Sideshow Podcast Series

Sideshow Podcast Series

Tune in to a different kind of creativity and transform your understanding of art, culture and disability

The Sideshow Podcast Series (previously Activated Arts podcasts) is produced by 2RPH Radio. Explore the unconventional talent and distinctive work of professional arts practitioners with disability.

Join presenters Anthea Williams and Hanna Cormack (pictured above) and outstanding artists and arts workers from right across the creative spectrum for entertaining, enlightening and provocative discussions about art, culture and disability. Each program looks at a specific topic, bringing in guests to unpack that topic in creative and surprising ways, while discussing their work and arts practices. The program also includes a round-up of relevant news and events.

The Sideshow Podcast Series is available on the 2RPH website as well as major platforms including Spotify, iHeart, Amazon and most podcast apps.

Episode 24 – Amy Claire Mills

Released December 2023

This month Anthea Chats brilliant artists Amy Claire Mills about the joys of unsolicited advice and quilting. Amy is a talented artist and is also the Arts Development Manager at Accessible Arts.

Amy’s upcoming exhibitions include:
This Will Only Hurt for a Second Outer Space Gallery Brisbane
Art Gallery of NSW – Art After Dark – yet to be announced but keep an eye on their events page for January 2024.

Please click on the play button on the bar below to listen to the podcast, or click here or the Episode 24 Transcript.

What’s On Details

Episode 23 – Kiruna Stamell

Released late October 2023

Kiruna Stamell is an Australian actor and dancer. Sydney born she’s trained in both the UK and Australia and has appeared in films like ‘Moulin Rouge’, on TV in shows like ‘Serpent Queen’ and on stage.  She’s even been on ‘Play School’.  Currently she’s playing Kirsty Millar on British Soap, ‘Doctors’.

This month Kiruna and Anthea discuss actor training and development, Kiruna’s international career and advice she has for emerging actors.

Please click on the play button on the bar below to listen to the podcast, or click here or the Episode 23 Transcript.


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Episode 22 – Liz Martin

Released early October 2023

Liz Martin is a powerhouse in Disability Arts. This month the musician and CEO of Accessible Arts talks with Anthea about all things music, inclusion and how to use crip ideals to make great art.

Please click on the play button on the bar below to listen to the podcast, or click here or the Episode 22 Transcript.


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Episode 21 – Sydney Fringe Festival

Released 25 August 2023

This month Anthea talks all things access with Jo Simpson the access coordinator at the Sydney Fringe Festival.

Please click on the play button on the bar below to listen to the podcast, or click here or the Episode 21 Transcript.


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Episode 20 – Michelle Ryan and Restless Dance Theatre

Released 28 July 2023

This month Anthea talks with Michelle Ryan about disability on stage, being a dancer and acquiring disability mid-career and her work as the Artistic Director of Restless Dance Theatre, ahead of Restless’ tour to Sydney and Hobart.

Please click on the play button on the bar below to listen to the podcast, or click here for the Episode 20 Transcript.

 

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Episode 19 – Is Anybody Out There?

Released 29 June 2023

This month Anthea talks with Ella Glendining about her remarkable documentary ‘Is Anybody Out There?’ which was part of this year’s Sydney Film Festival. Born with a disability so rare that no reliable statistics about it exist, Ella Glendining goes on a global search for answers and others who share her experience.

Please click on the play button on the bar below to listen to the podcast, or click here for the Episode 19 Transcript.

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Episode 18 – Jasper Peach

Released early June 2023

This month Anthea talks with Trans, Non-Binary and Crip writer Jasper Peach about their writing and new book, “You’ll be a Wonderful Parent“.

Please click on the play button on the bar below to listen to the podcast, or click here for the Episode 18 Transcript.

 

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Episode 17 – A Season of Care

Released May 2023

This month Anthea talks with Artistic Director Jessica Olivieri about A Season of Care at UTP. A Season of Care is series of events, residencies and talks with care, in all its forms, at the centre. Care as conceptual rationale and as collective provocation.

The texts recommended by Jessica include Care Work and A Manifesto for Radical Care or How to be a Human in the Arts.

Please click on the play button on the bar below to listen to the podcast, or click here for the Episode 17 Transcript.

 

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Episode 16 – New Balance

Released April 2023

This month Anthea talks Writer and Performance Maker Christopher Bryant about his upcoming work New Balance as well as his playwrighting and the changes in his work after acquiring disability. New Balance will be on at the Old Fitz theatre in Woolloomooloo in Sydney from April 19 – 23.

