the GREENROOM with Nik n Mik

Mik Allen Concepts

The Green Room with Nikki & Mik AllenA safe backstage for people who make things. Recorded on Kaurna Country on the Adelaide Plains, The Green Room is where married duo Nikki Allen and Dr Michael (Mik) Allen clock off from the show and talk about what a creative life is actually like. Between them, they’ve racked up around 80 years in the arts – acting, directing, teaching, dramaturgy, festivals, research, community work, youth arts, and a frankly ridiculous number of side-hustles and near-burnouts. They’ve tried to leave the industry more than once. It keeps dragging them back. This isn’t a promo feed or a highlight reel. It’s the green room:the staff room of theatre, where performers and makers swap stories, vent, compare scars, talk craft, politics, survival, and the quiet moments where the real lessons sink in. Expect: honest, unpolished conversationsADHD rambling and PhD-level overthinkingstories from tin sheds to multi-million dollar festivalsand the odd coughing fit or existential crisis left in the editIf you’re an artist, teacher, creative, cultural worker, or just a human who loves what art does to people, pull up a chair. This is your backstage.

  1. 2d ago

    GR_Ep 13 Belonging

    Send us Fan Mail This week we riff on access, privilege, and belonging in theatre, contrasting their politically charged mentors (apartheid-era rebel theatre and protest-hardened acting teachers) with today’s glossy, well-resourced private school productions and their ready-made industry networks.  We argue that whether you’re a kid in a prestige venue or a tiny regional school, making theatre still builds teamwork, grit, and community—but we draw a hard line between art-making and self-therapy, calling out the industry’s brutal mental-health load and the pressure to keep “feeding the machine” through social capital.  We also debate how disadvantage raises the entry-bar, how privilege can also stunt potential, and how elite circles often become the future investors of creative work. Bottom line: you’ve got agency, but always inside real constraints—and the education system’s “equity” story doesn’t match reality. Support the show A Mik Allen Concepts production www.mikallenconcepts.com

  2. Jul 19

    GR_Ep12_Feasting on Performance in Melbourne

    Send us Fan Mail Melbourne Theatre Double: Speakeasy Vaudeville + Eddie Izzard’s Hamlet Mik and Nik head to Melbourne for a theatre double: a gritty, intimate vaudeville night at Speakeasy Theatre Melbourne and Eddie Izzard’s one-person Hamlet. They rave about Speakeasy’s cabaret vibe, fast-switching acts, and a killer emcee, with highlights ranging from juggling-in-a-too-low-ceiling chaos to burlesque comedy, a squirmy glass stunt, and a crowd-up karaoke finish—plus ideas on how tighter audience play could level it up. Then it’s all praise for Izzard’s stripped-back Hamlet: empty stage, smart lighting, subtle character shifts, clear storytelling, and emotionally punchy moments (especially Ophelia). The trip sparks big thoughts about getting back into theatre and why Melbourne’s year-round arts energy feels so different to Adelaide’s.  Speakeasy links:  https://speakeasytheatre.com.au and https://www.instagram.com/speakeasy_theatre/. 00:00 Episode Intro 01:14 Melbourne Show Plans 02:51 Speakeasy Vaudeville Setup 04:24 What Vaudeville Means 07:36 MC Sets The Tone 10:31 Audience Split And Seating 12:38 Act One Highlights 19:46 Interval And Act Two 22:21 Finale And Crowd Moments 26:25 How To Improve The Format 29:02 Speakeasy Show Vibe 30:15 Adelaide Versus Melbourne 30:49 Vaudeville Highlights Lowlights 33:57 Eddie Izzard Hamlet Setup 37:24 Minimalist Stage Magic 38:59 Understated Character Work 41:34 Standout Moments Ophelia 44:38 Humor And Adaptations 47:00 Mastery And Audience Control 52:28 Theatre Itch Returns 58:29 Melbourne Creative Energy 01:02:14 Final Thoughts And Farewell Support the show A Mik Allen Concepts production www.mikallenconcepts.com

  3. Jun 13

    GR_Ep 11_Connection & Resistance: Intimate Theatre Amid AI

    Send us Fan Mail Nik and Mik reflect on how a cash-strapped project pushed them into “parlor theatre”: tiny, intimate shows (often in private homes) historically tied to taboo, political, and community communication. They unpack what changes when the audience is acknowledged in the room—heightened vulnerability, blurred lines between “play” and “real,” the need for consent frameworks (color-coded wristbands), clear boundaries, and aftercare/debrief so people aren’t left raw. They argue this kind of bespoke, underground performance functions like a theatrical zine: handmade, niche, authenticity-driven, and harder for AI to replicate or even track—offering a possible pathway for theatre as AI disrupts acting through replication and follower-driven casting. They also note it demands craft, responsibility, and a different business model built for small networks rather than volume. Support the show A Mik Allen Concepts production www.mikallenconcepts.com

  4. Jun 6

    GR_Ep10_a retrospective... of sorts

    Send us Fan Mail For their 10th episode, Mik and Nick skip the heavy theory and do a quirky retrospective of standout performing-arts memories: Mik’s terrifying year-7 Peter Pan audition that became his first taste of ensemble belonging; youth dance-theatre double bills (Peter Pan/Grease) and the hazards of skimpy costuming, including a mid-show costume tear. They trade college stories of accidental near-nudity (Chicago’s “forgot the boxers” dress rehearsal), then reflect on how dance normalizes exposure and why “uniform” costumes should be adjusted for different bodies. The tone turns briefly profound with 9/11—Mik performing Oedipus that day and Nick holding space for shocked students—before returning to touring highlights: a remote community gifting a seafood feast, a bullying-in-schools show prompting real apologies and disclosures, surreal nights on the Moon Plain near Coober Pedy, water-bomb diplomacy in Roxby, an Indigenous community visit in Kansas City, and a country-pub moment where a tough local pulled out spoons and joined the fun. Support the show A Mik Allen Concepts production www.mikallenconcepts.com

