Phi Theodoros

There are two sides to Phi Theodoros:

“One is the performing artist, the cabaret artist, who’s the Ukulele Dream Girl. I think the persona that I’ve created onstage is just a hyper version of myself.

And then the other side… get[s] to just meet people where they’re at, find out what’s important to them and help them to express that in some way, shape or form, because I know from my own lived experience that being creative really helps me to make sense of the world.”

Having grown up in the Adelaide Hills, Theodoros has always had a connection to arts in South Australia.

“I remember going to WOMAD as an 11-year-old or 12-year-old and just being totally blown away, going, ‘This is what I want to be amongst. I want to meet these incredible artists and I want to inspire other people to get involved in the arts in some way, too.’”

Theodoros now works at Life Without Barriers as the lead resident artist, is on board of Ink Pot Arts, and performs her own cabaret shows.

At Life Without Barriers, she says: “I have immense privilege of working with vulnerable people, predominantly children in foster care, to utilise the arts as an expressive tool to help them understand and explore the world and make sense and meaning of what’s going on for them and what’s important to them.”

“We’ve done exhibitions where we supported some of our young people to create work and then share it with a wider audience, which I am so passionate about, providing a platform and a space for people to engage in something creative, learn from that and grow from that experience, but simultaneously helping folks that don’t usually have a voice or aren’t usually heard within wider community, helping them to tell their story and share it with other people.”

On being a South Australian artist, Theodoros finds “we have so much vibrancy and we have so many amazing opportunities here.

And I am exceptionally proud to be part of that Adelaide Fringe network of artists and creatives that are involved in some way, shape or form, and I think that’s a phenomenal thing that I’ve seen grow and grow over my lifetime.”

“The Mall’s balls, the shiny pigeon in Rundle Mall, they come to life because we’re just so excited that we’ve got this opportunity at our fingertips to connect with creatives and learn and engage, and whether or not they are high-end international touring companies that play the big Spiegeltents or an emerging person that might want to just do slam poetry in a corner of a pub somewhere. Go see it all.

Go see that broad spectrum, and that’s the most exciting thing that these festivals can offer us, a massive diversity of stories.”

When asked what a festival city is, Theodoros responds “ It’s Adelaide.” Festivals, she thinks, are “about creating platforms for people to share what they do and to help people get excited about how arts and creativity can help us to express what we see around us and interpret and make sense and meaning of the world.”

From Theodoros’ work as an artist producing her own work to support other artists to create theirs, she believes that
“We need arts everywhere, and there is arts everywhere.”

Theodoros says that “Festivals are such a beautiful way to motivate artists that might otherwise just sit at home with their ukulele or with their paintbrush or with whatever their medium might be and go, ‘This is nice, but I don’t know if anyone will ever see this and I don’t know if anyone ever wants to or should see it,’ whereas models like Fringe and SALA that offer people the opportunity to go, ‘Well, I am an artist and I deserve to have a space to share my work, whatever, wherever that might be.’”

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This article is part of the Festival City Stories series, a collection of reflections about Adelaide made by the people who make this a festival place. The project was funded through the Department of Premier and Cabinet, Arts South Australia, Arts Recovery Fund, and delivered in partnership with the State Library of South Australia. 

Written by: Katerina Bryant

Photography by: Chi Catalano