NIDA alumni Mehhma Malhi (Directing, 2024) and Xavier Hazard (Writing, 2024) have forged a powerful creative partnership since their time at NIDA. Together, they’ve brought the original play ALL BOYS to life on stage, exploring complex themes of masculinity and power. In this interview, they discuss their journey, the impact of their NIDA training, and what it takes to create thought-provoking theatre in Australia today.
What inspired you to pursue dramatic writing as a career, and why did you choose to study at NIDA?
XAVIER: I started my career as a lawyer. I wanted to pursue a career that had social importance, built community, embraced change, and challenged authority. So I stopped being a lawyer and decided to put the time, effort and tears into something more meaningful to me.
I chose NIDA because I didn’t just want to write; I wanted to be a writer. I wanted to be a student so I could learn how to be a professional. I wanted to know what I didn’t know, and I wanted to meet a bunch of incredible, passionate people to make things with. And, in the indelible words of Anne Hathaway, ‘it came true’.
What drew you to directing, and how has your training at NIDA helped to shape your approach to directing?
MEHHMA: Having previously studied philosophy and politics, I was always interested in how people think and how people come to hold certain values. Storytelling plays such an integral role in engaging people’s empathy and offers an accessible way to talk about one’s beliefs.
I was drawn to directing at NIDA to understand how story works and was interested in the focus on dramaturgy. The course concentrates on collaboration across disciplines and how story applies to each element of film and theatre. I found this process and approach to directing was very useful to understand the holistic process of making a theatre piece, compared to just focusing on the directing aspect.
Can you share some of the highlights from your time at NIDA, particularly moments that influenced your craft?
MEHHMA: Starting at NIDA, I was completely fresh to theatre and film, and because of this every moment has influenced my directing approach. However, what has influenced me the most are the people I have met during my time at NIDA.
I remember during the first few weeks at NIDA, the directors and writers sat down for a collaborative learning class. In this lecture, we did an exercise where we turned to the person on our left and had to draw them without looking at the paper and lifting the pen. The person I had to draw was Xavier Hazard. Laughing over our little portraits of one another, we knew at that point we were going to be friends. Many car rides later, talking about story ideas, and talking about our goals in the arts, I knew not only had I found a friend but a collaborator.
Early on in the course, the directors are given the opportunity to shadow industry directors. I was given the honour of learning from Jessica Arthur (Directing, 2015). Shadowing her work along with the other students at NIDA, Jess completely demystified the process of directing and created such a welcoming space for collaboration across disciplines. This really set the standard for me to work towards.
Halfway through my time at NIDA we started the triple j project – a music video collaboration between directing and design. Rebecca Howarth (Design, 2021) and I were partnered up. We immediately clicked over our love all things quirky and whimsical and our passion for making props from scratch. Over the holiday period we spent our time coming into NIDA, making puppets, and becoming fast friends.
Although there are many highlights from my time at NIDA, my last highlight comes from the Festival of Emerging Artists. Reaching out to Anchuli Felicia King, I staged an abridged version of King’s work Ephemera. The process was incredibly rewarding and was the perfect way to end the year by collaborating and building a world with artists at NIDA including but not limited to third-year BFA Design student Andrea Knezevic, second-year BFA Technical Theatre and Stage Management student Jasmine Power, Isobel Morrissey (Technical Theatre and Stage Management, 2023), Madeleine Picard (Technical Theatre and Stage Management, 2023), to third-year BFA Design student Jemima Owen, third-year BFA acting student Esha Jessy, Ariyan Sharma (Musical Theatre, 2020, and Acting, 2023), Holly Matthews (Acting, 2023), JK Kazzi (Acting, 2023), and third-year BFA Acting student Leon Walshe.
XAVIER: The people! The people, the people, the people.
I was lucky to work with some incredible writers and producers to develop short and long-form projects across stage and screen – including Brett Sheehy, Alexa Wyatt (Playwriting, 1988), and Karel Segers – as well as my major project, developed alongside Nerida Moore, a full-length horror film, SAINTS, set in an all boys school where every student is haunted by a violent doppelgänger. I am currently developing a second project, JUDGE, a television show set within the hidden world of judge’s associates, with Vicki Madden.
The highlight was of course the collaboration across disciplines, working with other students at NIDA, studying directing, acting, props and sound design. I met the most incredible people, who are now friends and collaborators for life. Most significantly, I was lucky enough to meet Mehhma (see anecdote above), and the rest is literally history.
Another joy was writing an original play, SEEN, for directing student Joanna ‘Jo’ Bradley’s (Directing, 2024) graduating show, as part of the Festival of Emerging Artists at NIDA. This was another incredible opportunity to collaborate with NIDA students across disciplines to create a play that staged the digital about two best friends who arrange their first kiss over Facebook, then promptly realise they’re gay. Two of the actors from that project – third-year BFA Acting student Faisal Hamza and Ashan Kumar (Acting, 2021) – are both in ALL BOYS, which is awesome.
At the start of the year, I also had the opportunity to observe a writer’s room for Easy Tiger run by Sarah L Walker, which was an incredible insight into the television writing process and has helped me massively in kickstarting my TV career. And I’m currently in Perth working as script co-ordinator on that very same project.
