Hearing of their age gap when they first met in acting school, you would never have though that Liminka Pather and Lily Rawson would have found an instantaneous connection. But, that’s exactly what happened. They easily found each other through their shared love of acting…and The Coven was born.
“I was really nervous,” says Lily as she recounts their first day at Sydney Actors School. “Liminka was sitting alone in the foyer and I walked up to her and we started talking. I remember saying, “I’m so nervous because I feel like I’m the oldest person here, I’m 19. How old are you?”
At this, Liminka turns to me and reveals, “I was 31 when I started acting school.”
And yet, the two women sitting before me on a dreary Monday afternoon at Woolloomooloo’s Old Fitzroy Hotel, both candlelit as we speak in the bistro above the much loved underground Old Fitz Theatre, come across as two kindred spirits tied together through the art of theatre.
“But I was the most immature,” continues Liminka. “I’d be the one always cracking up in class and being called out by the teachers. So with maturity levels? I think we kind of evened out.”
“From then on we were basically inseparable,” says Lily. Our discussion continues to the pair’s journey through acting school. “We were kind of the most driven people at school,” says Liminka. “I think whether it was just life experience or something, we were very much always bigger picture people, focusing on getting things done.”
“I think that’s why we work so well together,” adds Lily. “We’re people that were both very impatient to sit around for opportunities. We were always wanting to make things happen. Which I guess is where The Coven came from.”
This is the real reason we are meeting today, The Coven. The name first struck me after seeing Liminka and Lily’s production The Beautiful Future is Coming at the Old Fitz Theatre. I was intrigued by the witchy theme the two had conjured through their production company The Witches of Waterloo and set off in search of its origin.
The Coven is a collaborative performance that brings together writers, directors, and actors one night a week for three weeks to develop and perform original work in a supportive, creative environment. This is an initiative that both Liminka and Lily saw as a means to make work for themselves and other actors who wanted to hone their craft. Acting, like any muscle, is a skill and as such still need to be sharpened.
“When you have women in power, or women wanting to make things happen for themselves, people turn that into something negative.”
“As a creative,” Liminka explains, “it’s really hard to go into a room full of people networking and introduce yourself as an actor, because a hundred other people are also an actor.
So this is where Lily and I came up with the idea of a kind of scene dating. You apply – whether you want to be a writer, director, actor, and so on. You’re sorted into groups and you get a chance to perform. We did that a few times here at the Old Fitz, and there was always so much demand.”
“Like, heaps of demand,” adds Lily.
“When we started working at Sydney Actors School, it was a big, busy school during the day,” explains Liminka. “But in the evenings there’s so much space. We thought we had to do something with that space, it’s a great rehearsal space.”
And so, The Coven started to take shape. The pair wanted the notion to be something of a writer’s room focused on community where writers, directors, and actors could meet to bring ideas together for both stage and film.
The pair would eventually move their performances into the Old Fitz Theatre itself for a one night performance. This opportunity not only gave the artists a place to stage their work, but an opportunity to present it to a live audience.
“Our incredible stage manager, Kate Moore, techs the whole show in two hours,” says Liminka. “We get a chance to develop the work together with our actors, writers, and directors, and then stage it in front of the audience, who we call our Coven.”
This is where I raise the question that’s been puzzling me throughout our conversation. “Why ‘The Coven’?”, I ask. At this, the pair give each other a knowing smirk and playfully laugh. “Because we are the Witches of Waterloo,” says Lily.
“So, at drama school,” begins Liminka, “We were, like we said, hustling but we could also be a little bit aggressive about it. People definitely called us bitches. Then we thought, well okay, how can we turn that around? Hence, the witches.”
“We weren’t aggressive in a physical way,” clarifies Lily. “We were assertive”.
“It kind of sucks though,” continues Liminka once we laugh this off. “When you have women in power, or women wanting to make things happen for themselves, that people turn that into something negative. Because we are quite assertive but that’s good because we both know what we want.
We are so passionate about creating community and collaboration and opportunities and if you’ve got to be a bit tough to get there, then you’ve got to be tough to get there. We probably even learned from different people that a lot of the time as women, you’re kind of meant to want to keep the job and not rock the boat too much. But if you stand up for yourself and stand your ground, in the long run it’s going to pay off more because you’re not going to be a pushover.”
“I don’t think anyone would think that we’re pushovers,” echoes Lily to this sentiment.
This steadfast assertiveness has been the secret to The Coven’s success at the Old Fitz. One night in particular stands out to the two as they recount some of the highs of seeing their project take shape.
“One night we were packing in people,” explains Lily. “Probably more than we were meant to, but it was our largest coven. We had to turn people away!
But our favourite thing is that at the end, audiences just linger and then go up to all the actors and writers saying that they loved their work, or said it was a great performance. And just seeing that is great. Because people really get recognition for their work.”
As for what’s next for The Coven? “One week’s been added, which means a three week rehearsal, followed by a fourth week performance – the third week being tech at the theatre,” the pair explain. “Then it’s just about applying.”
They stress that they lean towards welcoming newcomers in first over those who have already taken part in the initiative. “If someone has applied and they’ve never been in it,” explains Liminka, “We do give priority to newcomers.”
“Because rather than having it become the same creatives who always take part – and we do have a lot of people that love to come back – when there is a newer person we always want to give someone that opportunity for the first time as well,” adds Lily.
Applications for The Coven are posted on The Witches of Waterloo Instagram page, or sent out via email to the Witches of Waterloo emailing list.
