Talkin' Theatre

For the past several months I've been thinking about how we, as artists, can pay forward the help, advice and guidance that all of us have no doubt experienced at some point in our training and working years.

Think about the last show you saw that genuinely moved you. Now think about the last show that genuinely dazzled you. Chances are they are not the same show.

For years I've said it as self deprecating a joke — I have enormous passion for the work, I have no ambition — and people laughed, and I laughed with them. I then recently I heard a colleague who I respect very much say something similar - so I decided to find out if it was actually true in myself. What follows is my answer.

Design Is Interpretive Before I trained as an actor, I studied set design for two years. I never intended to become a designer. That period permanently rewired how I understand theatre. I learned to read space as text, material as meaning, structure as pressure. The set was not background. It behaved like another character: sometimes resistant, sometimes generous, never indifferent. That sensibility bled into how I think about every design element. Set, lighting, costume, sou

Recently, I found myself in the theatre, watching a production that—at least initially—didn’t land for me. The pacing felt off. Choices that might have seemed bold to others felt clumsy to me. By the final curtain, my first instinct was to write it off as simply “bad theatre,” and to judge the artists involved accordingly.

“Venues can work with artists, not just as landlords of the arts. ”It’s a statement that has followed me across continents — from Perth to Mumbai — and one that continues to invite reflection on how we sustain the arts.

39 one-minute interviews with director Glenn Hayden

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