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[0:00] Tori Bullard: We would like to acknowledge the Thoroughwall people of the Eeura Nation and the Warundari people of the Coolin Nation.

[0:06] Eliza Gunther: We pay respect to the traditional custodians of this land on which we work, live, and record, and strive to continue in the tradition of Australia's first storytellers.

[0:15] Tori Bullard: We acknowledge that sovereignty was never ceded.

[0:17] Eliza Gunther: Always was, always will be Aboriginal land.

[0:24] Tori Bullard: Hi everyone and welcome back to Stage Door Podcast.

[0:28] Eliza Gunther: It's season six. Can you believe it?

[0:31] Tori Bullard: Thank you so much for everyone for sticking by us all this time. We love you.

[0:34] Eliza Gunther: This season we are shaking things up a bit with two-part episodes.

[0:40] Tori Bullard: Shorter, snappier, and packed with amazing content. So let's kick things off with part one of our season six launch.

[0:47] Eliza Gunther: Tori, take it away.

[0:49] Tori Bullard: Today we are joined by Aussie Actor and current cast member of Peter and the Starcatcher, Otis Dhanji. Please welcome to the mic, Otis.

[0:57] Otis Dhanji: Hi there. Hi everyone. Great to be here. Great to be on a podcast. Thank you very much for having me.

[1:02] Tori Bullard: Thank you so much for being here. You're actually our first guest for the season, which is wild. So welcome.

[1:10] Otis Dhanji: Yeah, wow. An incredible honor. I don't know. I've listened to a lot of podcasts. I do a lot of podcast listening. I've always wondered what it's like to be the guy in the chair, and here I am. So thank you for having me.

[1:21] Eliza Gunther: Today's the day.

[1:22] Tori Bullard: No, of course. Thank you so much as well for taking the time to come on and talk to us about Peter and the Starcatcher. And obviously, for those listening who may not know the story of Peter and the Starcatcher, it acts as a sort of prequel of a certain boy who never grows up and provides backstory for the characters of Peter Pan, Mrs. Darling, Tinkerbell, Hook. It's a silly camp, fun as hell show, full of so much heart.

[1:48] Otis Dhanji: I had the opportunity to see Peter and the Starcatcher back in 2011 at New World Stages with Christian Borle, which is crazy. Eliza has since seen it in Melbourne last year.

[1:54] Eliza Gunther: Yeah.

[1:59] Otis Dhanji: Starring yourself.

[2:01] Eliza Gunther: An amazing cast. It was fabulous, I have to say. It was really good. It was a really fun time.

[2:05] Otis Dhanji: Very different. What was the best part?

[2:09] Eliza Gunther: I did love the mermaid dance, you know, when you're all in the mermaid skirts. That was a good time.

[2:16] Otis Dhanji: It really was.

[2:19] Eliza Gunther: Camp part of the show.

[2:21] Otis Dhanji: Yeah. Great opening to act two as well, just to sort of signal to everyone that it's about to get crazier than it has been.

[2:28] Eliza Gunther: I know. I don't think I was anticipating that as I came in for Act Two. I was like, oh, okay, here we are.

[2:34] Otis Dhanji: Here we are. Let's go.

[2:35] Eliza Gunther: Yeah, no, it's a very great structure to a play, I think, you know. It's the craziness of act one culminating in the shipwreck, and then you sort of start Act Two being washed up on the island. It works well, I think, in that sense.

[2:49] Otis Dhanji: Exactly. It's so good. And I guess in terms of like when you first get into a rehearsal room for a show like Peter and the Starcatcher, what's kind of the first thing you focus on as an actor?

[3:02] Otis Dhanji: Um, that's a good question. I mean, you know, for at least in my experience, I guess, you know, you spend a month or so with the script preparing, you know, and that's just a piece of paper all in black and white, you know, but nothing can really prepare you for, you know, when you step in, and then of course there's all the puppets there, and so it's just an absolute explosion of color going on in that rehearsal room when I first stepped in. I was like, wow. And then on top of that, you know, just the absolute scale of things. Stepping in, I really realized. I got to kind of see what the production was really visually for the first time. It was like a kind of the meat room of a butcher that the puppets were all sort of hanging up from the ceiling and like there was a gigantic mermaid tail, probably like a six meter crocodile dangling from the roof, stacks of multicolored fish and birds and tentacles.

So yeah, that really brought it to life in my imagination when I stepped into the room and I remember going home like that first night after rehearsals and just letting my imagination really run free with the potential of the show, which I hadn't really been privy to just as a kind of guy sitting on the couch with the script in my hands, you know.

[4:21] Eliza Gunther: It's kind of surreal.

[4:23] Otis Dhanji: And I mean, obviously the story has just so much magic and imagination to it. How do you keep that alive through both the rehearsal process and then into performances and keeping it fresh?

