This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:10] Joshua Broadbent: Hello, you are listening to a brand new episode of Whispers in the Wings, and today I am joined by Freelance Stage Manager and Production Coordinator Daniel Story.

[0:19] Joshua Broadbent: Now, before I bring Daniel in, let's find out a little bit more about him.

[0:23] Joshua Broadbent: Daniel Story is a Sydney-based theatre practitioner who specializes in technical design and stage management. He graduated from the University of Tasmania in 2020 with a Bachelor of Contemporary Arts and is now studying a Bachelor of Fine Arts focusing on technical theatre and stage management at the National Institute of Dramatic Art. Daniel has experienced a multitude of roles in his creative practice, including directing, acting, devising, designing, and stage managing. Daniel's previous stage management credits include stage managing the world premiere seasons of Thor for Legs on the Wall and Caravan Boat Treehouse for Mudlark Theatre Company. He has assisted stage managed for the Epic Eight Hour Duration Work, 888 Work, 2022, produced by Unfunded Empathy for the Rising Festival in Melbourne.

Also, last year, Daniel was employed as the technical swing covering the assistant stage manager and microphone technical plot for Once at Darlinghurst Theatre Company. Daniel specializes in experimental theatre, physical theatre, and durational performance in local and global contexts.

[1:29] Daniel Story: Hi Joe, thanks for having me.

[1:31] Joshua Broadbent: Thank you so much for joining me. Now, we had an opportunity working together last year at Once for Darlinghurst Theatre Company, which is where I got to know more about you and more about your sort of incredible work within that sort of immersive world of theatre and events. What interested you in getting into theatre and especially into that sort of immersive world?

[1:51] Daniel Story: Yeah, so I currently live in Sydney. I am Tasmanian, born and raised, and down there there's a lot of festival culture, particularly around Mona, that establishment as a contemporary art institution, and their two festivals, their Summer Festival, Mona Foma, and their winter festival Dark MOFO. And so as I was going through high school, I knew that I wanted to find my way into theatre. I want to be in this industry, but what exactly it is, I'm not too sure. And so through years 11 and 12, I continued to study it, and I knew that I wanted to keep going down the pathway, and so I started studying at the University of Tasmania, where we learnt a bit of everything. We learnt the on-stage stuff with acting, voice and body, how do we control ourselves with performers.

But then also the backstage side. So we did directing, writing, technical theatre, stage management, literally everything. We covered everything, we did everything, we wore all the hats. But it was during my time at UTAS, the University of Tasmania, that I was introduced to the land of Mona, and I got roped into this wormhole of weird art, weird art that's just outside of the box. And it was interesting, definitely to begin with, and I started out on the performance side of it, particularly in the summer festival, Mona Foma, where every year we would have a party called FOMO, and within this party there would be pop-up performances, it would be a very immersive experience. And the last one I did was called Working 9 to 5.

So it was a 9 p.m. to a 5 a.m. party with performances happening all throughout this workers' club around eight ball tables in a car park, like a fire escape on the outside of a building, like it's just really pushing the boundaries and redefining what performance is because I think so many times we think about performance and theatre as something that has to exist within a traditional theatrical space, whether that's a pristine arch theatre, whether it's a black box. But if you take away that traditional structure of what we think is theatre, we can actually discover a whole new range of experiences to create for an audience. And so after that interaction with Mona, which spanned about three years, I would say, before COVID really kicked in.

After that, I moved up to Sydney and I've continued this journey with experimental and immersive performance. I've been working a lot with Legs on the Wall. Plus, last year I did an independent production for the Rising Festival, which was another eight-hour show. Which we were in a place called Schoolhouse Studios in Coburg, just north of Melbourne. And it was this old Cole supermarket which had been completely gutted and turned into art studios, and we had this big open space, and so we created it into an office environment. So for that first half of the performance, the audience are there on wheelie chairs, experiencing life within an office.

