A warm welcome
Step inside the home of actor Elena Carapetis as she hosts a lunch to welcome the new State Theatre Company South Australia artistic director Petra Kalive.
The scent of slow-roasting lamb entwines with rosemary and garlic in the home kitchen of renowned actor, writer and director Elena Carapetis. Elena is methodical about her preparation, so when the first knock at the door comes, the lunch she’s hosting today is very much under control.
That first knock comes from today’s very special guest of honour – Petra Kalive, the new artistic director and co-CEO of State Theatre Company South Australia, and she’s cradling a giant bunch of flowers for her host.
Today, Elena has opened up her home for a group of the state’s theatre identities as a way to welcome Petra, who moved to Adelaide from Melbourne in February to take up her new role, replacing outgoing artistic director, Mitchell Butel.
Petra fell in love with the theatre when her mum would take her to shows in the school holidays, and by the time she was in year two she was asking for acting lessons – even offering to pay for them herself. She didn’t have to pay for them, her parents did.
When Petra finished school, she went on to study science at university, but almost failed because she was spending all her time doing student theatre. She switched to studying drama and after graduating, found her way into directing. At this point, Petra realised she was meant to be involved in productions off-stage.
“It kind of brings all my strengths and my skills together,” she explains. “As an actor, I was much more concerned with (myself) and as a director, it wasn’t all about me, and that’s a much better place for me.”
Petra first fell in love with Adelaide 20 years ago when she brought an adaptation of Peter Goldsworthy’s novel Three Dog Night to the Space Theatre – one of her first big forays into directing. Before her recent move to Adelaide, Petra was the artistic director of the Student Theatre Department at Melbourne University and then the associate director at Melbourne Theatre Company, where she filled in as artistic director for a few months and realised her strengths.
One of her great passions is looking at how community theatre operates in professional theatre settings – something she studied under a Churchill Fellowship, travelling to the United States, the United Kingdom and Chile.
Now in Adelaide, while Petra’s been awaiting the arrival of her family – husband, producer Tim Stitz and daughters, nine-year-old Aria, and seven-year-old Iris – she’s been busy meeting as many people in the industry here as possible.
“I’ve had a revolving door in my office and I’ve met all these great people,” Petra says.
At the time of today’s lunch, Petra had only just presented a draft 2025 season to the board, comprising a hybrid of works she’d selected and pieces already in the mix at State Theatre.
“I have the incredible pleasure of seeing out Mitchell Butel’s program, which is great because it means I get to see how the company operates and then I get to bring fresh eyes,” she says.
“I’m really keen on deepening the roots that State Theatre has with the city and with the companies here and with the community. I’m a collaborator by nature, so working with local artists, local companies and local communities to create really extraordinary work together.
“Then, for that work to have reach across the country and internationally. Mitchell’s already started that work, so the foundations are all there. It’s just me actually strengthening and growing what he’s already begun.”
Petra, who says she’s still pinching herself at being offered the role, has been overwhelmed by the support from everyone in Adelaide.
“I’ve been met with open arms and warmth and generosity, which I’ve been genuinely heartened by,” she says.
Just one instance of the generosity Petra’s seen since her arrival is today’s lunch, hosted by Elena, whom Petra first met at a Playwriting Australia festival. Petra’s since watched Elena from afar and is excited to be in the same state, collaborating.
Elena has set up a long table in her backyard, which she says has so many of the markers of the culture she shares with Petra. “I’ve got the backyard of an old Greek man,” Elena laughs. “You’ve got to have a dingy shed, you’ve got to have a lemon tree and an olive tree – bonus points for a pomegranate, although I don’t have a fig or chickens. But I’ve got my veggie patch; I’ve just dug up my summer patch and put in a whole load of new compost getting ready for my winter stuff.”
Elena is looking very comfortable in the kitchen right before the guests are due to arrive, thanks to many years of entertaining and feeding people.
“We can all cook in my family. My mum and dad and brother were restaurateurs for many years and we had Greek restaurants for a really long time.
“Food has always been a really big part of our family. I just learnt to cook at my mum’s hip. There’s nothing like running a 250-seat restaurant to get you to figure out how to cook well.”
Many of the recipes she’s whipping up today were originally used in her family’s restaurant, including a special spanakopita made by Elena’s mum, Nina.
