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[0:11] Joshua Broadbent: Hello, you are listening to a brand new episode of Whispers in the Wings, and this week I am joined by the brilliant and endlessly energetic Caitie Murphy, a stage manager whose work spans the world of theatre, opera, and the glitter-covered chaos of drag.

[0:24] Joshua Broadbent: I am so excited for you to listen to my chat with Caitie because from the conversation I know she's one of those people who lights up every room she walks into. She's full of stories, spark, and just the right amount of gaff tape to hold it all together.

[0:36] Joshua Broadbent: We talk about her journey from studying music to calling operas, wrangling drag queens, and what it really takes to keep a show running when the heels are high and the vibes are right. And spoiler alert, if you're looking for a stage manager next year, Caitie's books are open for 2026, and you'll want to get in quicker after hearing this one.

[0:54] Joshua Broadbent: Now, before I welcome Caitie onto the podcast, let's learn a little bit more about her.

[0:59] Joshua Broadbent: Caitie Murphy is an independent stage manager with a double degree in music and arts in theatre and performance from Monash University, training with Monash University Student Theatre, a Monash Center for Theatre and Performance. Caitie branched out as a freelance theatre maker in 2019 and has built an electric portfolio of shows, as well as working as a technician for Monash Performing Arts Centers.

[1:20] Joshua Broadbent: In 2023, she completed an internship with Michael Castle on Disney and Karen McIntosh's Mary Poppins The Musical, toured regionally as a stage manager technician with Percussion Group Junkyard Beats, and was the calling stage manager for Short Black Opera's Nedok Week production of Parawing Lifts the Sky by Professor Deborah Cheatham Freon, A.O. at the Arts Center Melbourne.

[1:41] Joshua Broadbent: Caitie is known for her work within the drag community of Melbourne and can often be seen swiping trip hazards away from twirling high heels in venues she doesn't even work for. Caitie spent three years as head stage and production manager at Vaudeville Cabaret, owned and operated by Bumper Love from RuPaul's Drag Race Season 3, and co-produced two seasons of Ballads and Ball Gowns, the hit debut solo show by winner of RuPaul Drag Race Down Under Season Three, Isis Avis Loren.

[2:07] Joshua Broadbent: She has continued to collaborate with drag artists as a technician for Pompeii Fest, stage manager for the debut season of Fountain Lakes in Lockdown, a Katherine Kim drag parody play by Thomas Jaspers, and Eclipse, a daylight connection at Rising Festival, earning a nomination for Technical Contribution of the Year at the inaugural Melbourne Excellence in Drag and Entertainment Awards.

[2:29] Joshua Broadbent: Caitie's most recent projects include the sold-out tour of Trophy Boys by Emanuel Matana and the 2025 Tour of Hedwig and the Angry Inch for GWB Entertainment and Andrew Henry presents.

[2:41] Joshua Broadbent: Now, before I bring Caitie into the studio, I do want to let you know that this episode touches on topics of safety and well-being within the live performance spaces. If you or anyone you know is in need of support, please reach out to Support Act, who offer a free confidential counselling service for anyone working in the Australian music or the arts by calling 1-800-959-500.

[3:01] Joshua Broadbent: If you're overseas or outside the entertainment industry, please reach out to your local support services.

[3:12] Joshua Broadbent: Caitie, thank you so much for joining me on today's episode.

[3:15] Caitie Murphy: Thanks for having me.

[3:16] Joshua Broadbent: It's my pleasure. Now, from reading your bio, the next time I'm at a drag performance, I'm gonna be keeping my eye out for you just popping out from the darkness.

[3:25] Caitie Murphy: Just, you know, ready to just jump into action, sweeping some things away.

[3:29] Joshua Broadbent: That is like peak stage manager energy.

[3:32] Caitie Murphy: Right. It's so funny because like I can't even turn it off. I was at a gig recently, and one of my queens—I don't even work there. I did a couple rock star shifts in the early days. I don't even work there. I was just there. I've been on tour for months and then come in and she gets on stage and immediately like just both her earrings fall off. She flicks it away and it lands in the wig of a friend who's sitting at the table with me and I'm just suddenly up and like trying to clear them away because all I can see is the high heels getting closer and closer to the slipping hazard.

[4:05] Caitie Murphy: I'm right and it does something to me. Safety first, safety is important.

[4:12] Caitie Murphy: Especially because they're always pulling off a skirt or something like that and it just gets bundled on stage and you just watch the heels, you just watch the stilettos get closer and closer.

[4:23] Caitie Murphy: Yeah, they're masters of big reveals and layers and elements and things and obviously a lot of the time depending on their sort of background, the costumes aren't well put together. You know, they are gluing their—they're just piecing things together and hoping that it's gonna stick. They are held together with gaff tape and prayer or in the words of Passion Couture, $20 and a bit of drag know-how. They're not sturdy, but God, they look fantastic.

[4:50] Joshua Broadbent: Oh, and don't they sparkle as they twirl as those sparkles fly off into the drinks of the people around them.

[4:59] Caitie Murphy: Very bad.

[5:01] Joshua Broadbent: Now you've worked across such a wide range of projects, but before we dive into that world a little bit more, take us back to the beginning and share what drew you into theatre in the first place.

[5:12] Caitie Murphy: Well, I actually sidestepped into theatre via music because I was a huge music kid in school. I went to a small-town school that had a surprisingly good music program.