[5:01] Daniel Story: Wow. And then we break down that structure and figure out the journey of what happens if the workday turns a little bit on its head. And so just this whole concept of just being able to tell a story outside of the constructs of what we think of as traditional theatre, it's really opened up the breadth of work for me, and I think it's really exciting. Something I need to look at more with theatre, because obviously I'm very much focused on musical theatre, is what theatre exists outside of the, well, quote unquote normal, hate using that, but you know, what's outside of that traditional space, and it's really fascinating to know that a lot of that, and from what I understand, is happening in those places where traditional theatre don't really exist.

Like you said, Tasmania, like there's not really a traditional theatre space there, like all the theatres that I know of in Tassie are quite small, so you do have to sort of think outside the box. And I guess there's a lot of logistical things that come with all of that, you know, especially working in the weather, and what sort of valuable skills do you need to make that experimental or durational production sort of work, especially if you are spending all that time prepping and planning for something that is going to run for eight hours, which obviously also heavily involves an audience.

[6:23] Daniel Story: Absolutely. So, in terms of a durational performance, the best way to prepare, I think, isn't exactly rehearsing the show, it's mentally preparing yourself for the performance day, or if you're doing it multiple times, preparing yourself to sustain that performance across a season. When I was working with Legs on the Wall, I worked on a production of Thor last year, which thawed as in melting, not the Marvel superhero Thor. And it was a block of ice that we had suspended over Sydney Harbour outside the opera house from a crane, and we had a performer on it at all times. And that was my first experience with working as a stage manager in durational performance. It was quite a learning experience for me because it really pushed my idea of what does a stage manager do?

Because yes, we run rehearsals, we look after the performance, we look after the safety of the performers and the crew around us and make sure that everything's running for schedule. But at the end of the day, we never rehearsed that show once until we put it on for the first day in front of an audience. And that's something that I've noticed has carried throughout with other durational works that I've done. You get the base structure of what the performance is and you have it written out in, say, a Word document or a Google Doc. And you have dot points that you know you need to hit, but being able to remain flexible within the performance because you don't have a script. If you do have a script, it could be like a three-page document for an eight-hour show.

And you just know that these are the points you have to hit. But it's really listening to the performance and listening to the performers to figure out, okay, where's this journey going to go now? Because they're also in it for the long run as well. If they're part of the show for eight hours, they need to figure out, okay, how can I carry myself through? And so I think that that's been the biggest learning experience for me of how durational theatre or even experimental art, like how that differs from traditional theatre, because you just really have to massage it and work on the fly.

[8:28] Joshua Broadbent: And I guess it's one of those things that where no two performances of that durational theatre would be the same because, you know, as you said, that office building sort of structure, like that would have, I mean, and this is just what I'm assuming, we can talk about it more, obviously, but that would have heavily involved the audience because they are sitting within that space that you are, you know, you've constructed and deconstructing. So does it sort of become a little bit more of a like an improvised performance? Obviously, you've got the points that you need to hit, but the rest of it is sort of up to the mood and the atmosphere of everyone that is there.

[9:06] Daniel Story: Absolutely. I think that can count towards most performances though, as we know that when an audience comes into a room, that completely changes the energy of a performance. Like the performers know what they have to get through, but you are responding. And I think what differs when you're doing a durational performance is that because the audience is with you for a longer journey, the performers have to really listen and respond to the audience to understand, okay, I'm losing them a little bit here. How do I get them on track? Because the office show that we did last year, that was from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. So if we lost the audience at 12 p.m. or 1 p.m. when we're going to lunch, what happens if they don't come back after the show?

We provided lunch and we were like, let's see if everyone has a nap after lunch, but everybody came back, and it was that thing of as a creative team, because we believe that stage management is part of the creative team. How do we work with the performers and how as a whole team and a whole show do we listen to the audience and make sure that they are with us on the journey?

[10:10] Joshua Broadbent: And I guess a lot of audience members aren't used to something like that, like something that is, you know, a full work day's experience. It's such a unique idea. Do you know if that has been done sort of anywhere else around the world, or is that something that was sort of done for the first time here?

