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[0:04] Joshua Broadbent: Hello and welcome to Whispers in the Wings, a theatre podcast with your hosts Joshua Broadbent and Kelly Plank.

[0:14] Kelly Plank: Members of the Whispers in the Wings community, this is your Act One Beginners Call, your Act One Beginners Call.

[0:21] Joshua Broadbent: Thank you.

[0:24] Kelly Plank: Hey Josh.

[0:25] Joshua Broadbent: Hello, Kelly Plank.

[0:26] Kelly Plank: How are you?

[0:27] Joshua Broadbent: I'm good.

[0:27] Kelly Plank: How are you today?

[0:28] Joshua Broadbent: I'm dandy, thank you.

[0:30] Kelly Plank: Dandy.

[0:31] Joshua Broadbent: Dandy.

[0:31] Kelly Plank: I love the word dandy.

[0:33] Joshua Broadbent: And you know what it makes me think of?

[0:34] Kelly Plank: That TikTok.

[0:35] Joshua Broadbent: Have you seen it?

[0:36] Kelly Plank: I am not on TikTok, but go on.

[0:39] Joshua Broadbent: It's like, oh my gosh, a dandelion.

[0:41] Kelly Plank: Mesh be last one of the Hijan.

[0:43] Joshua Broadbent: And then she like eats one.

[0:47] Kelly Plank: Then she eats it.

[0:48] Joshua Broadbent: I'm gonna find it and I'm gonna share it for you later.

[0:50] Kelly Plank: Okay, because yeah, it does make me think of dandelions.

[0:54] Joshua Broadbent: And I'm cool with that.

[0:56] Kelly Plank: Okay, so we are part of the episode where you, our listeners, email call you just you ask your questions and we try to answer them in some fashion.

[1:12] Joshua Broadbent: Um I feel like we answer them pretty well.

[1:19] Kelly Plank: No, I think yeah.

[1:20] Joshua Broadbent: The first question comes from Dale.

[1:23] Kelly Plank: Hi Dale.

[1:24] Joshua Broadbent: Hello, Dale.

[1:25] Kelly Plank: He said tips for staying healthy during them long tech periods.

[1:29] Joshua Broadbent: Ooh.

[1:30] Kelly Plank: What's the longest tech you've done?

[1:32] Joshua Broadbent: My tech periods don't often go for long. They're like max a week. Like three days, if like anything, really.

[1:40] Kelly Plank: Okay, I have done a month of tech.

[1:42] Joshua Broadbent: What?

[1:43] Kelly Plank: Of like 10 till 10.

[1:45] Joshua Broadbent: God.

[1:46] Kelly Plank: But you know, some days coming in later.

[1:48] Joshua Broadbent: Yes, I'm never leaving earlier.

[1:50] Kelly Plank: Um.

[1:54] Joshua Broadbent: Yes, so tech follows rehearsals. So the cast room rehearsals, they move into the theater where all of the elements come together sound, lighting, flies, automation, set, set dress, um, dressing I'm looking at you. Wardrobe is what I meant to say.

[2:06] Kelly Plank: Yep.

[2:08] Joshua Broadbent: And basically you pull the show together. You start at the top of the show and you work through that show.

[2:13] Kelly Plank: And so that is tech focuses on the technical elements.

[2:18] Joshua Broadbent: Making sure that everybody's safe whilst doing it as well.

[2:22] Kelly Plank: Yes.

[2:22] Joshua Broadbent: So I've had a really long tech period.

[2:25] Kelly Plank: Yes.

[2:25] Joshua Broadbent: You've had a bit shorter.

[2:27] Kelly Plank: Do you know what? I've actually just remembered that when I did Matilda, we did a month of tech.

[2:31] Joshua Broadbent: Well, there you bloody go.

[2:32] Kelly Plank: But I was a second, so I was sort of just sitting.

[2:36] Joshua Broadbent: Doesn't matter. You still gotta keep yourself healthy.

[2:38] Kelly Plank: Yeah.

[2:39] Joshua Broadbent: So how do you do it?

[2:41] Kelly Plank: Because they're bloody long hours.