[5:23] Caitie Murphy: Great. But just about no drama at all actually, so I was a brass player, singer, keys, anything I could get my hands on, any band that would have me, and I lived close to the Stratford upon Avon Shakespeare on the River Festival—not the cool one, the tiny country Victoria one—and some people I knew were doing the community play and they wanted me to do a small singing part in it and I had a lot of fun, but I did not want to be on stage ever again. I did not want to act. I love playing music, but I just really, really didn't want to act. It's yuck. But I liked being around the people, around the craft.

[5:24] Caitie Murphy: The same bad. But the next year they were like, well, you could be the stage manager. What is that? We don't know either. Can you just be on book and dig props and stuff? But then I headed off to uni to do my Bachelor of Music and I realized in the first year that the kind of playing you had to do to become a professional musician—because I wanted to be a pit musician in the orchestra of the musicals—the kind of playing you have to do would have made me hate music, and I didn't want to fall out of love with it. And by that point, I had been doing theatre as my elective and I moved into a double degree in music and arts so that I could pursue theatre and switch out from performing to musicology, music research, and so that was in my second year of uni that I started working with the Monash Student Theatre and did some training, and then I was—I had the stage management bug by that point.

[7:05] Caitie Murphy: By the end of the second show, I was like, oh, this is forever. This is what I could do forever. This is what lies at the center of the Venn diagram of my creative brain and my organizational brain. And that's what I wanted. So I branched out independently from there.

[7:21] Joshua Broadbent: You mentioned just before that the way you'd have to play in a pit orchestra would make you fall out of love with music. What's different about it that would cause that to happen?

[7:30] Caitie Murphy: Not in the pit orchestra itself. To become that elite of a player, you have to be doing—even just doing my performance major, the expectation was that you'd be doing practice three, four, five hours a day.

[7:46] Joshua Broadbent: Right.

[7:47] Caitie Murphy: And I was 19. I wanted to go to nightclubs and see drag queens. I wanted to go see comedians. I wanted to go see shows. I wanted to live my life as well. And I—but it's also worth saying, like, music from like the kind of practice. You know, in Karate Kid, he has to paint the fence for hours and hours and hours. He has to wax on and wax off for hours and hours, and he's like, when can we throw a punch? That was me, because you had to just do scales and scales and scales and trills and trills and trills and blah-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da, like all kinds of exercising so that you had that base level of skill that you could just play anything really easily by looking at it once or twice.

[8:29] Caitie Murphy: Yeah, right. And that drove me crazy. I didn't like the work of it, I liked the fun of it. I didn't like doing—I didn't like playing on my own. I liked playing with dance. And so if I was, yeah, locking myself in my room all day going—but that was gonna make me lose my mind before I even got to the big orchestras.

[8:51] Joshua Broadbent: That's so fair.

[8:54] Caitie Murphy: Yeah. Obviously, you studied a double degree, which I could never imagine having done. Doing one was enough.

[9:01] Joshua Broadbent: Yeah.

[9:01] Caitie Murphy: How do you feel having the mix of that double degree has helped you with the work that you do today?

[9:07] Caitie Murphy: Oh, I feel great about it. I'm like, it's the—it's not heaps that makes me be like, yeah, I did that. This is something that I'm really proud of. Especially that like sticking it out and getting my music degree, it really adds strings to my bow as a stage manager when it comes to the music side of things. Obviously, they're often intertwined. It was only shortly after I finished uni that I was headhunted to work on Parawing Lifts the Sky, which was a First Nations opera written by Deborah Cheatham Freon, incredible Yorta Yorta soprano and composer. And she found me specifically through my website 'cause she saw it and she said, oh, I'm seeing here that you're also, you know, you've got your music degree from Monash. I'm a lecturer there. And I was like, you—you're my lecturer.

[9:56] Caitie Murphy: She had actually overseen my last assignment as like a guest tutor. Oh, amazing. A guest tutor. But it had all been on Zoom. We’d never met or anything like that. But as a reading musician, that helps me a lot when I'm calling from a score. It's not just a four-four pop score. It's an opera and it's not even in English. I can't cheat with the words. It was in Wadawurrung. There were large sections that were in, you know, recovered indigenous language. You can't cheat. You really gotta be able to read music and cope with, you know, you're not just tapping your one, two, three, fours on every bar. It's mucking around with all different key signatures and whatnot.

[10:41] Caitie Murphy: So I find it really helpful in that sense, being a reading musician, as well as also I studied music and culture, and so it does also just charge me up seeing the way that the orchestration comes together. Having just worked on Hedwig and the Angry Inch, there were some days that the actors would split off into one room and the band would keep going, and my SM would go with the actors, and I'd stick with the band, and I would just watch them in awe because it was so good and I can follow everything that they were doing. I was like, damn, God, they're geniuses. Like under Victoria Falconer's music direction, she'd be like, what about this? And my mind would explode because it was just so much fun.

[11:22] Caitie Murphy: It adds in ways that you don't always necessarily expect, especially when it comes to operating in a way that supports what's going on with the action and the music. Last year I worked on Trophy Boys by Emmanuel Matana, and there's a section in it that has a bit of a drag performance, like it's sort of a mind dream-like fantasy moment where the music cuts in and out a lot of times and just having the—you'd be surprised how much music adds to comedy. Like it's not just a backing track, the timing and similar is a big contributor. And so I have a lot of fun being able to integrate those things. I think it's a really valuable skill.