[10:25] Daniel Story: I guess probably in Australia it was the first time. I'm not exactly sure if I'm honest with you. With durational performance, I never came across it until I was invited to work on a durational performance. I was and then that was the little key in the door, and I unlocked a whole new world for me. But prior to that, I'd heard of shows that were say five hours long, which might have been an opera, but actually a creating experience which we still label as theatre. I'd never come across that before, I'd never heard of it, and I think it is a little bit of a niche that people haven't responded to yet. And I think that that's something that was so exciting with the show at the Rising Festival was because audiences hadn't really been exposed to that kind of thing before.

[11:15] Daniel Story: And we only got a two-star review because of how long the show was. But everyone, everyone coming to that show knew it was an eight-hour show. You're there from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

[11:25] Joshua Broadbent: Yeah, and I guess those people that are reviewing are probably more traditional theatre goers, so then they're not really there for that experimental, you know, eight-hour experience. As you talked about, you know, like stage managers are part of that creative team, and I think that within traditional theatre and experimental theatre, all those sort of theatre, people need to accept that a little bit more because there are so many decisions that need to be made, and yeah, no, our decisions are different to, you know, how a lighting designer might think or a sound designer might think, but it's all still a part of that creative process for one of those like durational performances. How does that communication and collaboration with those other members of the creative team play a part?

As you said, you hit those base marks of this needs to be done at these specific times. If it's an eight-hour show, are you spending like more time planning with those other creatives, or is it sort of like mixing a show on the fly as you sort of go?

[12:19] Daniel Story: I would say it's probably very 50/50. With shows we know the structure, so instead of doing a script, what we do is usually what we call a score. And the score is where we have the breakdown of each section and what those targets are for each section. And they will usually have a time associated with them.

[12:48] Daniel Story: This is what needs to happen within that section. But then obviously there can be a little bit of difficulty with managing time once the performers are on stage if you don't have a way to communicate with them. So figuring out how to build that into the world so they can keep track of their time. And luckily with 888, which was the show within the office, they could have papers, they could have their scores on their desk and nobody knew any wiser. We had computers, uh, we had set dressing, which kind of built within the world. And so we knew that there was flexibility within it, but the performers knew kind of how to keep themselves on track. And an easy way for us to keep on track was when we hit that lunch break at one o'clock, I think it was, we just cut the lights, the sound, everything, and like the work light came on and it signified the start of lunch, which snapped us out of this world.

[13:48] Joshua Broadbent: Wow, that would have been really abrupt.

[13:50] Daniel Story: Yeah. But no matter where we were in that piece, we knew that we could get it back on track at that lunch break. And so we took that lunch break with the audience, and then for the second act, I guess we'd call it after lunch, we were back into that world, and we had an alarm set for 4:20 p.m. Because that's when a pallet of beer was being brought out into the space, and it was knockoff drinks for the day until five o'clock. And so we knew that the performers could just follow their score and do their own track. But at 4:20, that alarm's gonna go off, so no matter what happens, we're gonna get ourselves back on track as well. And so I think that even though you do so much planning, there is obviously going to be shifts, but then it's figuring out okay, how can we bring it back on track?

And so, for example, with legs on the wall, I was working with the QLab fire with all of the sound, and there was a very set composition which surrounded the work where the performers could improvise, but then there was also moments of flexibility where I could cut it shorter or make it longer. If, for example, we went up late on the day, or when we brought the ice down between performers, if, for example, the changeover took a little bit longer because we're doing our safety inspections. There was flexibility within that to expand it or make it less, so then we'd still hit the finale right on 8:30 every night. I think it was 8:30 because we had fireworks.

[15:21] Joshua Broadbent: Yeah, it's just about maintaining that flexibility, but at the same time, you still have all that planning in place.

[15:28] Daniel Story: And I guess to answer you were talking about the creative team as well, working within the creative team. It's just a constant thing of communication, whereas usually from my experience with these works, the director is on board with us during the performance day as well, and we'll be working very much hand in hand as a team of okay, the stage managers providing the logistics, the directors delivering notes about the performance, but then it's a real collaboration of okay, we need to get to this bit, what can we do together? And so it's really two heads uniting as one, which kind of drives the performance as a whole. I think it's really fascinating, and I think more people should look into this experimental durational theatre.