[2:43] Joshua Broadbent: In my experience, it was six days a week.

[2:46] Kelly Plank: Gosh.

[2:47] Joshua Broadbent: So six days, ten till ten, roughly, give or take. I mean, you do get breaks.

[2:53] Kelly Plank: You do.

[2:53] Joshua Broadbent: And I wasn't always on the deck. Sometimes I was in the office ordering supplies.

[3:00] Kelly Plank: Yeah.

[3:01] Joshua Broadbent: So how do you do it?

[3:02] Kelly Plank: It's interesting. I've got a couple of things that I'd like to make sure I do. Obviously, stay hydrated, keep eating. All of those things are really important at any point of time.

[3:10] Joshua Broadbent: Yeah.

[3:10] Kelly Plank: But in my experiences, a lot of the time, stage managers like to continue to work through their break.

[3:17] Joshua Broadbent: Yes.

[3:17] Kelly Plank: I am all for getting my food break. Like an hour dinner break. See you later. I'm leaving the theater.

[3:23] Joshua Broadbent: Yep.

[3:25] Kelly Plank: I will make sure I go outside.

[3:27] Joshua Broadbent: Yep.

[3:27] Kelly Plank: You know, go away from that space and just leave your mind there and just go and wander aimlessly down a street. Just to just take in something else.

[3:35] Joshua Broadbent: And not talk about the show.

[3:37] Kelly Plank: Not talk about the show.

[3:38] Joshua Broadbent: Yeah.

[3:39] Kelly Plank: If you sort of have your dinner and you sit in the office, then you know, oh, this oh we need to do this, or we need to oh here's can you start this to-do list you know here's all the stuff it's like well you're not getting a break you're not taking a moment away from you're also not being paid for your break either.

[3:39] Joshua Broadbent: No, no so it's yeah I very much need to and I and I do that you know in between shows now you know people sit up in the green room just ha eating dinner chatting away it's the last place I want to be is stuck in the theater when I've already been there for four hours and I've got another four or five hours to go so look sometimes I do appreciate a little sleep on the green room couch.

[4:11] Kelly Plank: That is true.

[4:12] Joshua Broadbent: That is true.

[4:13] Kelly Plank: So for me I find during tech it is so easy to just go my outside life does not exist. I'm working six days a week 12 hours a day.

[4:13] Joshua Broadbent: It is so easy to fall into the habit of going oh there's a subway across the road.

[4:29] Kelly Plank: Yeah oh there's a Maccas down the street oh this theatre has a great cafe with staff discount.

[4:34] Joshua Broadbent: As much as I hate doing it because it is my one day off I meal prep.

[4:39] Kelly Plank: Yeah.

[4:40] Joshua Broadbent: And that you know that's not to say that like I will have six days of food. Occasionally I might enjoy a subway.

[4:49] Kelly Plank: Yes.

[4:49] Joshua Broadbent: But I meal prep so that I know that I'm getting nutritious food and proper fuel and I'm not spending all of my money.

[4:58] Kelly Plank: Yeah.

[4:59] Joshua Broadbent: Because it's so easy in tech to just go I'm tired I'm exhausted I'm gonna order a pizza or whatever.

[5:07] Kelly Plank: I think also sleep.

[5:09] Joshua Broadbent: Sleep for me if I don't sleep I don't function.

[5:13] Kelly Plank: Yeah.

[5:14] Joshua Broadbent: And so I will use my time on the way home from the theatre to if I need to talk about my work days I'll call someone and I will get it all out so when I get home I've already started to decompress and I can go straight to bed.

[5:31] Kelly Plank: But yeah, I so for me finding or at least attempting to achieve some semblance of a balanced diet and a standard sleeping pattern uh is really important for me to remain level headed during tech.

[5:46] Joshua Broadbent: But I also think it's really important that the HOD head of department, your stage manager, is looking after the team well and making sure that people, as you said, when they're on breaks are actually on a break.

[6:02] Kelly Plank: Whether that means okay, so you've got two ASMs, ASM one, you have your break now.

[6:10] Joshua Broadbent: Yep.