[12:09] Caitie Murphy: Obviously, my level of music is very base, um, base level, not as a baritone. Okay, double on conjunction. You're welcome. But it's something that I didn't really start at night and we didn't really explore much of music reading. Like there was score reading, but it was like a term and you had a class every fortnight for two hours or whatever, so it was really limited. But I think that's probably something that I missed going into my career in stage management is having that ability to just pick up a score and instantly sort of be able to read it without having to go, okay, so following it here. Okay, looking at those words, as you said, it was towards the end of being in stage management that I actually started doing opera shows.

And I felt by the point that I got to there, I was like, oh, okay, I can pick it up a little bit better because I've spent that sort of self-teaching time. But I think if the listener is looking at getting into that sort of opera musical world, I think it's really important to focus on studying a little bit of music to just help make it easier for you.

[13:13] Caitie Murphy: Yeah, I guess I've never been without it, you know. I've been sort of in and out of music lessons since I was five, kind of thing. Like I was—I went from choir to keyboard to euphonium, trombone, and if it—like at one point I was—I had my trombone in my hand and a vocal mic next to me, and I would just go from trombone to backing vocals, like I just wanted an instrument in my hand all the time.

[13:40] Caitie Murphy: And so I guess I don't have any perspective of what it's like to try and SM without that base level of musical understanding.

[13:51] Caitie Murphy: But even just in my research, a lot of what I enjoyed studying was the emergence of twentieth century genres and what led culturally to the birth of jazz and how that rippled into soul, blues, through to R and B, through to hip hop, through to, you know, rap and what we have now.

[14:11] Caitie Murphy: And so I'm never kind of not thinking about how the music that's been chosen really fits into the action, be it in, you know, mood, style, culture, vibe. You know, of course, Hedwig was very punk and very 80s inspired, and a lot of the lines in the play are lyrics from songs. If you didn't know the songs, you might just miss that this person is just talking in lyrics for half a paragraph. To me, it adds to the richness of the tapestry of the show, that understanding. It makes me very happy in any case.

[14:50] Joshua Broadbent: Look, and I think it obviously makes what you do more appealing for yourself, right?

[14:55] Caitie Murphy: Yeah. And you're finding a way of obviously not only loving what you do as a stage manager but also loving the music and the atmosphere and the sound, and especially working with someone like Hicky and some of the other incredible people you have worked with that really allowed that exploration of music within theatre.

[15:13] Joshua Broadbent: Yeah.

[15:14] Caitie Murphy: Outside of that sort of like, oh, we're just doing a musical and this is what's set, but there's so many layers to it.

[15:19] Joshua Broadbent: Yeah, and there's a degree of understanding even of what it—I think it always makes you a better stage manager if you understand what your team are up against, even just at, you know, even just at a shallow level when it adds to the empathy of it. I've seen stage managers where there's like a technical issue happening with writing and they're like, just fix it. You know, like, what, how hard is it to press a button? And you don't know that it's so finicky and these things just happen, they pop up and they take time to fix. It's similar with music, even just understanding like, no, I'm not just picking a song to go with it.

[15:59] Caitie Murphy: Like I worked on a show called The Meeting at Red Stitch. The plot of it was imagining a world where Martin Luther King and Malcolm X had a secret meeting and they discussed—they had a back and forth about how to achieve what they wanted because Malcolm X was a bit more radical and Martin Luther was very, very anti-violent. And that play began. I still hear it in my head, just this distorted, dreamy, underwater version of, oh gosh, I'm gonna embarrass myself by not even remembering the names now. Like, I was born by the river in a little tent, but just like spooky gothic. And it was so clever, and there were moments where like Strange Fruit by Billie Holiday would wander in and wander out of the background of it.

And I, again, it's another period of music that I studied, and it just made it that much more haunting in a huge way. I'm always gonna fall in love with what I'm working on to some degree because you are watching it every day and you're watching every part of how it develops over time. You know it so intimately that you're always gonna find something about it that just scratches an itch and makes your eyes roll back in your head. Like there's always something for me. I think that's a really perfect thing to experience, you know, working in theatre because it's a group of artists coming together to create something really special for them, but also for the audience.

[17:41] Joshua Broadbent: Yeah. Now, on that, let's get into the world of glitter and drag, obviously. A space where you've made such an impact. What drew you there? What drew you to that community and those shows?

[17:53] Caitie Murphy: Oh my gosh. I grew up in a small town and it was too small for me. I was so stifled by the time I was leaving it. I was so bored. And everyone just like church community—there's more churches than people of colour out there. Like, I gotta be real.

[18:12] Joshua Broadbent: Right.

[18:12] Caitie Murphy: And church, like, they all—this is so silly, but they were all trying to be Jeans West commercials. Like, they all were trying. The fashion of it was always if people put in any effort at all, they were trying to look like effortlessly chic. Oh, I'm so stylish, even just in a black t-shirt and jeans. And it drove me insane. And I tried so hard to like shrink myself to fit into those circles, and it drove me crazy. And when I moved to the city to study and realized that I have free will and can wear the strawberry shirt that I wanted.

[19:23] Caitie Murphy: And so unapologetic about that. And these, you know, queens and queers, they just loved me harder and better than anyone at church ever did. Shockingly. But I just, yeah, it was just suddenly there was a place where I didn't have to shrink. In fact, I was small in comparison to the rest of them. And it's been really, really—it feels like home in Animal.

[19:23] Joshua Broadbent: Yes.

