It's a Midsumma special episode of Talking Vision as we feature two interviews from the live outside broadcast which took place as part of Midsumma Carnival Day on 19 January at the Alexandra Gardens.
You'll hear from Sam Colley and Karan Nagrani as they interview trans disabled theatre all rounder Oliver Ayres, then later on Conrad Browne and Tess Herbert catch up with Anastasia Lee, board member at the Victorian Pride Centre.
From Vision Australia. This is talking vision. And now here's your host Sam Colley.
Hello, everyone. It's great to be here with you. And for the next half hour we talk matters of blindness and low vision. Hello and welcome to this special Midsummer Carnival edition of Talking Vision. Today we feature a couple of interviews from a range of presenters and guests on the Midsummer Carnival Outside broadcast, which took place on the 19th of January. Starting off today, we feature a conversation with myself and Cara Negroni, with the director of a show coming to Chapel Off Chapel later this month. Into early February as part of midsummer. So, without further ado, here's our conversation with Oliver. Next up we've got. Oliver is with us. Oliver is a disabled chance theatre maker, actor, writer and director living and working between Naarm and Eora. Graduating with a BFA in Theatre from the VCA in 2021. He has performed and presented work nationally and internationally. Oliver joins us now as the director and co-writer of monster, the Demon Twink of Smith Street, showing at Chapel off chapel from January 20th 9th to February the 2nd as part of Midsummer Festival 2025. Oliver, welcome.
Hello. Thank you so much for having me. It's such a pleasure to pleasure to come on down. What a beautiful day.
I'm so glad you're here, Oliver. Because, um, part of the mid midsummer community ambassador role, I was always asked, you know, I get asked, what are the events you want to go for? And I'm browsing through the program and I see this event called The Demon Twink of Smith Street. And I was like, okay, I have to go here. So first things first. How on earth do you come up with a name like that? I love it.
Oh my goodness. I think it's just natural if you know Florian at all, which hopefully you can come to the show and get an idea for who they are. It's pretty. Yeah, it's just naming exactly what is in the tin with Florian Wilde. Very much demon twink energy.
Please tell me more because my brain goes everywhere when I think of demon twink. Like, just tell us more. Tell our listeners more about it.
Oh goodness me. So the story of Florian Wilde is that it's a persona, but it's also a true story about Louis, who is Florian and how he is a transgender man. He is a drag queen. He's also a high school teacher, so he kind of encompasses the intersection between, like, these three really controversial identity points and kind of coalesces in the middle of all of that. So it's a really campy, fun, cabaret entertaining look at some actually quite serious, like intense trans issues to navigate in the world. And his role as a teacher and also as a performer.
I look, I love that personally as well because as a person with a disability, I feel like disability can be quite a heavy and dark subject for some. So trying to lighten it up as much as I can, you know, add a lot of humor. So I totally get what you're saying about having a meaningful message there, but making it fun at the same time.
It just needs to be. You have to laugh.
Yeah, you have to laugh. It's so funny because I feel like the people that get offended by disability and queer jokes are the ones that are not queer and not disabled because we love laughing, right?
We love laughing at ourselves. Yes, it's how we cope.
So how did you get you get into writing something like this?
Oh well, it was funny. I actually started off this collaboration. I work as a theatre maker and an actor director, writer. I've done so many different roles throughout my career as a performer and as a maker. But I came onto this project because Florian was looking for a trans queer pianist. Wow. So I played the piano. I'm self-taught and I'm not very good. And so it was just kind of like.
Still better than me.
I'm like, I'm okay. I can learn things, but it takes.
That's what they all say. Sam I'm sure he's amazing.
Probably a lot better than me these days. So I can totally. Um, no. I think you'd do a wonderful job.
Oh, look. Well, so I started off coming on board as a pianist, helping with the arrangement, and then I kind of just got chatting with Florian more about the script and about the story. The, you know, we wanted to tell here. And we're both transgender men. We have a lot in common. We're around the same age and things got flowing. And then in the initial season that was in, oh geez, 2023.
You make it sound like it was ten years ago. That was ten years ago.
It feels like it was ten years ago. We were talking about it at rehearsal yesterday. It's just like, oh geez, how long have we been working together? It's been about two years now. And we ended up kind of coming into a space where we reworked the scripts together to just kind of elevate things and get things into a more personal place with keeping the entertainment factor alive. So our collaboration has evolved so much. And this is the third time we're putting it on. So the first time, it was very much like, I'm coming in, I'm trying to play the piano. It's just the two of us pretty much working together. And then in the second time we took it to Adelaide Fringe last year, and that was with a reworked script that was really met. The reception was incredible. It went to places that the first one was a little bit scared to go to and we're just stepping it up again. Love that one, which is great.