[16:15] For Thor. I didn't actually get to see it, but I did see obviously some photos and content that you had put up. What are the sort of like logistical nightmares? I'm gonna say, around that, because obviously you're performing outdoors in the sun on an ice cube around General Public over Sydney Harbour. Like they I look at that and I'm just like, oh, there's just so many things that you have to consider, uh, especially around like the safety of it.

[16:43] Daniel Story: There's definitely different tiers to that. So, number one, first and foremost was always the safety of the performer suspended on the crane on the block of ice. Uh, so just as a stage manager, really having a strong understanding of what that performer needs and what are the rules around what they can and can't do. And so I had direct communication with the performer. Um, they had an in-ear piece, and I could talk to them throughout the entire performance, which was a thing about maintaining the structure of the work but also safety things. So because they had a piece of rope connecting them as a safety line to the crane, if they wrapped themselves around the main lines which was holding up the ice, that was a safety risk because of abrasion against the ropes.

So then it was constantly watching that and saying, Hey, can you head back to neutral position? Which then they'd look at the ropes and think, okay, I'm tangled, and they untangle themselves. And so a lot of the logistics around that was the safety of the performers. But then also surprisingly, as stage manager, a big part of my job was being the weatherman.

[17:55] Joshua Broadbent: Yeah.

[17:56] Daniel Story: Which I'm like, I understand the weather, but then also having that amount of understanding about the weather, it was quite a learning experience because if it was raining, we would keep going, but if there was a storm coming, we'd have to stop because of there's a risk of a lightning strike hitting the crane. With the wind, if we got three gusts over a certain speed, that was a show stop. If we got one gust over a certain speed, which was higher, but like ran for at least, say 10 seconds, that was a show stop. So the thing with that is on the ground, Augusta Wind feels different very different to Augusta Wind 30 meters in the air. So then just being able to monitor that, and it was really logistically challenging figuring it out how to maintain the weather, how to maintain the safety of the performers.

And whilst we understood the audience's proximity and their relation to the work, we really just kind of stayed within our own bubble. We let because it was outside the opera house, the opera house would deal with the audience and kind of manage them because of if we took that on as part of our performance element, it would just be overloading ourselves with work. So I think that's something important as well, having that communication of who's responsible for what. So many things could go wrong, and there's so many layers to the performance and to the art of it. You do very much need to focus on exactly just that one thing and let everyone else. I guess it's no different to you know traditional theatre.

[19:31] Joshua Broadbent: Yeah, handing over to the front of task manager.

[19:34] Daniel Story: Yeah, leave the front of the house to deal with it and and you know do their thing. I think it's absolutely fascinating the work that you do and the amount of I don't know, I guess brain power you need to have on a day-to-day basis. Like, what sort of tricks do you do to make sure that you are staying mentally active and alert during these long performances?

[20:11] Daniel Story: A thing that I found really helpful, and I've even extended this outside of my practice with uh experimental and durational theater, no matter what show I'm working on, is figuring out a way that you can deroll at the end of each day, making sure that you can do something which signifies, okay, this is the end of the workday, this is me stepping away, and especially with the durational work that I've done. If we're in rehearsals all day, and I know that that's kind of the same amount of time that I'm going to be doing for the actual performance day, how do I switch off at the end of the day so then immediately I know that I can prepare for the next day without having to think about it? So I do things such as as soon as I step out of that room, listening to music, what's a song that I have that signals the end of the day for me?

Uh coming home and just finding some sort of pattern that I can sit within which I know will just take my mind off work, and leading up to the performance day, doing as much preparation as you can during the rehearsal room or the development room, and particularly when you are getting towards performance day, the day before you want to try and preset as much as possible. Because on performance day, you want to come in, you want to check in with the cast, you want to just do your final touches of your preset, but then after that you want to be in performance mode. And I think that's something that makes it easier in terms of engaging with a durational performance and sustaining that performance throughout as a stage manager, is knowing that you're not alone, you're within a whole team who's also on this journey with you.