[4:37] Otis Dhanji: Yeah, you know, for me personally, what I like about theatre is that, you know, if you mess up something or not even mess up, just you do something that you were like, ah, I could have done that a bit better. One night you get another bat at it the next night, so you know, it's constantly evolving in that sense and it sort of feels like you personally, but then also in relation to the rest of the cast, you're all sort of working towards this fully optimized version of the play, which, you know, we're still moving towards, and that's what's fun. That's what's in it for us. And then, you know, I don't know, just to speak in terms of keeping that magic alive, like it would be a completely different story if it was just you, you know, but to have the rest of the cast, I think it's really, I don't know, it's like, not to get too deep here, but it's what makes the human species unique.

You know, we can come together and make believe and choose to put all this importance into something that doesn't really matter just for the sake of it. And that's really fun, you know. So I think that's my answer. I feel like every night something new will be happening on stage and something that will keep the show alive in a new way or you discover something new about the character or others.

[5:56] Eliza Gunther: Cause I even know when I was watching opening night, Hook and Smee, they went a little off script and it was fantastic and it was hilarious, and there's a lot of improv in this show as well that keeps you on your toes when you're doing a comedic piece like this. That's also like comedic and serious at the same time, which is very unique.

[6:17] Otis Dhanji: Absolutely, and I like, you know, that's funny they mentioned this sort of Hook and Smee thing. They've got special mics to kind of even allow for them to kind of go a little bit rogue with the script, which is important. It's important for the show. But yeah, and something I just thought of then was like the way something I've definitely learned in this process is that, you know, in theatre your art form is so, you know, that it's determined by the demographic of the audience every night, you know, and what they give really, like they're the fuel of it, you know, where they choose to sort of laugh or clap or, you know, whatever. And that really became clear when we had a couple of like sort of school audiences in, sort of the young adolescent kind of vibe, and they were all, eventually, which was a sign that we really had them along for the emotional journey, which is really good.

But eventually with sort of like Olivia and my sort of romantic plot line, which we normally, you know, like an adult or a very mature audience is not really sort of giving too much in the way of that, but all the school kids were going, oh, like it was Beatlemania, and that was hilarious, and it reshaped the show, really. It meant that by the end we were putting different emphasis on different things, and so it's alive in the sense that, you know, we're doing it differently every night, but it's also alive in the sense that there's a role that the audience is playing. They actually have a big, it's democratic, they have a say in what the product is, which is crazy and it's really interesting.

[7:49] Eliza Gunther: Absolutely, because you do play to your audience depending on what kind of audience you have any particular day. You're gonna have some audiences that do take it more seriously. This is theatre, it must be taken seriously.

[8:05] Otis Dhanji: And theatre.

[8:06] Eliza Gunther: You have others that are just like so just in it for the fun and the magic of the story, so it's great that you can like lean into different moments depending on that.

[8:16] Otis Dhanji: Absolutely, yeah. A hundred percent. I guess kind of going back to the puppetry part, puppetry is such a unique skill. Was it something you'd done before, or was it a totally new challenge for you?

[8:30] Otis Dhanji: Look, I mean, everyone's done like the sock puppet and whatever, but proper puppetry, like I, you know, I've never done anything like that, and so that was exciting. I mean, really thinking about it now, a lot of my challenge in the show is acting alongside puppets. So, like, I don't think I do too much of the puppetry. I have the honor of being the bottom right tentacle of the Kraken, which is one of my favorite parts of the show. But yeah, I also do a lot of acting with sort of like having a little kind of cockatoo on my shoulder and it's sort of hopping around and I'm chatting with it. So for me, the challenge with the puppetry was more in the sense of how do I talk to a puppet, you know, and make it look like I'm talking to a real bird, or you know, like so that was tough, but I don't know, you just sort of do it and hope that it looks right. That's me with acting most of the time. Just do it and hope that it looks right.

[9:26] Eliza Gunther: Fake it till you make it.

[9:30] Otis Dhanji: Exactly, exactly.

[9:31] Eliza Gunther: Did you have like, I guess, people that trained you specifically in the puppetry?

[9:37] Otis Dhanji: Um, no, like we had a movement director. Yeah, we had a sort of movement director that would tell us different things. It helps to have someone looking from like, you know, the audience perspective, you know, because you really can't see what it looks like when you're doing it yourself. But yeah, and so that was really helpful. But yeah, other than that, we just sort of, I don't know, just sort of went for it.

[10:01] Eliza Gunther: I guess that's kind of the thing with so many things in theatre. Obviously, we can do so much training in any one particular thing, but there's always going to be a role that you step into with things that you've just never done, never experienced, and you kind of just have to do it and see what happens.