[6:11] Kelly Plank: And ASM2, you can do this part of tech.

[6:15] Joshua Broadbent: Yeah.

[6:16] Kelly Plank: Yeah.

[6:16] Joshua Broadbent: A split bra a split break.

[6:18] Kelly Plank: Split breaks.

[6:19] Joshua Broadbent: It's yeah.

[6:20] Kelly Plank: It just makes things a lot easier.

[6:23] Joshua Broadbent: And I will say on that, you know, the head of department should be checking in on you as well to make sure, you know, you're okay, everyone's the team's good.

[6:30] Kelly Plank: Yep.

[6:30] Joshua Broadbent: But in return, you should check in on your head of department.

[6:33] Kelly Plank: Absolutely.

[6:34] Joshua Broadbent: You should check on your stage manager. If you know they're gonna be sitting there not getting a break, hey, I'm going out to get some food, can I get you anything? Do you need a coffee? Do you need some chocolate? Do you what do you need? Also to sort of help. Can I take over for like do you want to go and grab 15 minutes outside fresh air? They're doing something I can do right now.

[6:55] Kelly Plank: Absolutely.

[6:56] Joshua Broadbent: Cool. So Kelly, our next question comes from Courtney and it says, Have either of you worked on an Auslan interpreter performance?

[7:01] Kelly Plank: And if so, what accommodations slash changes have been made, uh, if any, to work with that interpreter.

[7:08] Joshua Broadbent: So for those of our international listeners and those also who may not know what it is in Australia.

[7:14] Kelly Plank: Yes.

[7:14] Joshua Broadbent: Auslan is our Australian sign language.

[7:17] Kelly Plank: Yes.

[7:18] Joshua Broadbent: What's sign language used for Josh?

[7:20] Kelly Plank: Sign language is used for people who are hearing impaired.

[7:24] Joshua Broadbent: And for theatre uh and the experiences I've had it involves uh typically two Auslan interpreters down the front of the stalls.

[7:33] Kelly Plank: Yeah wow so typically two they'll usually be on the left or the right of the stalls down the very front there'll be a spotlight on them on a little platform down the front.

[7:41] Joshua Broadbent: Really my understanding is with that sort of section in front of them is where the people that require those services will be sitting.

[7:49] Kelly Plank: So they won't be up the back of the auditorium because they're not going to be able to see them.

[7:53] Joshua Broadbent: Okay.

[7:54] Kelly Plank: I had the opportunity in uni actually I was working on 448 psychosis a Sarah Kane play and our director really wanted to make it accessible.

[8:07] Joshua Broadbent: So I had the privilege of organizing two different interpreters to view archival footage and to come and do I think three out of the five performances were Auslan interpreted.

[8:25] Kelly Plank: Amazing yeah however on large shows uh we've always had our interpreter on the stage.

[8:34] Joshua Broadbent: Okay.

[8:34] Kelly Plank: Yeah so normally sta like downstage left or right you normally have a special on them and um they will do that from that position.

[8:44] Joshua Broadbent: But normally they get a copy of the script or score or whatever it is and the archival footage of the show or they uh get a comp to come see the show beforehand.

[8:57] Kelly Plank: Yeah.

[8:57] Joshua Broadbent: I mean very very similar, so all of the same things. I I I can't recall if I think one show, maybe Charlie, we had them standing on on the side.

[9:07] Kelly Plank: Yeah.

[9:07] Joshua Broadbent: But I our theaters here are so different. The stages take up so much different space.

[9:12] Kelly Plank: Yeah.

[9:13] Joshua Broadbent: That sometimes or majority of the times it's in that sort of front section of the auditorium.

[9:18] Kelly Plank: Yeah.

[9:19] Joshua Broadbent: Um so it's a little bit closer to them, uh, and it's just the safer space for them to be. Sometimes they can't be on in those spaces downstage. I think one of my one of my favorite performances was um the end of full month with you can leave your hat on when you know the guys are stripping on stage and they get their full kit out.

[9:43] Kelly Plank: And our BSL interpreter was just having the best time.

[9:49] Joshua Broadbent: Yeah. And 'cause you know, with any form of sign language, it's about you know, it's very emotive and it's very physical.

