Hi Amy! Thanks for chatting with me! First of all, I’d love to know what originally inspired you to get into the performing arts?
I don’t remember this, but my auntie told me a story about when I was around four or five years old there was a big family dinner on and I started telling some nonsense story. Apparently by the end of it I had everyone in stitches, naturally! My auntie said it was pretty clear I loved myself sick at that stage and from then on, me trying to get the family on board with my stories became a pretty regular event.

I’m not sure if I ever topped that first one but I guess I have never stopped trying. I also had a fabulous drama teacher in high school that really encouraged me to give it a crack. I guess I never really thought about the fact that it wasn’t deemed a ‘real job’ by many of my other teachers – my friends and my family always supported me so I pretty much went for it, beginning with that story around the dinner table.

Did you always dream of being a performer, even as a child?
I did dabble with the idea of being a fashion designer, a lawyer and an ambo. When I really thought about it I wanted to be those things inside of a movie, so I figured if I stick to performing I may get a chance to do everything I ever thought about. I always wanted to be an actor but I guess what has evolved is what my idea of that is. When I was younger I was wrapped in dreams of being some sort of famous superstar, but as I have gotten older (don’t get me wrong, I still fantasise about the fame and glory) that idea kind of drifts to the background. For me it is about making art, connecting with an audience, experimenting and finding new ways to tell stories. I’m happiest on stage – it’s when I feel most alive. It’s like crack – I’m addicted.

How did The Good Room come about? What spurred the partnership with Daniel Evans?
Dan and I started working together on The Emerge Project back in 2006 or 2007. The Emerge Project ran out of the Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts and dealt mainly with new and emerging playwrights. It was a great platform to test out new skills and keep performing at a regular basis. I actually tried my hand at directing and got lumped with Dan as one of my actors – he was very funny! Then I performed in one of his plays and we have been friends ever since.

The Good Room came about after Dan and I worked on a festival together. We were the co-directors of The National Young Writers Festival which runs each year in Newcastle as a part of This Is Not Art. That festival really gave us a taste of what was happening in the independent scene on a national scale and we wanted to be involved, so we decided to form The Good Room. Our first production was a play Dan had written called Holy Guacamole. We took that to Adelaide Fringe and Metro Arts in Brisbane!

What did the two of you set out to accomplish with The Good Room?
We always wanted to create theatre experiences – something beyond simply watching a show and then rushing to the toilet after because you had to hold your bladder for three hours. Obviously, we wanted the company to also serve as a platform for ourselves and create opportunities for work (and to be seen in ways perhaps the powers-that-be would not normally view us), those desires have not changed but simply evolved.

We always create work we have a strong connection to, but also we try to create the shows we want to see.  And we have moved from traditional theatre, so to speak, into a more contemporary realm. We always wanted to put the audience at the centre of our work and I think our process of crowd sourcing material came from that desire. The material we get is amazing – we develop a connection with our audience before they even see the show.

You will be performing I Want To Know What Love Is at the Brisbane Powerhouse in December as part of Wonderland 2015, what can audiences expect from the show?
Petals, petals, petals, petals, petals, dancing, pashing, petals, petals, petals, more pashing.

It’s a roller coaster – it’s like being in a relationship that lasts 60 minutes. People are really able to place themselves in the show. As our director says, how you view love is how you enter the show. If you are in love with love the first section is really going to float your boat. If you are angry and going through a breakup then you will really get around the middle section of the show.  But also it’s a party – a celebration and a declaration to all the people who submitted.

The show is informed and based around hundreds of anonymous love stories submitted by audiences – was there anything you discovered about love, lust and heartbreak that surprised you?
Here is the cheese factor coming – reading those submissions really solidified the idea of love being universal. Although it’s different in the details, so many people had similar experiences of heartbreak or rage or joy but also you realise how beautiful and eloquent people are in their day-to-day life. In our research we really get involved with the science behind a thing – and we found so many studies on love and science. We had these grand schemes for how to include them in the show but the submissions just didn’t reflect that. Even if people hated love or didn’t believe in it, no one seemed preoccupied with how your brain is involved. The submissions themselves were the surprising thing – we were never bored reading them. People were so generous with what they said. It was all so hilarious and heartbreaking, it was a real honour to have them in our care.