[10:16] Otis Dhanji: I feel like that's, you know, how do you communicate with a puppet? That something that doesn't necessarily have all the facial expressions and the minute things that a person does, but making it seem as if this is a real life being that you're just having a regular conversation with.

[10:34] Eliza Gunther: Absolutely.

[10:35] Otis Dhanji: Yeah, yeah. All of that is very true. And it was difficult, but I hope to think we got there in the end.

[10:43] Eliza Gunther: Yeah, who knows?

[10:44] Otis Dhanji: You might do more puppetry after this.

[10:46] Eliza Gunther: Yeah, maybe I'll be typecast for the rest of my days.

[10:50] Otis Dhanji: Avenue Q, here you come.

[10:52] Eliza Gunther: Yeah, forever typecast as a young boy.

[10:57] Otis Dhanji: Yeah, because that's what it is as well. And I feel like people maybe especially like going back to what you were saying about the romantic relationship between boy and Molly is that they're kids. They're literal children.

[11:12] Eliza Gunther: Um, and so it's not going to be anything crazy but it still has so much weight to it and to the relationship that I think people don't expect.

[11:24] Otis Dhanji: I know when I first saw it way back when over 10 years ago, which is insane, I didn't expect that. I'm just a Peter and the Starcatcher is my favourite piece of media and Peter Pan is like my favourite story to kind of ever exist. So when we went and saw this, this show was not at all what I expected because it was back in the day before really like social media kind of promotion was a thing. So we had nothing to go off, we were just in New York as all I had heard something about Peter and Peter Pan prequel and I went, yeah, we're going to see that obviously, and had just like no expectation of what the story would actually hold and the kind of little this really sweet little love story with this rebellious kid and this almost really proper, really serious, what I imagine to be like 11 year old girl.

[12:20] Eliza Gunther: Like it's just insane.

[12:21] Otis Dhanji: It is, it is. Um, it's crazy. And like, you know, that's the cool thing about the show is that I feel like the balance between childishness and adulthood is, you know, that's such a strong theme for this whole thing, but you've got all the adults taking very seriously, like, you know, the quest for the treasure and whatever and you know, there's pirates and all this, you know, craziness with the crews and the fighting and somehow down the center of all of that emerges this very innocent little kind of love story between two young kids.

[12:53] Eliza Gunther: Um, so I think that's really special about the show.

[12:55] Otis Dhanji: Yeah, absolutely. And I mean for you, what has been the most surprising or valuable thing that you have learnt about yourself as a performer while working on this production?

[13:06] Otis Dhanji: Hmm. I think I have learnt maybe to see acting as more of a craft, really. Um, like more of a labor, you know, like the distinction between, you know, carpentry and acting for me has dissolved a little bit, you know? I mean, I'm someone who's never like sort of, I've been at school in uni and I haven't worked a full time job sort of such as this really feels like to me, um, ever before and really my experience with acting has been sort of on movies where you go in for a few days and you spend a lot of time waiting and just kicking back and there's something very sort of cosmetic and a little bit fake about that.

[13:52] Eliza Gunther: Um, whereas this, you're working, you're sweating, you're bringing to life something with your physical body and it takes it out of you, and so yeah, it feels like this sort of manual labour. And I get to sort of do that and do that every night and do it for an audience. Um, and I don't know, I just think that there's something that feels really wholesome about that.

[14:14] Otis Dhanji: Um, it's funny how like when you start doing it, then more than just like one performance. I don't know, sometimes when you're younger, or like you know, when you're used to doing say a show, but you do it for like two weeks, as opposed to doing like a long run of a show. In this instance, you get to just discover more about like how you actually maintain that and how you can show up every day and still like live your life outside of that, but also show up for the role, the character and yourself in that moment too.

[14:47] Eliza Gunther: Absolutely, yeah.

[14:48] Otis Dhanji: And it's just so much fun. I mean, you're right about living your life outside of it, but also in the sense this show is like sort of dictated so much of my life because we've been moving around with it, so just getting to experience all these, you know, fantastic Australian cities and party and everything, it's great.

[15:09] Eliza Gunther: It's great.

[15:10] Otis Dhanji: Um, the opening parties are something else, yeah.

[15:12] Eliza Gunther: Of course, of course.

[15:13] Otis Dhanji: I hope that's yeah, podcast friendly.

[15:15] Eliza Gunther: Uh yeah, no topic.

[15:17] Otis Dhanji: Oh no, um, absolutely, yeah. But I feel like as well, the difference between obviously both film and television and theatre are so gratifying. The work is hard work regardless of what it is. But I feel like there's such a difference in, you know, I know recently I've done a bunch of TV work and went, oh, it takes a moment to kind of wrap your head around going from like really long form where you're doing a full show from start to finish that is two hours long. You don't get a break, you just bang bang bang all the way through it, to going doing sometimes not even a full scene, but like half a scene in front of a camera and then breaking and like kind of having to step back from it again and then kind of reintroducing yourself to it rather than having this really long where you're just in character the whole time.