You have the performer or performers who are giving it their all across this time. You have a team around you, you have lighting sound, potentially video, the production manager's usually there, the director's usually there, you're all there together, and so just sharing that experience is something that kind of reminds me to be present within the moment instead of thinking, okay, this is what's happening in the second half of the show. Really, I found that you just need to focus on what's happening right now.

[22:24] Joshua Broadbent: Yeah, I think as a like for performers, derolling is so important and valuable, like you know, especially if you're doing a show that's quite heavy and could be dealing with some quite dark topics. It is the same for for us and for you know any sort of creative that is involved on a show full time. It is important for you to be able to take off, you know, the stage manager hat at the end of the day and find those things that you do that sort of you know go, okay. Work is done, and it's it's the same for you know, if you're working an office job, you go home and you do something that just goes, work is done, I don't need to think about work until tomorrow it's something that I myself need to get better at especially one of the shows that I did uh this year Darkness was quite a dark show the topics that were discussed in it were quite heavy and I was just a little bit too exhausted really at the end of the day to to deroll so I didn't really need to do that but looking back on it I'm like I definitely should have been finding those things rather than just going home going to bed finding those things that you know I could just move away from the show just for that minute there was a lot sort of happening on it but I think it yeah I think it's really important to find those tools and tricks that you can can just help you process if it's a busy day but also talking about being like present and there in the moment obviously for the that sort of durational theatre that you know you're spending eight hours working on yes you need to be going okay well where do we need to be in like you know that 10 minute mark 20 minute mark but you still need to stay present because so much is happening within that moment that you need to make sure that you know you're there and not thinking about what you're doing at the end of the day.

[24:00] Daniel Story: Absolutely and it's just about being in that moment everyone supporting one another that yeah you do want to be mentally and physically present in that moment. Last year I was doing a production of Mac and all which is a classic American play by Sophie Treadwell and usually the lead role is performed by a white woman and that show looks at the abuse of the patriarchy towards women and this manipulation of power, and then eventually at the end of the show, there is a moment where the lead character whose journey we're following is executed by an electric chair. But the version that I was working on last year was uh a little bit different because we casted a person of colour as the leading character as the woman.

And so that added a whole nother level of meaning to not only the oppression of the patriarchy on women, but also this thing about race and racial oppression and myself identifying as a white man, I actually found it really challenging to sit within the rehearsal room each day and watching this person of color put themselves through this journey. And I could see that the toll it was taking on her as well. But luckily we had a really good support network. And I think that I know I've spoken about derolling outside of the room and once you're finished for the day, but if you need to do something to deroll in the room and to check in at the end of the day, that's also okay because within that company, every single person who was in that rehearsal room for the day would come together at the end, and we would just share a moment in a circle and we would do this activity, I guess you'd call it to de-roll, which is we would put our palms together and start rubbing to create friction between our own hands and feeling the warmth and just looking around the circle generating energy, and then at the same time we feel an instinct and we'd all clap, and as soon as we clapped, we knew that was work done.

[26:08] Daniel Story: Our characters are gone, our roles are gone, we're just human beings back in the world. And so if it is a show that's challenging where you are watching other people put themselves through things and it doesn't necessarily impact you in the sense of the show but impacts you on a personal level, then it's okay to do that within the room as well with others.

[26:29] Daniel Story: Yeah, and I think you know, as a stage manager, that's very much things that you can implement into any rehearsal room. Like it doesn't need to be a show that is focusing on those sorts of dark, heavier topics so you know that make people really think. It could even be just, you know, your normal end-of-day routine where you just go, this is what we've done today. Let's just take a moment to just connect with each other again.

[26:51] Daniel Story: Yeah, I think we should be looking at doing that in any capacity, not just when there are difficult topics to go through. Absolutely, and it breaks down the structures at the end of the day in the rehearsal room as well. Because I think sometimes we think of there's a hierarchy within a room of okay, there's the performers, and then there's the creative team, and even though we're all working towards one show, there are people who have more power, and obviously the director oversees that whole process by coming together at the end. It's like, okay, no, we are just this one group working on this together, and at the end of the day, we're human beings, and that role doesn't exist outside of this room.

