Gia Ophelia takes to the stage at KXT on Broadway this week in a highly anticipated, limited season. Written by Australian playwright Grace Wilson and directed by Jo Bradley, the gripping one-woman show starring Annie Stafford captivated audiences at last year’s Sydney Fringe. The show earned Jo Bradley an award for Best Emerging Artist for her work as producer, director and dramaturg.
The Scoop sat down with Jo Bradley, who is set to make her professional directorial debut later in the year in Snowflake for Ensemble Theatre. Jo discusses her longstanding creative partnership with Grace Wilson and the challenges of staging a one person show.
Gia Ophelia is transferring to KXT after an award-winning Fringe season. What can audiences expect from this remount?
It’s a one-woman play about a failed actor who is a little in denial about her career, and is determined that if she can have one more shot at acting, she could make it. So she signs up for this overpriced Shakespeare residency, in the hope it would lead to getting an agent and getting cast as Ophelia.
In one hour, it covers a lot of light and dark. It has a lot of comedy about the acting world. But it also has a more earnest, dramatic storyline, as she confronts her complicated feelings about motherhood. And a boyfriend who is trying to push her into a more traditional, domestic life.
Transferring to KXT after doing well at Fringe has been a cool chance to keep the punky, scrappy essence of the Fringe season, while also embracing the chance to have a more developed design world and a bigger team. We were previously in a triple bill in a town hall so had very little production elements.
Now that we are in a proper theatre, we get to add Holly Nesbitt on lighting and Geita Goarin helping with design, who have both done such a great job. So while the set and design is more developed, we are trying to keep the tongue-in-cheek Fringe energy, with a bit of audience interaction and playfulness.
You’ve collaborated with writer Grace Wilson on several productions now. Can you speak to your creative partnership and how that relationship came to be?
Grace and I were both members of ATYP’s Youth Advisory Board (“Yabbies”), and we got paired up to work together for an ATYP scratch night in 2022, because I’ve always been interested in new writing. That went well, so we kept working together.
She was still living in Queensland then, so I would direct readings in Sydney while we did notes on Zoom and email. After a couple of readings, we were keen to have a shot at a proper production. I asked her to write me something for Sydney Fringe, which could be staged simply with a small cost and minimal set or budget.
A one-person show is no easy feat. How do you prepare, both creatively and practically, for a production like this?
Creatively, it was a lot of me printing out the whole script and laying it out on the floor in order so I could get a sense of the structure of it. When Grace was writing it last year, I was also supporting as a dramaturg, so I would be thinking a lot about structure and character and arc.
I feel so lucky Annie Stafford came onboard because she’s just so talented and hardworking and wasn’t at all daunted by the challenge. She was able to learn so many lines in a really short amount of time, and was so unfazed when we kept updating the drafts.
What advice would you give to emerging artists hoping to sustain a career in the arts? Are there any notes or lessons you’ve been given that continue to guide you?
I would say that anyone who wants to get their own work up, whether you’re a writer, a director, or an actor with a passion project, you need to learn about producing. But at the same time, artist/producers should try to find reliable people who can support you with the producing workload. It can be tough juggling multiple roles at once.
I feel so lucky that my friend from NIDA, Bianca Watkins, came on to help me with producing last year. That made a big difference to my mentality and workload. And then this season, Bianca and I got two more emerging producers onboard to help us, Laila Chesterman and Violeta Brau Mugica. It’s been so nice to know that we have people we can lean on. We are all working multiple jobs on top of this.
Finally, we always finish with this question at The Scoop. Do you have any dream projects or collaborations on your directorial bucket list?
After seeing how widely Snowflake resonated when it first premiered, I have a couple of other published international scripts that I’d really love to bring to Australia for the first time. I also would love to explore the potential of Gia Ophelia as a touring work and get to experience other Fringe Festivals.
Gia Ophelia is presented by JB Theatre Co in association with bAKEHOUSE Theatre. It runs to 15 February at KXT on Broadway. 181 Broadway, Ultimo NSW 2007.
Tickets: https://events.humanitix.com/gia-ophelia
Website: https://www.kingsxtheatre.com/gia-ophelia
Socials: https://www.instagram.com/jbtheatreco/ and https://www.instagram.com/kxt_bakehouse/
Hero image: Annie Stafford in Gia Ophelia. Image supplied.