[16:07] Eliza Gunther: You've got so many more.

[16:09] Otis Dhanji: I feel like they've both got such challenges to them, you know, being in character and full of this energy and this life and this magic for, you know, two and a half, sometimes three hours show, and then also bringing that same level of character, but in these really small increments where you then could be sitting around for hours after and then going back to a scene, it's quite a mental challenge as well.

[16:32] Eliza Gunther: For sure.

[16:33] Otis Dhanji: Um, you know, doing the show feels like going for a run or something, you know, you're locked in once it starts, you can't get out. Um, there's no going back, there's no such thing as messing up in a theatre production because everything, if the whole show is designed so that a mess up just gets covered and swept under the rug and we charge ahead, you know, whereas in film it's like cut, cut, what the hell are you doing, man?

[16:55] Eliza Gunther: Um, like you know, whereas all that just gets exposed, left to be exposed for the audience to just watch and go, oh that was weird. Anyways, let's move on.

[17:05] Otis Dhanji: Um, you know, and the audience is, you know, they're forgiving in that sense because you know they're along for the ride as well. They want it to be great, they want in their hearts to believe that all of us are having the most fun we've ever had in our lives, you know, even though that's a sort of dubious claim. If we've been, if this is like the 50th time we've done this show, but that's the beauty of it, you know.

[17:27] Eliza Gunther: Like everyone's like, oh, that looks so much fun up there, and whatever.

[17:31] Otis Dhanji: Um, yeah, sorry, that was just a tangent, that's probably not too related to your sort of preamble, Tori, but—

[17:31] Eliza Gunther: No, no, absolutely it is.

[17:42] Otis Dhanji: But it is, it's such a fun show this fun. This one, it's really I think anyone can get anything out of it. And I feel like it's funny, it's also heartwarming, it's also got a bit of nostalgia because everyone loves Peter Pan, and then you get to see this whole other aspect, and then you go, you have all these aha moments when you watch it, you're like, oh, that's the link to this. Oh, that's awesome. Okay, this is happening. So it is a fantastic show for pretty much anyone to go and see.

[18:07] Eliza Gunther: Yeah, absolutely. The aha moments are great, you know, taking the audience along, especially in the end when it's all falling into place and setting you up to really just go home and binge watch the original Peter Pan, you know.

[18:18] Otis Dhanji: That's what I felt like doing after I read the script for the first time. Uh, and yeah, like all the humour of that final scene is built into the fact that everyone knows what's happening, you know, but um, but it's sort of Captain Hawkins and me are just sort of playing with the audience.

[18:32] Eliza Gunther: Um, yeah, all through that. It's great, it's a great show. I love it, I love it.

[18:37] Otis Dhanji: Well, I guess to round this first part out, can you give us a little bit of a plug? Where do people buy tickets? When's it on? Give us all the info.

[18:48] Otis Dhanji: Yeah, sure. Um, geez, this is like an exam.

[18:52] Eliza Gunther: Um, it's not, it's not.

[18:55] Otis Dhanji: Um, no, wait, I think I've got the first one. Ticketmaster is where you can buy tickets, go to Ticketmaster, and then it's on in Sydney at the Capitol Theatre from 28th of January to the 9th of February, I do believe.

[19:11] Eliza Gunther: Um, and then we'll also be in Brisbane pretty much for the month of March from the end of the first week of March.

[19:20] Otis Dhanji: Amazing.

[19:21] Eliza Gunther: Well, thank you so much for that. And guys, if you are listening, um, we promise you that this show is truly fantastic and truly magical.

[19:30] Otis Dhanji: Um, Eliza has seen it. I will be at Opening Night in Sydney.

[19:34] Eliza Gunther: We are so, so excited about this show and this production and kind of bringing this magic to the stage is so important. So please do make sure you go and you buy your tickets to see Peter and the Starcatcher at the Capitol Theatre.

[19:47] Otis Dhanji: I can attest it's not one that you want to miss.

[19:50] Eliza Gunther: And that actually brings us to a wrap on episode one, part one with Otis. But don't go too far because in part two, we dive into his incredible journey, and trust me, you won't want to miss it.

[20:02] Otis Dhanji: Here's a little sneak peek of what's coming next.

[20:05] Otis Dhanji: To me, it's all about egg basket distribution. You know, if you put all your eggs in the acting basket and you're just sitting around waiting for a call, you know, or and that's like your reason to live, it's always gonna suck, those long moments and those no's are gonna suck. But you just gotta take a no as a shove in a different direction of your life.