“When she heard I was hosting, she said she’d do it, and you can’t argue with my mum when it comes to feeding people,” Elena says with a laugh.
Also on the menu is a vegetarian moussaka, Greek chickpea stew, fava (blended split peas), Greek salad, roasted potatoes, slow-roasted lamb shoulder and to finish, a flourless orange cake.
As Elena dredges the par-boiled potatoes in olive oil and sprinkles them liberally with salt, pepper, oregano, paprika and pops some cloves of garlic in the pan, she points out a painting on her wall by artist, Mark Thompson.
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“He designed a production of Uncle Vanya, which was my first show with State Theatre Company,” she says. “Years later, he came on to design Vale and the first day of rehearsal, he gave it to me. He’d painted it of me from memory during the Uncle Vanya rehearsals.”
For the past year, Elena has been developing a screenplay with her writing partner, and one of the guests today, Anna Lindner, as part of the South Australian Film Corporation, Screen Australia and Adelaide Film Festival’s initiative, Film Lab: New Voices.
They’re in competition with two other teams, who have all written an ultra-low budget film, and the winning entry will be made for $600,000.
Also here today is playwright Anthony Nocera, who, along with Elena, has been commissioned to adapt South Australia’s first AIDS memoir, Someone You Know, into a play.
CEO and artistic director at ActNow Theatre, Yasmin Gurreeboo and actor Renato Musolino arrive, along with State Theatre’s artistic program manager Shelley Lush and director and producer, David Mealor. Helping to carry plates, fetch cutlery and pour drinks is Elena’s partner, actor and filmmaker Adam Ovadia. Once everyone’s seated, the conversation turns to this wonderful industry they’re all part of here in South Australia.
“It’s really intimate and people are really connected and I really appreciate that,” Yasmin says. “You see everyone you know all the time, but you thrive in that. It’s a really warm environment and people are generous and talented.”
Renato, who was recently in State Theatre’s production of Housework, says much goes on behind the scenes in the industry that relies on their close-knit network.
“We help each other out with venues and recommending actors, Renato says. “I’m sure there are degrees of that in Sydney and Melbourne, but it really feels so tight because of the geography of the place and we’re in this small little hub.”
Elena says the community they’ve fostered makes them accountable for the choices they make creatively and professionally, and every success is celebrated.
“Whenever anyone in our town does something that’s wonderful, there’s a sense of pride because, at some point, we’ve all intersected with each other, and so we’re constantly influencing one another and feeding into one another’s practice,” she says.
“The work we do here speaks to our audience, who are really important to us and who deserve to have their own stories told – stories about this place.”
Anna says she’s grateful to be where her loved ones are and still be able to do what she does for a living – something South Australians in the industry haven’t always been able to claim.
“Back in the day, the mentality was if you’re serious about your craft, you have to move away,” Anna says. “It’s always been an illusion, but if that’s what you’re told, that’s what you believe. It’s definitely changing.”
With his experience and hindsight, David says his observation is that while there are some really significant opportunities in the state, there seems to be less opportunity overall than there was a couple of decades ago.
“There are new opportunities, but if you speak to anyone under 30, they’re saying there’s nothing for them,” he says. “When I graduated 25 years ago, there was an expectation that there were some opportunities for you.”
Around the table, everyone is in agreement of the sadness felt at the disappearance of second-tier theatre companies in the state, which is often due to their play spaces being demolished.
For example, the Bakehouse Theatre, which closed in 2022 and will be turned into a carpark: the first play Elena wrote, The Good Son, premiered there.
“That’s the pressure of companies like State Theatre,” Elena says. “They have to be everything, they have to fill the shortfall that the rest of the ecosystem used to provide. Those second-tier companies are really important, not only to provide opportunity to people, but they’re often the place, as young artists, you get to explore and fail safely.”
They may be dwindling, but Nescha and Yasmin are two people doing their best with independent theatre companies Rumpus and Act Now, which Elena says are “complete labours of love”.
Adam remarks that some of these pressures have created diamonds in the rough.
“The artists here in Adelaide are world-grade,” Adam says. “I’ve been so inspired, even just by the people in this backyard – they’d be equal to anyone, not just Melbourne, Sydney or the Gold Coast, but anywhere in the world.”
This article first appeared in the June 2025 issue of SALIFE magazine.