Is it a kid friendly show or is it.
Absolutely not. Absolutely not. 18 plus.
I'm glad I asked. I'm not going to take my friendship with me.
Yeah.
Well. Yes. No, it's, um. It definitely is. It's a bit of a sexy show. Ah. Um. It's like, I don't know, it spans. It's very difficult to describe. And I'm still working on my elevator pitch for it.
I get it, I get what are the key? I know there's some deep messages there, and we want to do it in a nice and fun way, which is always amazing. But what are the key messages people will walk away with after watching?
I think it's just that trans people are deeply human. I think that is one of the key messages which I think cannot be overstated. Yes, I think it's something that we sometimes in the community will take for granted. It's just like, oh yeah, we're all on board with this concept. And it's, you know, the same principles can so easily be applied to disability. But it's like we want to bring this show to audiences who might not be familiar with trans identities at all. And, you know, have a fun, quirky way of talking about how, like, yeah, we are like parts of your community. Yeah, we are like, these are people who are drag queens and they're teaching in your schools and they're educating your children, and they're a safe person. Yes. For the next generation, which is a super controversial, like, hot topic. So it's very timely. Yeah, I think that we're talking about these things and it's still sexy. It's still fun. It's still cabaret.
I love that you said the message is that trans people are deeply human. Yeah, because I feel like it's the people that don't think other human beings are human. They're the monsters.
Yeah, 100%. And it's this idea of monstrosity. Exactly that we're exploring, which makes it sound very highbrow, but.
I promise it's it's it's.
It's a it's a romp. It's a very fun show.
Nothing next to me is highbrow, let me tell you. Sam may be.
Yes.
No, no, no, I'm not high brow. Trust me.
No, no.
But, um, we've talked a little bit about a range of things you've been doing over the years. You've written, you've directed, you've performed, you've done the whole shebang. So what's your greatest passion? What do you wake up and be like? Oh my God, I'm doing this today.
Oh my God, I was so scared of this question. I know right?
I asked the hard questions. That's my job.
Unfortunately, you're not shy about it. I love that about you. But it's just like, I just. I feel like my greatest strength is being able to look at a project no matter what role I have in it, and go, okay, how can we make this more true? How can we bring truth to it and vulnerability to it? And that's the same as a director, as a writer, as an actor, and as a theater maker. And I feel like because of my background, not only as in my study of theater making, but also just in my experience of being a maker, you learn to look at all of the parts of something as opposed to opposed to dividing it up into, okay, you're the producer, so you can't have an opinion and you're the actor. So you just read the lines. It's like, I love working in a very non-hierarchical kind of space where everybody can feed into the thing. Yeah, they all.
Blur and.
It's just like.
You know, people cross over. If people have an opinion, they're like, hey, blah, blah, blah. And, you know, people are receptive to that, I love that. So what sort of perspectives do you offer in your work that are perhaps unique to you? You know, things that are unmatched by other writer directors? The second hard question.
In a row.
I'm very hesitant to say that I'm unmatched in any regard. But if I.
Say it for.
You.
Okay, cool. Thank you for the for the permission, I appreciate it. I feel like in terms of, yeah, what I can bring to a process is living with a disability. I live with recurrent chronic illness. I have a hyper awareness of accessibility that I bring to all of all of the projects that I work on so that it's a part of the inception of the making. So it's like, I think so much of accessibility and live performance is something that is tacked on to the end, whereas in reality, to be truly inclusive and accessible, you have to think about these things from the outset. You have to think about the lighting for the Auslan interpreter. You have to think about how accessible it's going to be to people who are blind or low vision. And it's just kind of like, um, how can we make the sensory aspects of this so inclusive for more audiences so more people can get the benefit of? I think the best thing about this show is that it provides an opportunity to be radically seen and reflected for other trans people as well, not only to educate cis people, but for other trans people. So I think that's the thing that I kind of bring to a process.
Definitely. I mean.
Since we're in such a deep and meaningful zone and like I said, Sam is the one who's asking all the heavy questions. But I'll ask you a heavy question.
Now that's okay. Yeah, please.
What would your drag name be?
Oh, that's so heavy.
What am I going to do with that?
Okay. So I actually. Okay. All right. Okay. Um, um, it was either going to be Ariela Granola.
