At 21, Emily Milledge has a CV to be proud of. The actor made her onstage debut in Gaybies for the Midsumma festival in 2013. She went on to appear in Frankenstein and La Cage Aux Folles in Melbourne and, in 2014, took the acclaimed lead in Carrie: The Musical.
If that weren’t enough angst, she will soon play Antigone at Malthouse, but not before making her Belvoir debut in an all-new interpretation of The Wizard of Oz. As the show opens, she talks Judy Garland, the magic of musicals, and why her greatest hero is her mother – especially when she falls over.
Why does The Wizard of Oz continue to fascinate people?
There are so many layers to that story. The text is very open to interpretation: why Kansas is painted as such a bleak grey place Dorothy wants to vacate, but as soon as she arrives in Oz, the whole actual journey is her wanting to return home. And people are quite entranced by how Judy Garland’s story fits into The Wizard of Oz; all the things that went on on the set of the 1939 film.
How does Belvoir’s production flip expectations on their head?
We’re departing aesthetically from the film but it’s very true to the fundamental story and we’re delving into the psychology of Dorothy. In the book it seems as though a lot of things happen to her: she is flung into this environment where she’s faced with all of these things, but we’re examining it more from the idea of an internally driven journey and the cyclone that erupts inside of Dorothy.
Soon you’ll be playing Antigone – what draws you to that character?
It’s another opportunity to play a powerful young female, someone who is placed in a challenging environment, how they come up against the rules of society and try to defy those and go beyond expectations. Also the epic nature of the stories is really exciting – it’s not something you get to go through every day. To be able to do that in a theatrical context and to really push limits is great.
Between Antigone, Dorothy and Carrie, you are fast becoming the go-to girl for intense young women on stage
I couldn’t be happier with all of the roles that are coming my way. I think, to an extent, I am quite an intense person in real life and I love that I get to amplify my own personality by 10 in these roles. It becomes quite a cathartic experience. That’s where a lot of the fun of performing lies for me.
Who has had the most profound influence on you personally?
My mother. She has given me the confidence and the agency to do what I really want to do with my life. She’s always been supportive of me working as an actor where often there’s a discouragement from parents because people see it as an unstable path. I don’t have any concerns about what’s going to happen in a year’s time, and a lot of that has come from my mother.
My parents are both vets so not of the performance world at all. But she was always pushing me to try new things and she’s devoted to helping me achieve what I want and making sure that I don’t limit myself – staying open to everything and not taking the practical or logical option because it seems safer.
Given your stint in Carrie, what do you love about musical theatre?
When musical theatre is at its best is when the music elevates the story to another level, when it becomes an extended comment on what’s happening to the character or a central theme of the show. When it has a real connection to the story and furthering an idea, it can become electric, when it’s not just about breaking out into a song and dance. Music awakens something in the soul and the minds of the audience and it can be a fantastic shared experience for them.
What’s guaranteed to make you laugh?
It sounds cruel but I have a memory of my mother falling over in public. That’s something very specific but I like old school humour and black comedy. It really hits the spot.
• The Wizard of Oz is at Sydney’s Belvoir until 31 May; Antigone is at Melbourne’s Malthouse Theatre from 21 August to 13 September