[19:53] Joshua Broadbent: I think that's so beautiful. We know that the drag community and the queer community are all about chosen family, and I think that's so lovely that you found your chosen community within that.

[20:07] Caitie Murphy: Yeah, this is such a stupid anecdote, but I've been on tour for months and coming home and hanging out with my queens, my gays. Not just any, not just any queers, mine specifically. Recently I was club hopping with a good friend of mine, Queen, and I turned to her and I said, oh my gosh, have you seen the Instagram account that just posts that same video every day of Cher saying Wagon Wheel Y2? And she turned back to me and she said, oh my god, it's up to day 158 now. Isn't that crazy? It was just the perfect interaction. Where in Melbourne, like, where in the world could I have a flawless exchange like that, but in like in my stomping ground with my queens? It felt so good. Like the queen—I didn't know that was a thing. I'm gonna go and have to look that up now. But just like to be with people that get you.

[21:01] Joshua Broadbent: Are they still going?

[21:02] Caitie Murphy: Oh, I'm sure.

[21:04] Caitie Murphy: Oh my god, I can't wait to go and look into that. There's just, yeah, there's something huge to be said about finding people who get you even in this stupid minutiae of ways, I guess.

[21:17] Joshua Broadbent: So beautiful. You've obviously connected with such a fantastic community. What drove you into collaborating and creating with them? How did you come into stage management within that group?

[21:28] Caitie Murphy: It was their idea.

[21:30] Caitie Murphy: As I became closer with them, obviously the place I ended up working, Vodavile Drag Cabaret, I was a regular there. I would walk in and the bartenders would go, oh, Katie's here, get her a lemonade. They stopped making me pay to see the shows. They'd sit me on the stool in the back of the room, Katie's stool, and the queens would get word that I was in, and they'd start poking their heads out one by one to say hello. They'd give me free dessert. And as I became closer with them and closer friends and stuff and started to know each other like outside of the club, I was talking about the show I was working on. And people started saying, oh, okay, I didn't realize that was what you did. Do you want to help me with my show? And it snowballed from there. So that first sort of drag engagement for me was working on Isaac Lorenz's show because she wanted to do a solo show for Midsummer around that time. And it was to be held at Vodavile.

[22:27] Joshua Broadbent: Mm-hmm.

[22:28] Caitie Murphy: And so I went in for a meeting with Bumper Love, the owner of the Drag Cabaret, to work out the Venue Hire Agreement. And she also was like, oh, I didn't know you do this. Do you want to work here? And I was like, wait. Oh, my dream come true. Yeah, I guess so. And so across the three years that I worked there, I kind of became—it became known and understood within the community that that was what I did. And not only did I have those skills, but I had that knowledge and understanding. You could have pulled any SM or technician off the street to do it, but I really understood the mood and the goal and the methods, I guess, like the pattern and the structures and the formulas that came with getting shows like that together.

[23:27] Caitie Murphy: And to this day, I've been going out in the last few weeks since being home. And it's easy when you're away on the road to kind of forget that there's people for you that are still waiting for you and still believing in you. I've come back and people are just like, I still want to write this show with you. You know, you're still my top pick for SM. I still wanna do this and that with you. Like, I'm still waiting for the day that I can make this happen. It kind of just came together so naturally. And again, this is why I end up doing SM-ish things at venues I don't even work at because people just see me and they're like, oh, Katie, can you do my zipper? Oh, Katie, can you pick this up for me?

Oh, Katie, can you take my USB to the DJ? Well, at one point I was holding the stage together because I didn't have a screwdriver and it was coming apart, and they were just like, Katie, can you fix it? I'm like, no, I don't work here. You have no idea of the zips I've zapped. Like at this point, people just see me—at one point someone recently came over and was like, oh, could you please just do this up for me? And I say, yeah, people pay me good money to do up their zippers. And he was like, I know, that's why I asked you for it.

[24:42] Joshua Broadbent: I think you have—you've obviously found, yeah, that really special place in the world where people can trust you to just be able to jump into action because they've heard your name mentioned or they've seen you do something before. I think that's a really wonderful place to be in within the community that's constantly got your back because you've constantly got their back.

[25:03] Caitie Murphy: Yeah, and especially one particular queen, Cindel, I love her so much. When she was sort of—when we started working together at Vodavile, there was a moment that I felt it really clicked between us that as a lighting technician, which is what I was doing at that point in colours, and I had this—oh, I had this delicious follow spot that I like twirled my boss around my finger to get. And there was a moment she came on stage, she was doing a mix of a Whitney Houston song, it started off very dramatically, and the spotlight just came up on her and the room gasped. And in that moment she went, she kind of understood in her head, oh, I get it. Katie's not just here to like do things for me. She's here to augment me. She's here to be like making me look my best and adding to my performance, not just facilitating it.

[26:01] Joshua Broadbent: Yeah.

[26:01] Caitie Murphy: And that's exciting for me and exciting for them. But yeah, I guess there is a amount of trust, which is really nice now that you pointed out.

[26:08] Joshua Broadbent: Now, obviously, stage management is often about keeping order, but drag thrives on chaos and improvisation.

[26:15] Caitie Murphy: Yeah.

[26:16] Joshua Broadbent: How do you balance, you know, what's sort of set in place and then what happens, or is it just free-flowing?

