We talk to Australian actor Francis Greenslade about his life, career, and what led him to write his book 'How I Learnt to Act: On the way to NOT going to drama school'. Listen out for some entertaining anecdotes about working with some big names in TV and theatre, some unconventional acting tips, and the path he has forged for himself in a difficult industry. *** How I Learnt to Act is available on the Currency Press website...
Apr 17, 2025•44 min•Ep. 38
Recorded at the Currency Press Festival of Playwrights 2023 CONTENT WARNING/CANCEL CULTURE: We're living in an age when a media storm can shut down a show or even a festival. When the purpose of theatre is often to disrupt and to challenge societal norms, how do writers and producers walk the ever-evolving line to avoid cancellation? Featuring Suzie Miller, Van Badham, and Suzy Wrong Chair: Lee Lewis
Apr 03, 2025•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 37
Recorded at the Currency Press Festival of Playwrights 2023 Playwrights Melanie Tait and Sarah Carroll have a conversation about their careers and writing journeys. *** https://www.currency.com.au/authors/sarah-carroll/ https://www.currency.com.au/authors/melanie-tait/
Apr 03, 2025•59 min•Ep. 36
Recorded at the Currency Press Festival of Playwrights 2023 GO YOUR OWN WAY: Being selected for a mainstage season is often viewed as the end goal for a playwright. But some of the most exciting theatre is created when a playwright teams up with a director to stage their own work. Featuring Kenneth Moraleda, Jordan Shea, and Noëlle Janaczewska Chair: Kate Gaul
Apr 03, 2025•58 min•Ep. 35
Recorded at the Currency Press Festival of Playwrights 2023 STORY AS COMMODITY: Theatre is not just about entertainment, it is also a powerful vehicle for breaking down taboos and secrecy by bringing real-life stories to an audience who might otherwise be at a distance from some issues. Featuring James Elazzi, Declan Furber Gillick, and Tiffany Wong Chair: Wesley Enoch
Apr 03, 2025•57 min•Ep. 34
Recorded at the Currency Press Festival of Playwrights 2023 WHEN OPINIONS DIFFER: Whose play is it? Where does it leave the playwright when the director or designer or dramaturg has a different vision? Featuring Jane Harrison, Lee Lewis, and Chris Mead Chair: Wesley Enoch
Apr 03, 2025•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 33
Recorded at the Currency Press Festival of Playwrights 2023 Finegan Kruckemeyer talks with Eva Di Cesare about his life, work, and influences. This episodes features readings from his plays. *** https://www.currency.com.au/authors/finegan-kruckemeyer/ https://www.currency.com.au/authors/eva-di-cesare/
Apr 03, 2025•55 min•Ep. 32
Recorded at the Currency Press Festival of Playwrights 2023 MIND THE POTHOLES: How does writing for, and working with, regional theatre companies compare with their city cousins? What role does geography play? Featuring Karla Conway, Leland Kean, and Emily Steel Chair: Marion Potts
Apr 03, 2025•1 hr•Ep. 31
Recorded at the Currency Press Festival of Playwrights 2023 Playwrights Alana Valentine and JoJo Zhou have a conversation about their careers and writing practice. *** https://www.currency.com.au/authors/jojo-zhou/ https://www.currency.com.au/authors/alana-valentine/
Apr 03, 2025•57 min•Ep. 30
Recorded at the Currency Press Festival of Playwrights 2023 GROUP CHATS/HOME TRUTHS: A conversation about the power of theatre to heal, to connect and to give voice to those whose voices are not always heard. Featuring Mahdi Mohammadi, Margot Politis, Liza-Mare Syron. Chair: Donna Abela
Apr 03, 2025•59 min•Ep. 29
Recorded at the Currency Press Festival of Playwrights 2023 Keynote Address by Andrea James - Are You Brave Enough? *** https://www.currency.com.au/authors/andrea-james/
Apr 03, 2025•27 min•Ep. 28
This pre-show interview was recorded at Canberra Theatre Centre during the 2024 tour of Drizzle Boy , winner of the 2023 Queensland Premier's Drama Award. Currency playwright Ryan Enniss sat down with Tess Yvanovich to discuss his writing process for Drizzle Boy , and how he worked with Queensland Theatre Company to bring this special story to life. It is the first Australian published play written by an autistic playwright about an autistic protagonist. Also available to watch on Youtube Drizzl...
