the GREENROOM with Nik n Mik
The Green Room with Nikki & Mik Allen
A 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 conversations
- ADHD rambling and PhD-level overthinking
- stories from tin sheds to multi-million dollar festivals
- and the odd coughing fit or existential crisis left in the edit
If 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.
the GREENROOM with Nik n Mik
Censorship & other harsh realities
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In this episode, Michael and Nikki, a long-term married couple working in the Australian performing arts industry, discuss censorship and its impact on creativity and management within the arts sector. They reference recent events surrounding the 2026 Adelaide Writers Week Festival, where a Palestinian author was uninvited, leading to significant upheaval including board resignations. The discussion extends to their personal experiences with censorship in their careers and how funding bodies often control and limit creative expression. They also touch on the broader issues of political interference, the challenges of securing funding, and the evolution of festivals like Adelaide Fringe and Adelaide Festival. Recorded at Mylor Cricket Oval, the podcast reflects on the role of art in society and the importance of maintaining artistic integrity in the face of external pressures.
APPLES
Written by Richard Milward
Adapted & directed by John Retallack
https://boundlesstheatre.org.uk/productions/apples/
A Mik Allen Concepts production
www.mikallenconcepts.com