Christopher Bryant is a Griffin Award nominated playwright (Home Invasion, 2015), performer, and NIDA graduate (Master of Fine Arts (Writing for Performance), 2014). He has worked with a range of companies including fortyfivedownstairs, Malthouse Theatre, the State Library of Victoria, Wheeler Centre, ATYP, La Mama, and the Emerging Writers Festival.  He has taught with tertiary institutions around the country, and completed his Ph.D. (2020) in theatre and inclusion at Monash University, under the supervision of Jane Montgomery Griffiths.

Please click on the play button on the bar below to listen to the podcast, or click here for the Episode 16 Transcript.

 

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Episode 15 – Dan Daw

Released March 2023

Trigger warning: this episode we use strong sexual language and discuss kink

This month Anthea talks dancer Dan Daw about his remarkable piece, The Dan Daw Show, his production company The Dan Daw Collective, consent, development and joy.

Please click on the play button on the bar below to listen to the podcast, or click here for the Episode 15 Transcript.

 

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Episode 14 – Latecomers

Released February 2023

This month Anthea talks Emma Myers and Nina Oyama, creators of the new SBS series Latecomers.

Please click on the play button on the bar below to listen to the podcast, or click here for the Episode 14 Transcript.

 

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Episode 13 – Art and Technology

Released January 2023

This month Anthea talks with Yokohama based Researcher Giulia Barbareschi and Sydney based Interdisciplinary Artist Eugenie Lee all about adaptive technology and art making. Giulia Barbareschi is a researcher with a passion for disability, technology, innovation and global development based at the Keio School of Media Design in Yokohama. Eugenie Lee is a Sydney-based, Korean-Australian interdisciplinary artist with a conceptual focus on the lived experiences with persistent pain.

In the What’s On, Hanna outlines what’s accessible at the Sydney Festival and we listen to a tiny bit of Eliza Hull’s back catalogue.

Please click on the play button on the bar below to listen to the podcast, or click here for the Episode 13 Transcript.

 

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Episode 12 – Radical Hospitality and Mixed Blood Theatre

Released August 2021

This month Anthea chats to Actor and Director Regan Linton and research and marketing expert Robert Ley about Radical Hospitality and Mixed Blood. Mixed Blood Theater is a theatre company in Minneapolis USA which Anthea visited in 2018. The theatre proudly stage they are: DEDICATED TO REMOVING ANY AND EVERY BARRIER WE FIND. She was astounded by the company.

Please click on the play button on the bar below to listen to the podcast, or click here for the Episode 12 Transcript.

 

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Episode 11- Bus Stop Films

Released July 2021

This month Anthea chats with Bus Stop Films CEO Tracey Corbin Machett and Actress / Filmmaker Audrey O’Connor. Bus Stop Films have made over 50 films in their 12 years, but they’re also on a mission to make the whole industry more inclusive.

Please click on the play button on the bar below to listen to the podcast, or click here for the Episode 11 Transcript.

 

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Episode 10 – Screenability

Released June 2021

This month Anthea talks with filmmakers Emily Dash and Shawn Spina about one of her favourite initiatives, Screenability. Each year Screen NSW supports three filmmakers with disability to make a short which is shown at the Sydney Film Festival. The results have been spectacular.

Please click on the play button on the bar below to listen to the podcast, or click here for the Episode 10 Transcript.

 

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Episode 9 – The Consultants

Released May 2021

Consultancy can sometimes be a contentious issue in the arts and disability space, especially in relation to issues such as lived experience and authenticity. So this month our show host Anthea Williams talks with Tom Middleditch, a Co-Director of arts and neurodiversity company A_tistic and Matthew Field, CEO of The Attitude Foundation which works to improve representation of people with disability in the media.

Please click on the play button on the bar below to listen to the podcast, or click here for the Episode 9 Transcript.

 

Episode 8 – The Invisible

Released April 2021

In conjunction with The Sydney Writers’ Festival, this month Anthea will be talking with writers Kylie Maslen and Jacinta Parsons. Both Kylie and Jacinta have written remarkable debut novels about their Chronic Illness and living with an invisible disability. These books are insightful, wise and achingly honest and in the show Kylie and Jacinta talk about not only why they had to write them but also what they hope will change in the medical industry and media.