  5. May 11

    GR Ep 9_ An Actor Prepares but is an actor prepared

    Send us Fan Mail Mik and Nik (a long-married theatre couple with decades in the industry and in teaching) unpack a big question: actors learn how to prepare—so are they prepared for the mental, physical, and emotional toll of the work? They reflect on training methods that deliberately alter consciousness and mine personal memory (often triggering trauma) while insisting “this isn’t therapy,” and note the frequent lack of real support or reintegration skills, especially for young or neurodiverse performers. They discuss roles that can haunt actors, the feast-or-famine career rhythm, and the new pressure of building an online identity and “social capital” that can distract from craft. They highlight Australia’s Support Act helpline and urge artists to talk, set boundaries, keep asking why they’re doing it, prioritize fun, and remember the industry isn’t your identity—and you always have choices. https://supportact.org.au/ tel: 1300 731 303 Support Act is the music industry’s charity, delivering crisis relief services to musicians, managers, crew and music workers across all genres who are unable to work due to ill health, injury, a mental health problem or some other crisis.  Help is available to all people working in the broader creative industries in Australia via the Support Act Wellbeing Helpline. Support the show A Mik Allen Concepts production www.mikallenconcepts.com

  6. Apr 25

    To work or to work?

    Send us Fan Mail What happens when a lifelong creative and anthropologist walks into an office job? Nikki interviews Mik on the shift from theatre/film life into local government community development through a library service — and the weirdness of being seen as an “exotic” species in office culture. They talk stability, post-COVID recalibration, AI-era creative whiplash, boundaries, and how to keep space for making work without sacrificing mental health. Less hustle mythology, more systems reality. Support the show A Mik Allen Concepts production www.mikallenconcepts.com

  7. Mar 19

    GREEN ROOM_Ep 7 Nurturing Talent in Theatre Education

    Send us Fan Mail In episode seven of The Green Room, Mik and Nik chat about how they fell into teaching and what they’ve learned across 30+ years in performing arts. They contrast different teaching models (institutions, holiday workshops, agency-style courses, private kids’ schools) with their own performance-first approach: every class needs a clear objective and a real outcome, because the “teaching moment” is the performance itself. They unpack a practical “mud map” of how groups gel over a 10-week term, how to ride cohort ebbs and flows, and how to manage behaviour without shame by using “the work” as the neutral boundary. They argue for flexible tools, authentic communication, letting students build their own toolbox, harnessing neurodiversity creatively, and ending with a debrief week after the show—plus, if you’re not having fun, don’t do it. Support the show A Mik Allen Concepts production www.mikallenconcepts.com

  8. Feb 22

    Training; at the Centre for the Performing Arts (Adelaide)

    Send us Fan Mail Mik and Nik reminisce about their training home: Adelaide’s old Centre for the Performing Arts (CPA) on Grote Street, a boutique TAFE acting school set inside a converted teacher’s college with its own theatre. They outline its history while noting how little of this is documented online. They describe CPA as a rough-and-ready, constantly producing “factory” shared with dance, costume/design, and tech students, where everyone learned practical skills and did public performances year-round. The acting department’s spine was David Kendall’s Laban/Yat Malmgren-based movement psychology, supported by Jen Havelberg’s movement training, and Linklater voice work—designed to create employable, hard-working actors. Alongside the Hogwarts-like chaos (car-park experiments, endless rehearsals, blunt progress panels, staff-and-student pub culture), Nik contrasts the grim, tightly controlled dance program with the more alive acting culture, and recounts switching courses after being told she was meant to be an actor. They shout out key staff like Peter Dunn, Paul Pearce and Chris Iley, mention notable grads (including Nathan O’Keefe, Renato Mussino, Kate Cheel), and end by joking that the CPA barely even had a “green room.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drama_Centre_London https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yat_Malmgren Acting the metaphor: the Laban–Malmgren system of movement psychology and character analysis Support the show A Mik Allen Concepts production www.mikallenconcepts.com

    Training; at the Centre for the Performing Arts (Adelaide)
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About

The Green Room with Nikki & Mik AllenA safe backstage for people who make things. Recorded on Kaurna Country on the Adelaide Plains, The Green Room is where married duo Nikki Allen and Dr Michael (Mik) Allen clock off from the show and talk about what a creative life is actually like. Between them, they’ve racked up around 80 years in the arts – acting, directing, teaching, dramaturgy, festivals, research, community work, youth arts, and a frankly ridiculous number of side-hustles and near-burnouts. They’ve tried to leave the industry more than once. It keeps dragging them back. This isn’t a promo feed or a highlight reel. It’s the green room:the staff room of theatre, where performers and makers swap stories, vent, compare scars, talk craft, politics, survival, and the quiet moments where the real lessons sink in. Expect: honest, unpolished conversationsADHD rambling and PhD-level overthinkingstories from tin sheds to multi-million dollar festivalsand the odd coughing fit or existential crisis left in the editIf you’re an artist, teacher, creative, cultural worker, or just a human who loves what art does to people, pull up a chair. This is your backstage.

Information

  • Creator
    Mik Allen Concepts
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    13
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 the GREENROOM with Nik n Mik
  • Show Website
    the GREENROOM with Nik n Mik