[9:58] Kelly Plank: Yeah. And so yeah, they were just having a brilliant time and it was excellent. So as a show caller as a DSM with an interpreter, I've been given extra cues. So I've been given cues to bring up the light on the interpreter and also take out the light on the interpreter. Yeah. Uh especially if the it really depends on the director. For some shows, if they want a blackout, they want a blackout. They don't want a special light up. Yes. Yes. Yes. So um, yeah, occasionally you'll get a few cues, and that's when I pop them on my sticky notes and put them in my book. Yeah. With a reminder, a couple of pages prior that we've got extra cues coming up. Yeah, yeah. Great. Thank you, Courtney, for that wonderful question.

Thanks, Courtney. It's always good to make sure that these performances happen. That you know they're not not every day of the week and they are very scheduled performances, and it's really important that more productions and events start adopting this in to make everything more accessible for everyone.

[11:22] Joshua Broadbent: Our next question is what's your favorite part of backstage life?

[11:27] Kelly Plank: That is correct. And that question comes from Kate. What is your favorite part of backstage life?

[11:34] Joshua Broadbent: Ugh. Okay. My favorite part is probably the shenanigans. So I was talking to one of the wiggies, Abby, on 9 to 5. We do a quick change side stage for the hospital scene, and we were just pissing ourselves laughing. Like, I don't know. I think she was trying to hide behind a prop pan or something, just and I just went to her. You know what? The best bit about this, the audience is seeing a professional show, and we are back here doing our job with a smile. There's so much that goes on behind the scenes that the audience aren't aware of, and it's so much fun. Yeah, it's the people that you get to work with and experience this with.

[12:24] Kelly Plank: Yeah. This with that's my favorite part. Otherwise, if I'm working like a festival, I just love the fact that like I'm with really cool bands and stuff. You know that I'm walking among the rich and famous.

[12:38] Joshua Broadbent: Oh my god. That's look I have to agree with you is that my favorite part of the backstage life is exactly that. It's making those friendships and having that little bit of light-hearted fun. You know nothing that's gonna affect the show and no one is going to you know the audience don't know these things but that's like that's yeah. When I worked on Thriller our stage manager was the biggest jokester. Like I mean she'd done the show for 10 years worked her way up and I remember the first day that I'm doing the ASM plot you have to go on stage for Billy Jean and sit behind these stairs.

[13:20] Kelly Plank: Okay. So the stage managers stage left your stage right you're on stage for a whole song and just overcomes I hear oh Kelly I forgot to warn you don't look behind you. Are you scared of spiders?

[13:35] Joshua Broadbent: And I'm just like as an Australian I'm like yes they're poisonous they will kill me. I'm terrified and she's like oh yeah well I've stuck some fake spiders in this piece of set so don't be scared and I turned around and if she hadn't have told me I probably would have screamed on stage or at least stifled that scream. But yeah, like there's so many times that there was like this crossover that was out like you'd have to go through doors to do this crossover. And the amount of times that I would be walking there and she would be hidden behind something and just jump scare me.

[14:20] Kelly Plank: Well you jump scare really easily because I opened the door to the stairwell the other day and I yelled out Kelly Plank as I do every time I greet you because I love using your full name for whatever reason and the scream that echoed oh my god we got to stage door and they're like did you hear some screaming and I was like oh no I you know it's also nice to know that nobody checked on the scream they're just like it's fine.

[14:49] Joshua Broadbent: They probably used it to be honest.

[14:51] Kelly Plank: Yeah no I do I do scare very easily. I remember on Charlie we had a rubber duck that was used in the show um and Wonka would throw it off yeah into the wings well it was used usually the ASM that would catch it and it's like a fun cue and like a really hard cue because you're trying to catch it while paging occurred and not getting hit in the face.

[15:12] Joshua Broadbent: But you got hit in the face a lot.