Your original play ALL BOYS has been picked up by every other theatre company and bAKEHOUSE Theatre Co, on stage at KXT On Broadway from 6 – 21 September. Can you tell us about the play and what audiences can expect?
ALL BOYS is a ‘period piece’ set between 2009 and 2014, which follows a group of students from Year 7 – 12 at an elite Sydney boys school as they are forged into the type of men that rule the world, whether they like it or not.
MEHHMA: It’s a play that sparks conversation. It catapults the audience into a world where every choice has an impact, even if it doesn’t carry a consequence. By presenting the reality of these schools from the student’s perspective, without intervening voices or judgement, the show invites in audiences and offers them the space to consider these worlds with a critical and empathetic eye.
The play presents a world and sets up the characters as a means to navigate these tricky conversations around power, privilege, and men’s behaviour.
XAVIER: I prefaced ALL BOYS with the following quote, from groundbreaking activist and intersectional feminist bell hooks, which succinctly expresses the point that took me two years and a hundred pages to get to:
‘The first act of violence that patriarchy demands of males is not violence towards women. Instead, patriarchy demands of all males that they engage in acts of self-mutilation, that they kill off the emotional parts of themselves. If an individual is not successful in emotionally crippling himself, he can count on patriarchal men to enact rituals of power that will assault his self-esteem.’ Bell hooks, The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love.
ALL BOYS stages this process; the emotional mutilation that marks the birth of patriarchal masculinity. I wrote this script to replicate the contradictory feeling I had as an insider (white, cis, male) and outsider (queer) within the hidden world of all boys schools in this country. For audiences that know these worlds, the work offers catharsis and a starting point for conversation. For audiences that do not, I wanted to bridge that gap; to make a foreign world familiar, and, more specifically, to recreate the feeling of being complicit in it. I wanted to be honest about a world I know, to tell my part of the story, and then, through collaboration and the act of sharing a live story with an audience, move towards truth-telling and change.
What has it been like to collaborate on this production and what is the process for bringing this written piece to life?
MEHHMA: The collaboration for this piece began back in September last year during the Storytellers Festival. Asking the cast members to join for the reading we had no idea where this would lead.
After being programmed at KXT, Xavier decided he wanted to revisit the script which afforded us the opportunity to hold developments with the cast and workshop new scenes. As we have moved through the year the cast has shifted; each member providing a unique perspective on their character and punch of energy to the rehearsal room.
Working with Rebecca Howarth (Design, 2023), Isobel ‘Izzy’ Morrissey (Technical Theatre and Stage Management, 2023), third-year Technical Theatre and Stage Management student Julianna ‘Jules’ Stankiewicz, and Amy Norton (Technical Theatre and Stage Management, 2023) to build a world for vignettes has been incredibly rewarding. With 74 scenes, over 20 locations, and 11 characters, creating a world for the audience to get lost in was an exciting endeavour. As different collaborators have stepped into the project along the way, I have most enjoyed the fresh perspectives and new takes on the characters and the world.
Collaborating since last September, working with Xavier is a dream. When we first decided to co-produce, we were a little unsure, and while it has been a big task – there is no one else I would want to navigate the world of indie theatre with. Xavier’s passion for this story, the audience, and the world is insatiable.
XAVIER: This project would not exist without Mehhma Malhi. When we met at NIDA last year, we immediately clicked as not only collaborators but close friends. Thanks to her genius directing at last year’s Storytellers Festival, ALL BOYS was selected as the only play in the festival to be programmed for a full season. Mehhma’s incredible empathy, eye for detail, and joyful collaborative style expands the script I’ve written into a collaborative project that engages in a complex cultural conversation about how we raise young men in this country, and the effect this has on our community as a whole. Without her, there is no ALL BOYS.
What’s next for you after this production?
MEHHMA: I have a few theatre projects lined up and this year I also hope to make a short film and continue to work with new teams and meet more creatives. I want to continue to explore new work and make stories for audiences who otherwise may not engage with the arts!
XAVIER: Next, I will be working with Mehhma for the rest of my creative life. This is my dream and I am living it. Additionally, since graduating, I’ve worked as a notetaker and script co-ordinator on a bunch of TV projects for Netflix, Stan, ABC, Easy Tiger, Roadshow Rough Diamond and Brouhaha. I’m currently working in Perth as script co-ordinator on a Warner Bros show, but after that I’m very open to being hired so please let the people know!
What advice would you give to aspiring artists considering NIDA’s programs, particularly the MFA Writing for Performance and Directing courses?
MEHHMA: I would say – you should do it. NIDA affords many amazing opportunities, and you just have to dive into them all head first. There are of course things to figure out along the way but collaborating and learning new skills with other creatives and developing your craft at NIDA is incredibly rewarding.
XAVIER: Mehhma is right. Delusion and ignorance (in moderation) are superpowers; if you want to do it – do it. You’ll never become a writer or a director by sitting there quietly and agonising over whether you should or shouldn’t or if you’re good or not good enough. Just try. Enjoy getting things wrong. Enjoy getting things not quite right. Let go of your preciousness and embrace the joy of messiness and the community that comes with collaboration. Get serious about failing, making mistakes, and learning. And be nice to people. The rest will come. Truly, truly it will.
ALL BOYS is on stage KXT On Broadway from 6 – 21 September and tickets are on sale now. If you’d like a discount on seeing this production email: everyothertc@gmail.com