[26:23] Caitie Murphy: Look, the thing about doing any kind of SM or tech in drag—this is gonna sound so stupid, but it's kind of—it's like working for Doctors Without Borders as opposed to working in a hospital. You gotta be kind of street smart, I guess. Like, it's not like a theatre where we start at seven because the show says start at seven. You start when the queen is ready and the vibes are right.

[26:54] Joshua Broadbent: Sure.

[26:55] Caitie Murphy: What's hard about it is that these spaces are not set up for a full-blown performance the way that a theatre is. Sometimes some of these spaces, they don't even have a stage, they don't have any sort of lighting. The queens are just performing in front of the bar, and the people have just kind of made a circle with one par can LED on them. And don't get me wrong, I have seen transcendent performances happen under those conditions. But it's a matter of working with what you've got and understanding that at the end of the day, it's not the same as in a theatre where you've got a set amount of audience who have paid to be there and sit in their seat at a certain time. Most of the time in drag, you know, Vodavile was a bit different. Vodavile was the closest thing to that traditional sit-down format, but most of the time you're at a bar or a nightclub or even a diner-style setup with a stage, and the shows are there to keep the good times flowing.

[28:08] Caitie Murphy: You didn't come for a show, you came to hang out and have a great night. And then the shows are there, which make it even better and more fun. So it's about reading what's going on in the room and saying, well, is it the right time to be throwing a show? Should we wait a little bit for some more people to arrive? Should we wait a little bit for them to finish their dinner so that they can woo more? Should we wait a little bit? It's kind of about curating how an evening is going to go for your patrons instead of curating how things are gonna go for an audience. It's just a kind of different understanding. And I think that's obviously where you've built the trust with the performer. So you have come from a background where you've enjoyed being in these spaces as an audience member, and you're enjoying building these relationships.

So you've got that sort of full world experience of knowing what the queen requires as well as what the audience kind of want. I think all of that plays a part together to create a really fantastic performance.

[29:17] Caitie Murphy: Yeah, and I'll say this all the time, both in drag settings and in theater settings. I am the ultimate audience member because as an operator, as someone in the rehearsal room, as an avid, you know, patron of these drag venues and stuff, I see every show. I see how people react to it. I see every offer that you throw out, and I'm in amongst the people who are reacting to it. So I have a kind of ironclad understanding of what's landing and what's not landing, and how I can support that, and how I can be an ally for lack of a better word in helping them reach that goal, which is that you know you want the audience to go crazy. You want them to be having a stupid good time on their hem's night on their milestone birthday on their, you know, Friday night, whatever it is that is going on.

You want them to look up and see something and go, wow, it's so fantastic, it's so big, it's so silly. I can really let loose and blow off steam watching this because I'm allowed to woo, I'm allowed to be part of it, I'm allowed to interact. And when they get off stage, you know, they're tangible. I get what that excitement is like from an audience perspective, and I want that for them as much as the queens do, you know.

[30:46] Joshua Broadbent: I think that's really poetic in a way, isn't it?

[30:50] Caitie Murphy: Yeah. What lessons have you learned over your time working with drag performers that other stage managers sort of should take away things that you know, if this is something that someone's interested in getting into, is there any tips or tricks of I obviously you've mentioned so many things that you do yourself, but that's because you're so integrated within that community. What are some newer stage managers able to do?

[31:30] Caitie Murphy: I really think the most important part of it is street smarts, which is kind of, I know how it's a strange thing to say, but oftentimes the tech, if you even have any tech, is hanging by a thread. The personalities are big, and you are around, you know, you're not working for a producer or a company like you are when you're with a theater company. You're working for more often than not a venue owner, a bartender, worse a drag queen. I don't want to be a downer, but I have to be truthful and say that it's not an environment where you're always going to be safe. There have been times that I it's why I kind of don't do it anymore, is that I just wasn't safe. I'm around all these, you know, I'm having to duck and weave through all these drunk and maybe on drugs patrons, performers, even, bartenders, even.

Like I've been threatened physically by co-workers, you know, having to work alongside people who are high and dealing, and there's no HR department. You've got co-workers who are in relationships, so you so there's conflicts of interest, and sometimes it's just cash in hand, like there's sometimes there's no money in it, there's no safety, there's no fallback. You know, I was invoicing the whole time, or, you know, casual. It's a hard and fast sort of gig life, and there are moments where you're like, fuck, I just made the stupidest best show. I love these people so much, and I'm having a wail of a time. But then there's other times where, like, I'm going home having like I'm being terrified on shit because someone held their scissors in my face, someone grabbed my ass whilst I was walking through, someone did this, someone did that, you know, and it's also hard.

Like, I'm a five, I'm five foot one, I'm a little girl amongst all these gays, and mixed, very mixed audiences that come and go, and it's a matter of deciding like, do I feel that I can protect myself well enough? Do I feel that the people around me are gonna protect me well enough? Is the fun that I'm having worth the risks that I'm taking? And sometimes it is, and sometimes it's not. Depends on the venue and the mix of people and the patrons and stuff, but yeah, that's the dark underbelly of it, I suppose.

[34:25] Caitie Murphy: But I mean, there were times at Vodavile, like because it's not often a space where they can afford to have someone that is purely straight and forward, a stage manager and technician. I would be getting there early in the night, doing all the play settings, then I'd be bartending, I'd be hosting, I'd seat up to 150 patrons across two different rooms. I would tech the first show in one room, take the first show in the other room, bring everyone their food, take the second show in one room, take the second show in the other room, pick up everyone's plates. Like, like and then I'd move everyone into the front room so that I could emcee the late shows. I've got one hand on the lighting controls, and in the other hand, I'm going, I'm give it up for Linda, muting my own mic and then eating the track and stuff.