Please click on the play button on the bar below to listen to the podcast, or click here for the Episode 8 Transcript.

 

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Episode 7 – Comedy and Disability

Released March 2021

This month Anthea  talks to comedians Alistair Baldwin and Madeleine Stewart about comedy, disability, growing up disabled and hippotherapy. They discuss the specific experience of being disabled from birth and if that increases you chances of becoming a comic or just makes you less likely to be seen as a sex object. Also, what they would like to see change in the entertainment industry.

Please click on the play button on the bar below to listen to the podcast, or click here for the Episode 7 Transcript.

 

Episode 6 – Back to Back

Released February 2021

Over the past 30 years Back to Back has been one of Australia’s most successful and awarded theatre companies. They have travelled across the globe at Festivals in the USA, Europe, Asia and beyond.  And all from their home base in Geelong Victoria. The Company says that they question assumptions about what is possible in theatre but the assumptions we hold about ourselves and others. This month Activated Arts talk with ensemble members Simon Laherty and Ingrid Voorendt.

This month in the What’s On we meet a new member of the Activated Arts team Hanna Cormick who regular listeners will remember from episode 4, Value Shift. We discuss all things access including Gutted by Restless Dance Theatre, the lack of digital access at the Adelaide Festival and a newer form of audio description available via 3ply.net.

Please click on the play button on the bar below to listen to the podcast, or click here for the Episode 6 Transcript.

 

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Episode 5 – Casting, Representation and Sia’s Film Music

Released January 2021

When the trailer for Sia’s film Music staring Maddie Ziegler playing a character on the Autism Spectrum the Disability Community was generally horrified. Sia bit back asking people to see the film before they judged it. So that’s just what we did. This week I speak with Sophie Smyth and Bridie McKim, two brilliant actresses who identify as living with disability, Sophie with Autism. We discuss the film, casting and the broader ramifications of representation.

Please click on the play button on the bar below to listen to the podcast, or click here for the Episode 5 Transcript.

 

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Episode 4 – Value Shift

Released January 2021

Anthea talks with artist Hanna Cormick. In 2015, Hanna Cormick was living in Paris and working as a physical performer with a background in dance, circus and interdisciplinary arts. Now Hanna is a wheelchair user and due to a number of acute allergic reactions she spends much of her time at home and must when a full-face mask when in public. But her arts practice has deepened and the values behind her work have radically shifted. This month we spend a full episode talking to this remarkable artist.

Please click on the play button on the bar below to listen to the podcast, or click here for the Episode 4 Transcript.

 

What’s On

Episode 3 – Embracing Disability

Released December 2020

Anthea talks with Asphyxia, (visual artist, circus performer, musician and writer of the remarkable novel Future Girl) and Sarah-Vyne Vassallo (choreographer, director and Artistic Director of Integrated Performance Company Murmuration). They discuss how their work and practice changed when they embraced Auslan or living with disability. In the what’s on Anthea and Liz discuss brilliant films that cast people with disability currently.

Please click on the play button on the bar below to listen to the podcast, or click here for the Episode 3 Transcript.

 

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Episode 2 – Writing the Self

Released November 2020

Anthea talks with writers Fiona Wright and Anna Jacobson about their work and how their writing has helped them and those around them understand complex disability. Fiona Wright is a poet and essayist and Anna Jacobson is a polymath – a writer, visual and video artist.

Please click on the play button on the bar below to listen to the podcast, or click here for the Episode 2 Transcript.

 

What’s On Details

  • Deluge is an online collaboration between artists from Australia, Hong Kong and the UK
  • Ingress is Jeremy Hawkes solo exhibition at the Lismore Regional Gallery, Nov 28 2020 – Jan 10 2021

Episode 1 – Pandemic

Released October 2020

Anthea talks with Anna Barnes and Esther Hannaford, Lead-Writer and Actor from ABC series Retrograde, and Allison Reynolds, Paul Calcott and Jeffery Wood Visual Artists working on the radically accessible 2020 Exhibition about creating arts and entertainment in reaction to the pandemic.

Please click on the play button on the bar below to listen to the podcast, or click here for the Episode 1 Transcript.

 

What’s On Details

 

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ENDS

Image: Black and white headshots of the podcast presenters Anthea Williams and Hanna Cormack appear on either side of a yellow and orange Sideshow logo. Underneath a tagline reads: Arts Culture Disability.

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