Mar 13, 2025•30 min•Ep. 27
In this episode of Not in Print Caitlin speaks with Julian Meyrick. Julian Meyrick is Professor of Creative Industries at Griffith University and an Honorary Fellow at Deakin University. He has directed award-winning productions at Melbourne Theatre Company, Griffin, Sydney Theatre Company, Melbourne Workers Theatre and Kick House Theatre and was Associate Director and Literary Advisor at Melbourne Theatre Company until 2007. In this podcast Julian discusses his most recent book, 'Australia in 5...
Jun 09, 2022•26 min•Ep. 26
In this episode, Caitlin spoke with playwright, director and dramaturg, Andrea James. Andrea is a Yorta Yorta/Gunaikurnai woman who is dedicated to the telling of First Nations stories on stage. She was Artistic Director of Melbourne Workers Theatre 2001-2008, was a playwright in residence at Melbourne Theatre Company and is currently an Associate Artist at Griffin Theatre Company. Andrea’s plays have appeared on stages across Australia and around the world. Here, we speak about her theatre prac...
Sep 10, 2021•31 min•Ep. 25
"Five years at law school, eleven years of practice, I have always believed. Now I need to know that I was not mistaken." --- In this episode we spoke with playwright Suzie Miller about her award winning play, Prima Facie. Winner of the 2018 Griffin Award, Prima Facie is an indictment of the Australian legal system’s failure to provide reliable pathways to justice for women in rape, sexual assault or harassment cases. It’s a work of fiction, but one that could have been ripped from the headlines...
May 05, 2021•33 min•Ep. 24
"Tease us and hate us / but don't underestimate us..." This month we spoke with Yve Blake, playwright, screenwriter and composer, and the creator of the hit musical FANGIRLS. FANGIRLS is showing again at Sydney Festival 2021 before touring Australia, and you can now get the script through Currency Press . The song in this episode is a track from FANGIRLS performed by some of the original 2019 cast, including Yve Blake, who played the role of Edna. Learn more about Yve and her work over at yvebla...
Feb 04, 2021•26 min•Ep. 23
‘In Tamil we don’t say goodbye. Only, I will go and come back.’ ‘நாங்கள் விடைபெறேக்க, ‘போயிட்டு வாறன்’ எண்டு மட்டும் தான் தமிழில சொல்லுறனாங்கள்.’ In this episode we speak with S. Shakthidharan, a writer, director, musician and producer of film and theatre who grew up in Western Sydney and has Sri Lankan heritage and Tamil ancestry. We discussed Shakthi's multi-award-winning, multilingual play, Counting and Cracking , which traverses countries and decades to bring us an epic tale of family, love ...
Dec 10, 2020•32 min•Ep. 22
To re-launch Not in Print, we spoke with Finegan Kruckemeyer about magical worlds where monsters are friends and lighthouses are boats, and on the richness and dynamism of theatre for children and young people. *** Finegan has had 94 commissioned plays performed on six continents and translated into eight languages. His work has enjoyed seasons in more than 200 international festivals and in 2018, he was the most-produced playwright of original children’s theatre in the US. He and his work have ...
Nov 17, 2020•27 min•Ep. 21
A powerful story of five disenfranchised young women who are fighting for respect, railing against authority and struggling to form an identity in a small town with limited opportunities. The relocation of an Iraqi refugee family to the town provokes a climate of hostility and tension that threatens to violently explode. -- Angela Betzien is a multi-award winning writer and a founding member of independent theatre company Real TV; her work has toured widely across Australia and internationally. ...
Jul 22, 2015•31 min
"We hit Cairo like a train!... Every dirty little alley, every dusty back room bar. The pyramids are marvellous, but I could spend the rest of my days quite happily in the arms of your temptation." Inspired by The State Library of New South Wales' jaw-dropping collection of World War I diaries and letters, A Town Named War Boy explores both the events of war and the impact it has upon soldiers and their families. Written with insight, humour and sensitivity, Ross Mueller's moving play brings the...
Jun 15, 2015•33 min
Alana Valentine reads her response to Summer of the Seventeenth Doll by Ray Lawler. It’s called An Ever-Changing Idiom and features in the Currency Press series, Cue the Chorus , in which an assortment of respected Australian playwrights respond to the work of their peers. You can download all the responses in the series from our website - currencypress.com.au A little bit about Alana Valentine. She is one of Australia’s most renowned and respected writers. Valentine writes for the stage, screen...