It's a hard and fast lifestyle. I'm doing 13,000 steps in a night, and I kind of liked it because I could wander around in my silly pink shirt and be like, ah, like welcome. And the patrons would get to know us. We were part of their night, they knew our names, they wanted to chat with us, they wanted to buy us shots, they wanted us to party with them because we were an experience, not just a bar.

[35:48] Joshua Broadbent: Yeah.

[35:49] Caitie Murphy: Um, but at the same time, like, you can't do that every night for your body, for your sanity. It's about being really aware of where to draw lines, I think.

[36:03] Joshua Broadbent: Yeah.

[36:04] Caitie Murphy: I just want to say firstly, thank you for being honest and open within that conversation, because I think it's something that a fresh stage manager or fresh technician wanting to get into this sort of part of the world that is just like you has been experiencing drag for years, whether that's through TV or actually in person, who goes, Oh, right, that looks so much fun. But as you said, you are working in the environments like bars and clubs and things, and you do find yourself around people that are intoxicated or on drugs and all of that sort of stuff, and you need to do what you need to do to keep yourself safe. And if at any point you don't feel safe, then you shouldn't be doing it.

[36:45] Joshua Broadbent: Even if you love it, I think.

[36:52] Caitie Murphy: Yeah. And it's a hard line to draw. Like I started working there, I was twenty two and I was starry eyed, you know. You you've watched Drag Race and you thought, oh, it's so camp, it's so fun, and they really were lovely people to work with, but at the same time, like it wouldn't be right of me to come on here and romanticize it completely and rose colored glasses it because the truth is things might happen. You don't have that same infrastructure of support that you might in a traditional theater setting. You gotta find the lines of what is too much of yourself or too much of your time or too much of your work or too much of your creativity to give to people who may or may not give it back.

[37:42] Joshua Broadbent: Is this why you found yourself no longer wanting to be within these environments? Obviously that you're no longer involved in drag at all, or you're only involved within specific, you know, circumstances or productions.

[37:54] Caitie Murphy: It wasn't a formal choice. Like I didn't stand up one day and go, no more drag. For one thing, I finished Juni, which freed up more time to do like actual full-time gigs.

[38:10] Caitie Murphy: The venue that I had been working at went bust and I had been working at Vodavile casually on weekends in between other gigs that I was doing. And while I could still have fun there, I wasn't growing. And so I wanted to be getting into bigger and better and more professional work in theatre and as a stage manager. But I guess I haven't kept in touch with it. There's been some opportunities that came up and I've entertained them for a bit, but then when they've fallen away, I haven't been in a hurry to chase them back.

[38:53] Joshua Broadbent: Sure.

[38:53] Caitie Murphy: Because I do have so many friends and so many connections in this world. There are people who could turn around and be like, Katie, can you do a rock star tech shift? Our guy is sick. But yeah, absolutely. Or and I'd be willing to, you know, negotiate into different spheres, but I think I know and carry with me now a bit more about like these are my hard boundaries. And if you're not gonna be able to comply with these things, I just it it's not something I want anymore. I'm getting older and I'm getting more sure of myself and getting to understand the value of my work and my experience. So there's some boundaries there. But I mean, I have still been doing stuff since Vodavile went down. I did a show called Eclipse for Rising Festival, which was fantastic.

Oh, it was so stupid, outrageous, and fun. It was with a daylight connection and some amazing indigenous queens as part of Rising Festival at the town hall. Stupidly fun, so silly, giant catwalk in the middle of the lower town hall with this epic world-ending apocalyptic drag battle happening on it. The photo that I sent you is of me on stage rolling out a the gay man pride flag that was the size of the stage, and I just had to like we had to get on stage and and make it cover the entire stage. Like, still there's still so much room for drag in theatre. Like I said, Tropy Boys had a king production that was choreographed by Dazza. No, no Keefe. I always forget which ones, but it's Jazzer and Keith.

Even Hedwig, of course, has drag elements. Like it's always gonna be a school of thought that I is just kind of part of what I gravitate towards and part of why people gravitate towards me. I'm just not sure how much time I want to be spending working formally in nightclubs at this point.

[40:58] Joshua Broadbent: And I think that's you know, as you said, you've aged since you sort of started working within that.

[41:04] Caitie Murphy: Yes, I'm now wizened and haggard at 27.

[41:08] Joshua Broadbent: And you've grown as a person, and I think we as stage managers, as producers, as performers, we all play a really crucial part in making sure that theatre is safe for performers of all kinds. And I think you've made a really good decision within yourself to go, well, I can't do anything about that performance space. There is nothing that I can do or say that is going to change it, but I don't want to be a part of it because I don't want to be complicit within what's happening there because you know, we all know that we can't change things overnight, but for the conversations like this, the conversations that we're having are really important to help aid people's decisions in what they do.

[41:50] Caitie Murphy: Yeah, and it's hard when you really do want to make change. Like, I'm a hungry creative. I want to make things better, bigger, see more people. At Vodavile, like towards the end, I started taking over like elements of production management, trying to get more outside performers in.

