rachael maza

Palm Island, Mer Island, and Australia are the cornerstones of Rachael's work as an actor and a director (R).

In the desert town of Papunya in 1981, four blackfellas and a whitefella bonded over rock 'n' roll and became the history-making Warumpi Band. The Warumpis were the first rock band to sing in Aboriginal languages. Now, Big Name, No Blankets from Ilbijerri Theatre Company will tell their story on stage at the Sydney Festival.

Also, the American dramatic soprano Lise Lindstrom shares the works that have most inspired her journey as an artist on Top Shelf and we mark 100 years of radio in Australia and reflect on RN's role in creating great radio drama and developing some of Australia's best-known theatrical talent.

We pay tribute to Boon Wurrung, Dja Dja Wurrung, Woiwurrung and Yorta Yorta actor, writer and activist and elder Jack Charles who has died at the age of 79.

Also, Stephen Karam's Tony Award-winning play The Humans is now a film, directed by the playwright himself, and we unpack Charles III's first speech as king, a tribute to his late mother Queen Elizabeth II, which ended with a quote from William Shakespeare's Hamlet.

Sydney Theatre Company artistic director Kip Williams' production of The Picture of Dorian Gray starred Eryn-Jean Norvill in all 26 roles and incorporated video screens to spectacular effect. Now, Williams has brought another classic to the stage: Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

Also, Elena Kats-Chernin's opera Iphis gets a timely revival by Lyric Opera in Melbourne and we chart the rise of the First Nations theatre company Ilbijerri as they continue their 30th birthday celebrations.

Straight out of drama school, Paula Arundell became a mainstay for directors like John Bell, Jim Sharman and Benedict Andrews. Now she treads the boards as one of the most famous characters in literature: Hermione Granger in Harry Potter. She joins Kate Champion.

Also, director Rachael Maza and the cast of Ilbijerri Theatre Company's production of Heart Is a Wasteland perform a song in the studio for us ahead of their national tour and we discover a new creative partner for choreographers: artificial intelligence.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander performers and creatives are finding mainstream audiences as never before. To mark NAIDOC Week, we revisit conversations with three prominent Indigenous artists: Rachael Maza, artistic director of Ilbijerri Theatre Company, and Stephen Page, artistic director of Bangarra Dance Theatre, with his hugely talented son, Hunter Page-Lochard.

Stephen Page, artistic director of Bangarra Dance Theatre, and his talented son (and new dad), performer Hunter Page-Lochard join us for a candid conversation about passing a love of the arts down the generations.

Also, Larissa Behrendt, Rhoda Roberts, Benjamin Law and Scott Rankin discuss moments reconciliation took centre stage, and we learn about the impact of Indigenous Australian plays in Japan.

Romantic comedy Black Ties, directed by Rachael Maza and Tainui Tukiwaho, brings together Australia's Ilbijerri and New Zealand's Te Rēhia, our theatre critics highlight the best shows of the decade and their top picks for 2020, the Flying Fruit Fly Circus turns 40, we farewell British theatre director, actor and writer Jonathan Miller, and Kim Carpenter shares his Top Shelf.