Apr 26, 2015•27 min
Alana Valentine—one of Australia’s most renowned and respected playwrights, whose work includes Parramatta Girls, Eyes to the Floor, Shafana and Aunt Sarrinah, Grounded and Cyberbile—reads the preface to the double edition of Brumby Innes and Bid Me to Love, two plays written by another of Australia’s literary treasures, Katharine Susannah Prichard. The introduction was written by Prichard's son, Ric Throssell. A little bit about Katharine Susannah Prichard Prichard was born in Levuka, Fiji, whe...
Apr 26, 2015•28 min
In Norm and Ahmed a rather ocker, white Australian male encounters a well-mannered Pakistani student with revolutionary ambitions on a Sydney street at midnight. The exploration of alienation in this play remained a common theme in Buzo’s work, with a tireless commitment to reflecting the true nature of Australian society. -- Alex Buzo was born in Sydney and educated at the University of NSW. In the late 1960s his early plays Norm and Ahmed, Rooted and The Front Room Boys pioneered a revival of ...
Mar 14, 2015•30 min
Toby Leon reads an article Alex Buzo wrote for Quadrant Magazine in 2004. It’s called ‘Wary Asians on a Theme: Dramatising in the Near North’ and unpacks the cultural complexities that Buzo encountered when presenting his work in Asia - from India, to Malaysia and Indonesia too - seeing the reactions from audiences, reading local critics’ appraisals of his plays, listening to the directors’ choices about his characters motivation and truth, then trying to make those same choices himself when he ...
Mar 14, 2015•26 min
Each night two hoods ride a train to a wrecking yard on the outskirts of the city. Here, in this cemetery of stories, they are storytellers with the power to fast forward, pause and rewind. Tonight they tell the story of three kids left in a car. Exploring issues of poverty and family violence, Hoods is a suburban tale of survival and solidarity against the odds. -- Angela Betzien is a multi-award winning writer and a founding member of independent theatre company Real TV; her work has toured wi...
Feb 22, 2015•27 min
At times funny, bizarre and confronting, cultures and ideologies collide in this intimate and innately Australian exploration of love and loss. Drawing the 2005 Cronulla Riots, which attracted worldwide attention for all the wrong reasons, Stories of Love & Hate considers the idea of hate being a consequence of feeling that the things we love are under threat. -- Roslyn Oades is well known for her pioneering work in the field of headphone verbatim and audio-driven performance, taking real li...
Jan 21, 2015•31 min
Roslyn Oades reads the transcript of a speech she gave at the Victorian College of the Arts in 2010, where she was invited to contribute to a panel on dramaturgy & emerging artists. -- Roslyn Oades is well known for her pioneering work in the field of headphone verbatim and audio-driven performance, taking real life and fusing it into storytelling. As an artist, Roslyn harbors a long-term fascination for vocal patterns and moonlights as a well-known cartoon character voice performer—includin...
Jan 21, 2015•14 min
An odd-couple story—a friendship between two musicians stuck in an immigration detention centre. There’s the drummer who loves rock ‘n’ roll and the guitarist with a passion for Cat Stevens. Their discord becomes a key, unlocking the deep frustration and aimlessness both men feel. And Linda Jaivin finds just enough dark humour to save them from oblivion. -- Linda Jaivin is a writer, translator and cultural commentator. She is the author of eleven books and a frequent contributor to respected pub...
Dec 14, 2014•31 min
A fast-moving, wisecracking commentary on 1980's materialism, urban mores and morals, and the rivalries and passions to be encountered on the road to success. Colin, a screenwriter, and his wife Kate, a publisher, move from Melbourne to Sydney, the ‘Emerald City’, where fame and fortune are there for the taking, but surprises are in store for them both. -- David Williamson is Australia’s best known and most widely performed playwright. He was the first person outside Britain to receive the Georg...
Nov 01, 2014•30 min
William Thornhill: Born into brutal poverty in London in the late 18th century and transported to the Colony of New South Wales for theft in 1806. After earning his freedom he brings his wife and children to the Hawkesbury River where they ‘take up’ 100 acres of land, only to discover that it’s not theirs to take. -- Andrew Bovell writes for the stage, television and film. In 1992 he wrote the original screenplay for Strictly Ballroom and in 2001 he went on to adapt his stage play Speaking in To...
Oct 16, 2014•35 min