How are these stories translated to the stage? Is there a conscious effort to show the good and bad side of love?
We have a rule to always honour what we have received. We always go back to the submissions – luckily we got such a wide range of them – and we found they all fit into categories or themes or ‘containers’ as we call them. I think all types of love have to live next to each other. While one person is having the time of their life in love another is completely heartbroken – one can’t exist without the other.

In terms of how we translate them to stage, our team works very visually. We would take the submissions and go away with them alone or in a pair or group and try to experiment with it visually. We use the submissions to make new text. We will often have more material than we need and then it is matter of moving them around like puzzle pieces until it feels like the right fit. The beauty of doing the show again after having a year off is we are now refining moments even more.

What do you hope audience members will think, feel or take away from this experience?
A date for New Year’s Eve, an urge to go out dancing, an urge to call your mum, your lover, your brother, the strange boy you keep seeing on the bus. Have a glass of champagne and celebrate! Feel safe in knowing everyone else in the world as just as amazing and f***** up as you are.

What was your biggest challenge in getting the show together?
Time! For me personally the beginning of the show was challenging. Originally we did about seven versions of the beginning and all new choreography each time – my brain was exploding with new moves! The challenge is always with dealing with trusting what you have done. You become so involved that it is hard to see the big picture but we have a lot of good people on the team that we pull in at those moments.

You choose to source and integrate anonymous material supplied by the general public for several of your shows – what was the reasoning behind this creative move and what does it do for your productions?
For us it is linked to audience – how do we make them the centre of the work? How do we make a show that is relevant to here and now that celebrates the everyday person? It is our desire to make the domestic epic. Each time we do one of these shows the idea for the next one is birthed. Our first show was about regret and we found most of the submissions were about regret and love. Our next one is about forgiveness; again because of the nature of the submissions we have already received. But the great thing about crowd sourcing the material is people who submit do come to the shows. They come knowing that they may just see their very own words on stage in all of their theatrical glory. It’s exciting and it’s immediate and that’s what we love creating towards.

What is your approach to piecing together a new work? Where does the process start initially?
Before we have a submission call out we will undergo creative developments simply exploring the themes of regret or love or forgiveness. We try and work out what the landscape is – we give ourselves a few design parameters and work out exactly what we need to ask people to submit. Once we get the submissions it is about work shopping them in the room together. It’s very collaborative. At first we all make the images and respond to the submissions. Once the shape of the show starts to emerge we then break off into our roles as performer, director, designer and producer.

What aspect of the human condition do you hope to examine in future productions?
Our next work is based on forgiveness, after that we have a few more ideas up our sleeves but for now those are our little secrets!

What would you consider to be your career highlight so far?
Wow. That’s a big question! This show is a massive highlight for me, but oh it’s so hard to answer. Every show I do lives inside me, I can’t help but think that every role I play changes me somehow. I have had so many amazing experiences and been lucky enough to play so many fabulous roles. Every year and every day has its own highlights because I get to work in this crazy profession and work with people who I adore and love.

What’s your idea of complete happiness?
Probably doing exactly what I’m doing but maybe with more pocket money to escape to some tropical destination every year.  I think the idea of complete happiness is tricky because if you were never sad you would never know that you were happy. I think complete happiness is about whom you surround yourself with so when times are bad you know that something good will always be on its way. I also stay moving – I’m at my happiest when I’m creative, when I’m moving and learning and taking all the crazy things that come my way.

What inspires you in life? Do you have any words of wisdom to share?
People. It’s the people in my life who inspire me – my mother, my friends, my family. I see the incredible things they do every day and it makes me want to create works that speaks to them. As for wisdom, I think the sooner you realise everyone is winging it life becomes much easier. We are all just faking it till we make it.

Catch Amy in I Want To Know What Love Is at the Brisbane Powerhouse from December 16–19. Buy your tickets here.