Ooh. Or. Tasty.
Yeah, there was Ariela granola. My friend came up with this one, so she owns it. But Shania pain.
Mhm. Is great.
But she she totally. That's a.
Wrestler. Trans wrestler. Oh my God.
Trans wrestler. Exactly. I'm bringing the Shania pain.
Oh, God.
I think, though, I'd probably be something like Boo Boo the Fool. Like, I think I'd be a very, like, Jimbo clown esque drag queen.
I love Jimbo. Yeah, I love.
Throwing the ham.
Would you get the big boobs as well?
Absolutely. Wait, am I allowed to say boobs?
Absolutely. Sure. Okay, look.
It's my radio show.
And I was like, yes. Oh, yeah. I was like, oh my.
God, am I going to get canceled?
That's fine.
But, um, we've asked this question a few times and Ariel Granola is the is the winner. Really so far? I think that's the front runner.
I may.
Be biased, but I think kiwi fruit cake is the best.
One. Oh, Kiwi fruit is cute. It's not bad. I like that. I'll go with.
Sam. The rhyming. The rhyming. I'll say Kiwi fruit was my boss's choice, so I'm sort of, you know, you.
Kind of have to.
Say.
Well, no, I'm sort of putting my. I'm throwing myself in the deep end, but, um. I'm sorry, Conrad, but Ariela wins out.
Yeah, yeah. Who's Conrad? It's kiwi fruit cake.
Oh. That's true.
Yeah. That's great. Oh. Thank you.
Yeah. So how can we all book tickets to the show and head along?
Best way to go is either through the, um, midsummer festival page. Just search monster. It'll pop up. You can also book tickets through chapel off chapel. It is running from the 29th of January until the 2nd of February. And on the 29th of January, we're having a community night for the gender diverse trans community. So come along. We've got cheap tickets for Tickets for 25 bucks. So it's, uh. Yeah, we're really hoping to start off with a bang and just have a big, lovely group of people to welcome monster into the world.
And can I just say, I was at the chapel off chapel for the Dolly Diamond roast last year. Oh, yes. And the staff were really helpful. Yes. Blind people.
Yeah.
So if you know, to our blind listeners, if you want to go, I highly recommend that the staff will take good care of you.
Yeah, absolutely. And I would say that in terms of the accessibility rating for blind audiences, it's fairly accessible. Correct. And it's like it's a cabaret. It's very, um, auditory.
Yeah.
It's like that we do some stuff on stage, but like it's very much like, yeah, it's something that you would really enjoy. I think listening to and absorbing that way. It's a lot of storytelling 100%.
Well, thank you so much for your time, Oliver. It's been an absolute pleasure. Both ways. It's just been wonderful to have a chat with you all about your writing, performing and directing journey, and all the best for Demon Twink of Smith Street and all of your upcoming productions, which I'm sure are just as good. Thank you.
I'll see you at the Demon Twink show.
Yes. Come and see my front row.
Absolutely. Come along.
Thank you so much for your time. Best of luck. It's been great to have you. Thank you.
Thanks, Oliver. Happy midsummer.
Happy midsummer.
Happy midsummer. I'm Sam Colley, and you're listening to this special midsummer carnival edition of Talking Vision. On Vision Australia Radio, associated stations of Reading Radio and the Community Radio Network. I hope you enjoyed our conversation there with Oliver Ayres. Coming up next, it's Conrad and Tess who catch up with Anastasia from the Victorian Pride Centre. So let's hear from Tess Herbert right now.
Now we have another wonderful interview and we are very happy to. Welcome to the microphone, Anastasia Lee, board member at the Victorian Pride Centre. Hello, Anastasia, and welcome.
Hello. Hello. Thank you for having me.
Ah, it's a pleasure. Now, firstly, would you mind sharing with us your preferred pronouns and vision status with us?
Um, yeah. So. Anastasia. So pronouns are she her? And, um, they do have, like, you know, ten out of ten vision.
I see. Well, that's that's fantastic.
One of our sighted friends. Yes. Joining us as well. Anastasia, it's wonderful to have you on Vision Australia Radio. I've been told to take a deep breath and allow you to share with us the various roles you have at the Victorian Pride Centre.
So I am one of the nine board of directors at the Pride Centre. My focus. Well, I co-chair the community referencing Community Engagement working group with Doctor Judy Tang. And then, um, my focus is people and culture, people development. Um, as well as, um, sort of stakeholders engagement. So yeah, so that's what I do usually and a bit of PR and communications. So yeah. So those are my background.