[15:14] Kelly Plank: I have a great video of me catching it which I will throw up on our Instagram I think I've seen that actually I think it's on my prompt side but I'll I'll pop it onto our Whispers in the Wings Instagram. We stage manager never did it in the end and I we wanted to we were gonna buy a thousand rubber duckies yeah and just hide them all over the theatre love it we played a trick on one of the cast members for some reason they had this doll this like porcelain doll that would sit in the dressing room a creepy ass I was gonna say haunted like opening the doors to go in to like unlock their dressing rooms and stuff just sitting there nightmares it got to a point where we started moving it around the theater we knew there was people that didn't like the doll so we would put like notes being like I've come to play with you and the person that owned the doll was like starting to freak out because they're like wait like I'm not doing it no one's admitting to this and of course no one's gonna believe that stage management would ever pull a trick like this.

[15:22] Joshua Broadbent: Oh that's so good I think in the end did you fess up?

[15:22] Kelly Plank: Well I didn't but I think our stage manager did when we got to Brisbane when we was getting shut down I think they were like oh you know the doll was me and they were in shock because A they didn't think the stage manager would do that all stage management in itself would do that it's fun to you know be able to go to work be a professional and do your job still enjoy it and and create that sort of company morale. I remember on Priscilla we did like we did a whole company murder mystery wow that like went from show to show and it was our MD who ran it what would happen is somebody was the dedicated murderer and they like there were certain rules you could only do it in the theatre it could it wasn't allowed to be during like when a show's running and like you had to if you died you had to admit to it yeah so at the end of every show you know I've just done the members of the blah blah blah here is your call time for tomorrow MD would come on the Tanoy and do one of those um like in the hunger games when they when they list off the tributes that have died.

[17:36] Joshua Broadbent: And so that happened at the end of preparation. One of my favorite and really like I mean it depends on the show and how complex the call is and safety wise and everything. One of my favorite things, if you're on the show forever and you're really confident, I love a trivia.

[17:55] Kelly Plank: Oh, I love a good trivia.

[17:57] Joshua Broadbent: Like on comms.

[17:58] Kelly Plank: Yeah.

[17:59] Joshua Broadbent: Yep. On Thriller, Sunday Matinee was our trivia and that was really fun. I mean, almost every day was Trivium for Monty. But yeah, it's just it's about keeping that morale up and just enjoying. Enjoying. I mean, 'cause you're doing the exact same thing day in and out.

[18:17] Kelly Plank: Yeah.

[18:18] Joshua Broadbent: Wanna make it fun.

[18:19] Kelly Plank: Yes, yes, exactly.

[18:20] Joshua Broadbent: Yeah. So I guess the shenanigans and the banter, my favorite bits. And I'm sure it is Kate's too. Thank you so much for sending that through, Kate. And thank you again to Dale and Courtney also for asking us those questions.

[18:33] Kelly Plank: Joshua, I think that's gonna bring us to the end of this episode. But where can our listeners ask us some questions?

[18:40] Joshua Broadbent: Cool. So you can find us on Instagram at Whispers in the Wings Podcast or send us an email uh Whispers Wings Podcast at Gmail dot com.

[18:52] Kelly Plank: Or you can send us a voice message. You can leave a voice message by heading to the show notes to go to anchor.fm where our podcast is hosted to leave your voice message, or you can go to Whispers in the Wings Podcast dot com and that will link you straight there.

[19:05] Joshua Broadbent: What? We have a website?

[19:06] Kelly Plank: We don't have a website, but we have like a like a um like a bio sort of link, like where it's got all of the link.

[19:12] Joshua Broadbent: Do you not okay?

[19:15] Kelly Plank: Clearly I run all the socials, it's fine.

[19:17] Joshua Broadbent: I do other things.

[19:18] Kelly Plank: Yeah.

[19:19] Joshua Broadbent: Like look pretty.

[19:20] Kelly Plank: Yeah.

[19:20] Joshua Broadbent: Like right now.

[19:24] Kelly Plank: Okay.

[19:25] Joshua Broadbent: Cool, Josh.

[19:26] Kelly Plank: Cool, Kelly.

[19:27] Joshua Broadbent: Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool.

[19:28] Kelly Plank: Cool, cool, cool, see you next time.

[19:31] Joshua Broadbent: We'll see you then. Bye bye.