[42:11] Caitie Murphy: We hosted solo shows and improv and things like that. And there were all these changes that I wanted to make. I wanted to improve this and that. Like I had a stage and I wanted to hold on to it so badly because I just wanted to do things with it. And it was such a good stage. And it just wasn't to be because it wasn't mine as much as it needed to be for me to be able to do those things. And it's frustrating for like there's performers that I know who have that hunger, who have amazing creativity, amazing brains to be able to create these big production shows. And there just aren't stages for it. There isn't money for it. Not since the Greyhound shut down, not since Vodeville shut down, UBQ is on the rise, it has a wonderful stage. But it's like it's I think there are people that want more, but it's navigating how to get there because the environments are just not always conducive to our dreams and our fantasies, I guess.

[43:19] Caitie Murphy: I once heard someone describe drag as the redheaded bastard child of the arts, and it's not which is not derogatory towards it itself, but the thing is as a queer it's it's more about how the world perceives it because as an inherently queer art form, there's always been an element of underground, an element of fringe to it, an element of they won't give us this space, we have to make it ourselves. They won't, you know, there's there's financial struggle in it, there's safety struggles in it. And so trying to really get there with like the full production shows of our dreams, it's not easy, and you also want to strike a balance between keeping like kind of the scrappiness and the rough around the edges of drag that is something we love and is something that is why I like don't even watch you can't even stomach drag race anymore because it's all so polished and they're all taking out $25,000 loans to get their outfits like no, I want to see it falling apart and I want to laugh because you forgot to wear pasty underneath it.

You know, I miss the drama of someone putting something together that's really stupid. I love seeing performers that aren't afraid to be ugly and do things that are absurdist and just throw shit at the wall and see what sticks, and yeah, it's not something I'm gonna solve over the course of this conversation.

[44:54] Caitie Murphy: Yeah, of course. It's all kind of yeah, it's got pitfalls and it's got try-outs, it's a big big mix bag. And I think you've got some really creative ideas within what you've sort of discussed, and you dabbled a little bit in co-producing. Would you explore that more? Would you explore that producing world to give those artists that opportunity and finding that safe space for them? Or are you sort of more focused on your stage management for the moment?

[45:25] Caitie Murphy: Look, the reason that I stage manage rather than production managers, that I like to be close to the action. I don't want to be out of the room at my computer booking things and finding people. I want to be in the room watching the show be created, watching it develop. I want to be in the hands-on part of it. That's just me and what I like and how I enjoy it. And so when I was co-producing with ISIS, because it was a solo show and because it was just us, it was just us. So the producing actually was the hands-on part of it. And I stage managed that show as well. God, name a thing I didn't do for that show. Aside from performing it and writing it. But like everything else we shared. And so that was still hands-on. And I enjoyed it because she was a close friend of mine. And so when it comes to producing, I'm open to doing it again because I believe in these people, because I want to put them on stages and I want to see them up there and go, yes, I did that.

[46:45] Caitie Murphy: But I have to be really, really selective. Again, with the safety, I have to go into these things with walls up to make sure that, like I said, I'm not going to be exploited or taken advantage of. I have to, I again, I'm a bit older and I understand now how to protect myself a little bit better. If I'm going into something like that, I want it to be hands-on in that way, working really closely with the performers that I love. And I want it to be safe for me. I want to understand that the mutual respect is there and it's going to stay there because I wrote it into the freaking contract, didn't I? So that at the end of it all, you know, at least I got mine. But yeah, it's something that I'm open to and there's people that wanna do it. It's just that it's that how to get started difficulty, you know.

[47:45] Caitie Murphy: I had a friend recently after working after doing the Hedwig tour, I came back and she said, why my queen? She said, what's the effect of like I'm so sad that you're not working with us anymore 'cause I really hoped that you could be here and be part of this. But I'm so glad the reason you're not working here is because the world finally realized you're too good for us. And I was like, that's a flattering sentiment. But it's not about it's not about being of a level of goodness or badness. It's just about having to shape my career in a way that is still going to sustain me monetarily as well as just in a way that I can be safe and I can still be learning and growing.

[48:40] Caitie Murphy: Cause towards the end of my time at Vodavile as much fun as I was having, there was nothing else to learn. The lighting board was hanging on by a thread. The computer was freezing at every moment. I was doing the same thing I've been doing for years. And I it not to say that I wasn't enjoying it, but I wasn't getting better in any way. I think I've walked a really big circle around the original question and you asked. Not sure where I've landed.

[49:08] Joshua Broadbent: No, I think I think you have. I think you're open to exploring the sort of producing world, but right now where you are is you just love being hands-on, right? You just want to be right there in the action.

[49:28] Caitie Murphy: Yeah, and I can be both. You can be both. You know, there's producing that is that hands-on, but yeah, I'm open to producing, but it has to be the right thing.

[49:39] Joshua Broadbent: And I think like you said earlier, working on Hedwig, you've got a chance to really work with some fantastic artists, both as performers and musicians and explore all of that.

[49:50] Caitie Murphy: Oh, absolute killers. And I think there's a lot more of that you want to explore first before you sort of dive to that other side.

[49:57] Caitie Murphy: Yeah, there's stuff I wanna see.

[50:00] Joshua Broadbent: Katie, thank you so much for being so open and honest during our conversation today and sharing a lot of those experiences.

[50:07] Caitie Murphy: My pleasure.

[50:08] Joshua Broadbent: I know that listeners will value your perspective and take a lot from it, especially around sort of looking after themselves. I know we didn't really go down any sort of mental health route, but I think honest conversations that you were having about the things that you've experienced, people will take away what they need to take away from that. And I really appreciate you being so honest and open.