Keeps you busy I'm sure. Yes.
Yeah.
With that scope.
Yes. Absolutely.
A woman of many, many and varied talents. Now, for anyone who might not know what is the Victorian Pride Centre, how did it come about and how long has it now been operating?
Oh, thank you for asking that question. So it was quite a journey to get the Civic Pride Center to open. So the Vic Pride Center is Australia's first purpose built centre for, um, the LGBTQ plus community. After years and years of advocacy and hard work from the community. Because we are built by the community, for the community. The door is open from, I think, July 2021. But then a lot of work had been put into that the years prior to that. And we are located in Saint Kilda, and one of the things that not many people know about is the reason why the Price Centre is there, because the City of Port Phillip graciously gave us the title of the land, right? So it's actually now owned truly by the community, and we're not renting that space or anything. Amazing. Yeah. And so at the Price Centre, we house all kinds of services, all kinds of LGBTQ plus also from Australian queer archives to -18 to Thorne Harbour Health, Joy media, a whole lot. And, um, it's a space that we hope that we can create a safe space where community members can connect, collaborate and getting access to services.
It's such an incredible site. And as you said, it's full of all of these amazing organizations that contribute so much to Victoria's queer community. Can you just let us know some of the regular activities that are also hosted there?
So we do have many arts events. The Pride Center hosted, um, well, I mean, it's part of who we are, right? Because we are built by a very diverse community. So inclusive events have always been at the core of our operation. Now we have hosted a few like audio description and tactile tours as well. Brilliant. Again, I am saying this because we are interviewing you with Vision Australia. So we have to share this. Yes. And the thing is like, you know, we would love to have vision specific events in the future. So hopefully this can open up for future collaboration. Amazing. Because, um, we do have a collaboration with Dementia and Memory Lane Cafe, and we do gathering and social connection for those with dementia as well. So now we just have to expand our inclusive spirit to this space.
So well, we have a very good connection with a lot of the organizations in there, including Joy is one of our community radio siblings.
Shout out to Joy 94.9.
So wonderful. We would definitely be keen for one of those collaborations.
Yes. And I mean, as we know, you know, we're becoming increasingly aware of the intersectionality between people with disabilities and the queer community. So, you know, making the Victorian Pride Centre an accessible space for people who are blind or have low vision is so important, isn't it? Yes. Now, have you ever or do you plan to host events that are on this subject that speak to the low vision community?
Yes. I mean, the Pride Centre. From a governance and leadership perspective, we plan to maximise all of the features we have at the Pride Center. As I said previously, we do have some programs that, you know, audio description programs, but we would like to expand, to create, to sit with you in your community, to then design programs and events that cater specifically for those with low vision or vision impaired. Now we do in the building because again, through lengthy consultation process with different parts of the community, the private sector has tactile ground surface indicators. We have high contrast signage as well. And all your wayfinding systems. So we are looking at ways so that we can maximize these sort of features for the community.
We love hearing that, don't we, Tess? Absolutely. The more accessibility and public spaces, the better. Certainly. Anastasia, you've been a board member of the Victorian Pride Centre since April last year, so almost a year now. What's the experience been like for you? Has there been any surprises?
It's really interesting, right? Because first of all, like how often do you see a woman of trans and of colour experience and being an asylum seeker and refugee and all of the fun things, being trans to be on a board, right. It's been a pleasant experience from a teamwork kind of perspective. Like my board colleagues, we are high functioning. We have a very high functioning board. We came from a wide range of life experience, professional background, because my background is in social procurement and socio economic development, people and culture. Whereas like my other board members, we we bring all of these different perspectives. And now we're diverse in gender. We diverse in age. And it's been quite a pleasant experience working together. There are some challenges because you have such a big dynamic team, but we managed to really create a safe space for each other. The only surprises would be, I think from a governance level, it can be this landscape here, the LGBTQ plus landscape has been constantly challenged, yes, socially, politically, environmentally. And I think that's the challenging part of it, because how are we going to navigate this heritage building to make sure that we grow? And then we to make sure that all parts of Victoria is connected to us and navigating through all of these landscapes. So that's a that's the surprising part.
I could imagine. I mean, inclusion and representation is so important, and to have your voice in that conversation is obviously incredibly wonderful. And at that level, I'm on the board of the Pride Center is fantastic. So yeah, it gives us, I guess, as the queer community, a lot of faith in the fact that it's going to be something that's for everyone, which is really exciting. Yeah.
And that's our goal.
Yeah, yeah.
