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
Living the Creative Life... together
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In this episode of the Green Room, Mik and Nik sit down on a scorching Adelaide day to discuss their thirty-year journey as a married couple in the performing arts industry. They recount the highs and lows of balancing their personal lives, careers, and raising a family. From their early days of dealing with ego and competition, to navigating the challenges of becoming parents, and the complexities of working together on various projects, they offer an honest and insightful look into their lives. They also touch on issues like mental health, gender dynamics, and the unique stressors of their profession. The episode concludes with reflections on their ongoing passion for the arts and their hopes for the future, both for themselves and their children, who are also creatively inclined.
A Mik Allen Concepts production
www.mikallenconcepts.com