like this, and I feel really lucky, and I think, you know, months years from now, I'll be really glad that I put my hand up and said, I'll give it a go, let's see. Tell me about the concepts. It's Shakespearean text. Tell us about

43:31the setting. Yeah, so I was thinking about the members of my cast and what I knew of them, which I didn't know all of them, but I knew that we had some musicians amongst the cast, which really kind of helped frame my thinking in staging it. So we've set the tempo of the shrew in Baptiste's recording label, which means that both Catherine and Bianca are under contract under the record label that Baptiste is running, and that all my musicians, including the players, do actually play music, and we have a wonderful cast member, Macy Lawson, who has given us a couple of her singles that we're going to be using for the play. We have Rodney Havratten, who is playing by Lynn. I have Reese Young on the clarinet, and Hannah Hyde, who's playing bass. So we've got some singers as well, so we're just using what we have available to us, and really having fun with

44:31jamming. That's what this feels like. It feels like a big jamming session where everybody gets to have their input, but within my framework. So it was quite organic then to have the two sisters be rival musicians. Yes, we've got the pop diva, the pop princess, and we have the rock legend. I just could see it in my mind. I would just say that we've got a wonderful costume so who you may have already heard from, who stayed on board with the production, and I'm so grateful. That was another thing that really helped me frame how we were going to approach this. The costumes are vibrant and fun and engaging, and are really essential to our characters, along with some props that we have. They're a bit fun, and Richard Parkhill, as well, who's doing the lighting design, and we've got some newcomers such as Tahit, who's assisting with stage management,

45:34and it's just a really great opportunity to have people trying things backstage in theatre, who've never had the opportunity or thought before to get involved. Inky Elliott Potter, who is doing the set design, and I'm so grateful, I think this cast is going above and beyond to deliver a really fantastic show for you. It's fun, bring your friends, buy some tickets, let's have some fun with Shakespeare. Olivia got called back into the theatre because we were running out of time, and the very last part of her interview got cut off, but she did also thank Angela Short and Matt Chapman for their assistance on this production as well. She's so grateful as we all are for their guidance and their support, and also to Bonnie McCallister for her excellent graphic design. I want to ask you the same question I ask everybody who does this podcast when I host it. Why is community theatre so important in this city? I mean, for me,

46:38I think that community theatre is so important because it's the first place where I felt seen, whether it be working backstage or in-house, front-of-house, as a cast member or as a director, you meet really wonderful engaging people who are creative and have all these skills and wonderful life experiences, and it just, it's become a home for me. We'll leave it there. Thank you, Olivia, so much for your time. Thank you Annabelle. Yes, thank you to Olivia and to Sue and to Heather and Tom for chatting with me on this podcast today. Thank you to all the members of the crew and cast of Taming of the Shrew for giving up their time to talk to me, and thank you, Titl listener, for joining me on this podcast. If you have any questions, comments or ideas, please contact us. We'd love to hear from you. Don't forget to hit that subscribe button on your favourite podcast platform and leave a review. There are other ways to support theatre in South Australia. Maybe go to Taza online and see what's on and then purchase a ticket to a show,

47:42perhaps become a member or subscriber of your local theatre company. If you'd like to volunteer for a local theatre company, please reach out to us. The email address again is for the love of theatre podcast at gmail.com. We'd love to hear from you. There are a myriad of roles, including front-of-house, backstage crew, set building, costumes, lighting operators, sound operators, lighting designers, sound designers, properties, marketing content, the list goes on. Theatre is for everybody, so we will find the right fit for you. I'd also like to encourage every listener today to become a member of Taza, the Theatre Association of South Australia. It's totally free to subscribe, and you'll receive a monthly edition of Encore, the online magazine, in addition to your regular watts on emails, with the company events and auditions, and what's on an Adelaide today. You can access their latest reviews across community theatre companies in this wonderful state of ours, and so for more

48:42information on that head to tazaonline.org.au. I hope you've enjoyed this episode of For the Love of Theatre Podcast. Until next time, get your tickets why you can. Remember, all the worlds are stage.