[27:34] Daniel Story: I guess you would remember from once, and we're still doing it, and they will do it every time the show they do the show. They, you know, they go through the cast go through and do North Strand and then they do Gold A Capella, and then we sort of stand in a circle after God a cappella, and someone will say something about the day or about the show or to celebrate what's happening. And then everyone puts a hand in the middle and goes, Cade Millerhike, which is something it's a traditional thing for them. I can't remember the reasoning behind it. But it's that thing we all do, you know, the stage management team, sound team join in with the cast because it's sort of like that moment of going, okay, well, we're connecting all together right now in this moment to do this show and to tell this story.

[28:15] Daniel Story: And story's not a dark, heavy topic, but it just it reminds you that yes, there are those sort of you know hats that people wear, cast, crew, creatives, like all of that, but at the end of the day, we're all there doing the one thing in the one show, telling whatever the story is for an audience. So just taking that moment to just connect together is I think really valuable, and I think we need to be doing it more.

[28:39] Joshua Broadbent: Yeah, definitely. So I guess there's gonna be a lot of listeners to these podcasts that, you know, just like yourself hadn't really heard of experimental theatre and, you know, those durational theatre. What advice would you have for people that want to look at getting into that? Like, how do you get started in that?

[28:54] Daniel Story: I think the best way to crack into it is by first observing something, going and watching something, and I guess when I made the move to Sydney and I started doing some productions here, I did have that experience from Tassie where I was exposed to it first. But I think where you're most likely to see these sort of performances pop up is during festivals. So if you look at Tassie, Dark Motor Mona Foma, if you look at Melbourne, there's rising, and then obviously there's a vast array of other arts festivals around Australia, but really looking for the experimental and kind of upcoming festivals because the other festivals, like I Love Dearly, Adelaide Festival, Sydney Festival, Brisbane Festival, those ones there, whilst they have a wide range of work, sometimes they're a bit less willing to take a risk on these sorts of works.

[29:53] Daniel Story: And so as soon as a festival program drops, have a look at it, have a look at okay, what's engaging. And I mean in Sydney, in the months of May and June, you have Vivet as well, even though there's light installations, there's also some performances happening in that which are a bit experimental and take you off the path of being within a theater. What does it mean to exist in a public space? And so I think that just scouring through a festival program and even looking at ones overseas. I mean, have a Google, have a look, and even though you're not necessarily going there, just having a read up about the ideas that are being presented within a work, and then once you get a bit of an understanding of what that world means, start to try to engage in it.

[30:42] Daniel Story: And I mean, I don't really know how to break into it because I kind of just fell into it and I fell into this hole and I absolutely love it. But I guess seeking out there's the amazing technology we have today, where it's pretty easy to find people online and reach out and start a conversation and just get an understanding of their processes and how they became a part of something, and then just having a conversation, and you might be able to build a network around that, and they might say, oh, like I know there's this coming up, how about you come and have a look? I think that communication within our network as stage managers and technical teams is so important because most of the time people are willing to help each other, and we want to share that knowledge, and so just by asking and getting to know someone and just trying to get an understanding, that's a bridge being built there, and you don't know it could open so many doors for you, and you might discover that it's like everything for you.

[31:46] Daniel Story: I think that's so wonderful. So so wonderful and so important. And our industry is based on networking. You go to uni, you get a degree, at the end of the day, no one looks at that piece of paper that says, you know, Joshua Brown got a bachelor of dramatic art. No one cares. What they care about is a, you know, who I am as a person, how I operate as a stage manager, and just how I present myself and how I communicate and network with other people, and that's the number one sort of thing I find about our industry. And there's ways of networking with other stage managers without having to necessarily go through a university degree. Stage Management Network Australia on Facebook. There's so many different Facebook groups out there that I'm a part of that I don't really interact in very often, but every now and then someone will ask a question and go, oh, I have an answer, and that's they are so willing and open to having new members join and ask those same sort of questions. We do want to encourage and inspire people to do good. So I think that's really really important.