Now let's get on to midsummer. And how the Victorian Pride Centre will be involved this year.
So I think this year we were last night we just launched our Victorian Pride Center midsummer program. So that would mark our third consecutive collaboration together. And as an official hub for the midsummer team. Amazing. So this year we host 33 diverse events across January and February. It's a hub. We really amplify the queer voices through artistic expression and celebrate diversity through all of these exhibitions we have. We launched also events and we are also part of our midsummer program. This year we have some family gatherings. We have some tours, which is again being audio descripted again for everybody. Yeah, and some music performance, live music performances at the Price Center.
Fantastic. I know one of my co-hosts on a show I do on Joy is having a screening of her film and also doing a live music and film event for her Love Rewind film, Demetra.
Yes, of.
Course we know Demetra. She's everywhere.
Got to give.
Demetra a shout out. Um, those events are on sale right now. So, as all the great things that are on it this summer, head to midsummer to find out more. Anastasia bringing you back to your role within the Pride Center and as part of the board. How is success measured for the Pride Center in terms of has it been a good investment for the LGBTQIA+ community?
Now, yes, we have so much potential. And again, just to remind everybody, the Price Centre has just opened its doors since July 2021. Yeah. So strategically speaking, the first few strategic plans have been just about getting the door open. Yeah. So now we really like with our current strategy, we really hope to maximise everything. Right. And really bring it to make sure that, you know, it's truly built for the community. Now we measure our success through social impact, through community impacts, how many voices we have uplifted, how many people we have sort of connected to different resources, and how many sort of connections we have fostered as well. Because we are a very diverse community. We are growing, right. And so we hope that we can keep serving that purpose. So primarily speaking, we have been hosting events, but we have a few plans in place. So then really making sure our people are being looked after. Our culture shifted accordingly to the very challenging landscapes ahead.
Yeah, yeah, that's so exciting. It is such a wonderful space, and I really hope, Tess, you get to visit it and give it your stamp of approval. It's got this incredible staircase that goes right through the middle of the foyer, which is, um, even for someone like me who prefers to take a lift, I can't help but run up that staircase because it's just. It's kind of fun.
I wear heels all the time, and I. When I get there, I still want to walk that staircase.
Yes, the.
Staircase is a feature. I think it's a very queer feature as well. Very much going coming down it, I think would be a lot of fun.
Well, I look forward to that, and I sincerely hope that I can come and visit you. And that sort of brings me to my final question. Where can listeners go to learn more about the Victorian Pride Centre and your midsummer events for this year?
First of all, you can go on to precentor.org/midsummer 2025. And then you can find all of the events we have in there right now. I like to really highlight one of the key sort of shows to promote at the center is called Telling It with Pride Speakers program. It's free so the participants there can share their personal stories, showcasing the public speaking skill and also storytelling through different formats. Um, and you know, hopefully that, you know, through the price Center, we can elevate the voice. So then. Yeah.
Wonderful. We love hearing that. Anything anything that like. Yeah. Uplifts and shares our stories is it can only be a good thing.
And I think like through a partnership with Joy as well. We have a, um the big camp countdown. Countdown on on January 24th. So, um, yeah. So taking you through the top five queer anthems of all time and voted by our listeners. Amazing.
Wow.
Yes. So, please. Yeah.
Look at something we can get behind.
Oh, God. Yeah.
I vote go west by Pet Shop Boys.
That's my favorite. Nice. Aw.
Everything possible. Sung by Judy small. That's pretty good, too. Uh, now, we've been speaking with, uh, Anastasia Lee, board member at Victorian Pride Centre. Uh, Anastasia, we just can't thank you enough. Thank you for joining us. It's been a fabulous chat.
Thank you for having me. Thank you everybody.
That was Conrad Brown and Tess Herbert there with Anastasia Lee from the Victorian Pride Centre. And that's all the time we have for this week's special edition of Talking Vision, covering a couple of interviews from the Midsummer Carnival Outside broadcast, which took place on the 19th of January at the Alexandra Gardens in Melbourne. Talking vision is a Vision Australia radio production. Thank you to everybody responsible for putting both talking vision and the Midsummer Carnival broadcast together. If you'd love to get in touch with Talking Vision, you can absolutely do that on Talking Vision at Vision Australia. That's talking vision all. One word at Vision australia.org. But until next week it's Sam Corley saying bye for now.
You can contact Vision Australia by phoning us anytime during business hours on one 384 746. That's one 384 7486 or by visiting Vision Australia. That's Vision Australia. Org.