The light-filled rehearsal room for Windmill’s newest show has all the signs of creative chaos. On a props table sit plastic tiaras, a boom box and an umbrella. Across one wall, sheets of paper map out the show with scene titles: “stop, slammer time”, “family that stays together, slays together”, and “princess of drop”.
The director, Sasha Zahra, stands at the front of the room, patiently watching as the cast find their feet in a new work punctuated by moments of silliness and laughter. The show is Rella, a retelling of the Cinderella story which centres the ugly stepsisters, here named Afa and Sika, and played by Samoan Australian drag queens Fez Faanana and Thomas Fonua.