[50:27] Caitie Murphy: Yeah, and they can't sue me for it, because it's true.

[50:32] Joshua Broadbent: Defense of truth. Now, to tell our listener what's coming up next for you. Do you have any shows or projects that you're excited about?

[50:38] Caitie Murphy: Yes, I have one more show for the end of 2025. It's called Where is Joy? And it is an original one woman show written by my dear friend and colleague Emma Louise Percy. She's an absolute juggernaut of a performer art, Hurricane Emma. Like, she's she's insane. She's been writing this over 20 years, um, and on the absolute war path to get funding for it, and it's going off at 45 downstairs. It is about the life of Joy Hester, um, who was the only female artist in the exclusive party circle in the 1940s in Melbourne, and so that will be up at 45 downstairs from October 31st, running for two weeks.

[51:22] Caitie Murphy: And after that, I'm taking bookings for 2026. I like to come home to roost at the end of the year at Monash Performing Art Centres. I'm a technician there, and at this time of year there's a whole bunch of dance concerts, which is really fun because I have pink hair and silly earrings, and so there's all these children in tutus, and I say, nice dresses, do you think they'd fit me? And they go, no. And that's a great way to make money right on in the lead up to Christmas. Um yeah, I'm taking bookings for 2026, and I'm really excited to see what happens next.

[51:55] Joshua Broadbent: Well, perfect. If we're gonna anyone listening that wants to connect with you and potentially offer you some bookings for 2026. Where can they find and connect with you?

[52:05] Caitie Murphy: You can find me and catch up with what I'm up to on my website. It's caitiemurphysm.com.au, K D C A I T I E. You can email me with that same handle, caitiemurphysm@gmail.com, or I'm on Instagram at @caitiemurph.

[52:20] Joshua Broadbent: Perfect. I'll pop all those down in the show notes to make it nice and easy for them to find. Now, one final question. Looking back at all those experiences that you've had, is there any sort of lesson or mantra that you carry across you with every show you do?

[52:35] Caitie Murphy: I do have a fair amount of catchphrases. I think everything takes longer than you think it's going to. Everything. Always build your schedules as if it's gonna take way longer than you think it will. That way, if it doesn't take that long, it's a bonus surprise.

[52:52] Joshua Broadbent: You are absolutely correct in that build your schedules to be longer than they are, because you may end up, you know, tightening some things up, but then you've got a little bit more time for a creative team or whatever to play around with and explore a little bit more.

[53:05] Caitie Murphy: Stitch in time wherever you can and make sure you have everything but the kitchen sink in your kit. That's the only thing that keeps me alive is knowing that on those 15-hour days, I get fresh socks, brush my teeth, new shirt, new deodorant in between the break. Like that's what's gonna bring me that's the only thing that's gonna bring me back to life. That and knowing that my bag has panadol, it has ibuprofen, I've got band-aids, I've got pads, I've got everything you need.

[53:38] Joshua Broadbent: You are set and ready to go.

[53:40] Caitie Murphy: The best stage management kit out there. Oh my gosh. I've got this manic in hand. I just never know when I'm gonna need it. Okay? I've got two smoke machines. You just never know when you're gonna need it.

[53:52] Joshua Broadbent: No, no. And I bet a lot of glitter hiding in places glitter shouldn't be hiding it.

[53:57] Caitie Murphy: Oh my goodness. I got a new car a couple years ago, and my previous car was in my mum's name. And so instead of selling it, I gave that car back to my mum. Because I was like, it's technically yours. You can decide to use it or to sell it. And I said, Well, because I've been using it, I'll get it professionally cleaned for you. And she said, Oh, don't be silly. I can clean the glitter and sequins out of it myself. And I was like, I love that she knew. I love that she knew because, like, not to be a lesbian stereotype, but yes, I have a Subaru. And I have to have like a hatchback where the seats can fall down. Because I never know when I'm gonna end up with like boxes of wigs and set pieces, boxes of props, drag queens with big hair and suitcases. You gotta have it.

[54:46] Caitie Murphy: You are always prepared.

[54:49] Joshua Broadbent: Always. I had a performer, I gave her a lift the other day, and she got in my car and she picked up my shoes and she said, Oh, those are the stage manager's shoes, and put them on the back seat. And again, I love that she knew. Because they were they had four feet of padding underneath them and they were held together with markup tape.

[55:09] Caitie Murphy: You gotta have it ready. Gotta have it ready.

[55:12] Joshua Broadbent: Katie, thank you so much for jumping on today. Really appreciate it.

[55:15] Caitie Murphy: Thank you for having me.

[55:17] Joshua Broadbent: A huge thanks to Katie for joining me in sharing such a raw and honest look at stage managing in unique spaces. From drag venues to late night cabaret, it's a reminder that every show comes with its own kind of magic and challenges. Now, before we wrap up, if you or someone you know in the arts needs a hand, reach out to Support Act. They provide free and confidential support for people working in the Australian music and performing arts industry. All the links are in the show notes. Now, next time on Whispers in the Wings, I am joined by Dale Norris, a production manager and show caller with a passion for sustainability, fireworks, and crew welfare. We talk about everything from balancing study and work to the art of planning large scale events and how mental health awareness and learning on the job are shaping the future of our industry. Until then, get out and see some live theatre because there's nothing quite like it.