[32:46] Joshua Broadbent: One final question for you today. Looking ahead into, you know, your future, your 10-year plan. Absolutely hate it, but you know, is there any specific projects or goals that you sort of want to accomplish within that experimental theater? Is there somewhere you want to go? Is there something you've seen overseas that you're like, I would love to go and do that event?

[33:07] Daniel Story: I have found myself falling more into the festival world, and I'm at the moment I'm currently kind of stepping away from being directly linked to a show, but rather working in the festival context where I look after multiple shows that come from around the world. And recently I spent some time with Adelaide Festival where I was at the Adelaide Festival Center doing a placement there. And I was with a production coordinator, and I think we had it was something like 12 productions and events come through the festival center during our two and a half weeks of the festival being on, I think. And during that time, it was really good seeing those 12 different events and productions because it inspired me and taught me about what are the other things that I can look into and engage with. And we had international acts, but we also had acts from around Australia. So it was also a good opportunity to build that network.

[34:13] Daniel Story: And I think ultimately I would love to stay on Australian productions. I see that kind of as a long-term goal. But something that I want to be really selective about going into the future is the messages of the work that we're presenting. And I think that with art, we have such an important place within society, and we have a platform where we can present social messages and try to enact social change. I think that that's something that we were doing with Thor, which was about global warming and what happens when we put a 2.4-ton block of ice in a crane above Sydney Harbour in a 35-degree day in the middle of summer. But being selective about what messages I want to present and kind of link that to my identity of who am I as a person, what do I value, what are my beliefs within society, and then being able to share that message on a global platform.

[35:14] Daniel Story: So starting in Australia and then going on international touring on a bit of a circuit, go do different festivals, but having those connections with people and talking to them outside of the show. So do the show, but then get involved with the audience, get involved with the teams that are putting this production on, like mounting it overseas, and just having a conversation around the messages that we're presenting, because I think that yes, it's all well and good to tell a story, like a romantic story, boy meets girl or whatever. But something that really excites me is yeah, the changes that we can start to enable just by putting it out there.

[36:00] Joshua Broadbent: That's so wonderful to hear, and I cannot wait to follow more of that journey of yours because it's so fascinating. Thank you so much for coming on today and having a chat. I think it's such a unique side of the industry. I want to say it's relatively new, it's not, it's been there for a very long time. I think it's just now that we're starting to realize the importance of it and, you know, stage managers within it and the role that they play. So thank you so much for that. If people wanted to reach out to you to ask some questions about the work that you've done, or you know, more specifically about durational, physical, experimental theatre, where can they find you?

[36:40] Daniel Story: The best place to hit me up is on Instagram. I have two profiles. One's just my personal profile, which I'm more likely to respond to, which is at Daniel.story underscore, or I do have my kind of portfolio page, I guess you call it, which is at Daniel Story Creative, which just has some photos of some work that I've been doing there. So if you actually want to see what's I've been working on, that's the best place to go. But if you want to reach out and ask me questions, head over to my personal Instagram.

[37:10] Joshua Broadbent: Amazing. I'll pop those down in the show notes for the listeners so that they can find you nice and easy. Daniel, thank you so much for joining. I really appreciate it.

[37:19] Daniel Story: Thank you very much for having me, Josh.

[37:25] Joshua Broadbent: Well, my friend, that brings us to the end of another episode of Whispers in the Wings. A huge thank you to Daniel for jumping on and having a chat to us about physical theatre, durational performances, you know, all of that experimental theater. It's such interesting and fascinating parts of our industry that I guess probably a lot of you haven't even thought about. So if you have any questions for Daniel, please make sure you follow him on his social medias and ask, because he's more than happy to have a chat with you. And of course, make sure you are also following Whispers in the Wings on all social medias, and make sure you're following us here in your preferred podcast app as well. And if you are also enjoying Whispers in the Wings, please do make sure you're leaving ratings and reviews. That brings us to the end of the episode. I'll see you next time. Bye bye.