Hepburn Springs local, Aurora Kurth is a highly sought-after entertainer, renowned for her sublime vocals, cheeky comedy and sharp wit. With a career in the performing arts spanning over two decades, the critically acclaimed singer, actress, comedienne and Mistress of Ceremonies has captivated audiences across Australia.
She is a graduate of the Actors Centre, Sydney and The John Bolton Theatre School, Melbourne and Solo Artist in Residence Program at Victoria University, Melbourne.
Aurora is currently the lead actor in the show Mara at Theatre works in St Kilda. Mara refocuses the traditional lens in the Cinderella myth. Taking the story from the stepmother perspective.
A spirited, ambitious girl desperate to escape her prescribed destiny, marriage to a wealthy widower seems to promise a new beginning for Mara, but the fantasy quickly unravels. Families won’t blend, her husband vanishes, and she is left caring for a stepdaughter who will never love her. Exploring the emotional terrain of blended families and the complex bonds between parents and children, this powerful retelling is set in a crumbling home, haunted by broken promises.
Aurora brings ten characters to life while a live musician creates a richly layered, Foley-inspired soundscape that functions as both score, and storytelling engine. Children, parents, lovers, and ghosts emerge in a collision of yearning, memory, music, and myth.
As a busy performer and director, what are your go-to local Hepburn spots for “switching off” and finding balance between your touring schedule and home life?
I spend a lot of time out in the bush around where I live.
I’ll take the dogs and just wander, following kangaroo tracks, getting a bit lost, finding creeks, old gold mine tunnels and waterways. It’s less about a specific “spot” and more about that feeling of being off grid for a while. After being in rehearsal rooms and theatres, I really need that kind of open, unstructured time to reset.
You’ve seen the local arts scene evolve. What changes have you noticed in the Daylesford and Hepburn regions that make it an increasingly vital place for independent theatre-makers and cabaret artists to live and work?
There’s definitely an appetite for live performance here, which is really exciting.
Audiences show up, things sell out, there’s genuine curiosity and support. What’s still emerging is the infrastructure. We don’t yet have a dedicated theatre or company, but spaces like Radius Art Gallery, the back bar of the Daylesford Hotel, the redevelopment of the Palais in Hepburn, and hopefully more use of places like the currently under renovation Daylesford Town Hall point to something growing.
It feels like a region on the cusp, the audience is ready, and now it’s about building sustainable spaces for artists to work.
You recently brought your show Sass & Secrets to the Radius Art Gallery in Hepburn Springs. What is it like performing for your own home crowd in such an intimate regional venue?
It was fantastic.
The team at Radius were incredibly supportive and really embraced the idea of turning the gallery into a performance space. We brought in the lighting and set, and they just made it work.
The audience response was amazing; we sold out and had a waiting list, which was really encouraging. There’s something special about performing for a home crowd; people are open, generous, and genuinely excited to be there.
You recently held the final rehearsals for Mara in Daylesford before its world premiere. How does the artistic community in the Hepburn Shire influence your process compared to working in major cities like Melbourne or Sydney?
Practically, it’s very different; we were rehearsing in a small hall just outside Daylesford in Dean, which was a fraction of the cost of anything in the city, which makes a huge difference for independent work. That said, even locally, access to affordable rehearsal space can still be a challenge.
Creatively, I think being out of the city allows for a bit more space, literally and mentally. There’s less noise, less pressure, and more room to sit with the work. It becomes a bit more intuitive and less rushed.
How did you approach portraying the emotional complexities of a stepmother in a failing blended family and what challenges did that bring to your performance?
It’s something I have a personal connection to; I’ve been a stepchild since I was young, and I’m also a stepmother. So rather than approaching it academically, I drew on lived experience.
Blended families are incredibly nuanced; there’s love, loyalty, resentment, and longing, often all at once. The challenge is holding those contradictions without simplifying them. Mara isn’t “good” or “bad”, she’s trying, and failing, and trying again.
The show explores themes of “who gets to be seen as monstrous”; how does your character interact with this idea of judgment versus forgiveness?
What I find compelling about Mara is that her actions are confronting, but her motivations are deeply human. She wants to belong, to be loved, to be chosen, and when those things feel threatened, she makes increasingly destructive choices. The question becomes: at what point do we stop empathising? And who gets afforded compassion, and who gets labelled as “monstrous”?
The piece doesn’t offer easy answers; it asks the audience to sit in that discomfort.
Mara is described as being set in a “crumbling home haunted by broken promises”. How does the intimate, often intense space of Theatre Works enhance this atmosphere?
Theatre Works is perfect for this kind of piece because the audience is so close to the action. There’s nowhere to hide, for the performer or the audience. That intimacy heightens everything: the tension, the humour, the discomfort. The world of the play starts to feel very immediate, almost like it’s happening inside the audience as much as on stage.
What do you hope audiences take away from this specific exploration of power, gender, and inherited narratives?
I hope audiences recognise something of themselves in it, even in the parts that are uncomfortable. The play looks at how patterns are inherited and repeated, often unconsciously, particularly around gender roles and family dynamics. If people leave questioning those patterns, or even just seeing them more clearly, then the work has done something meaningful.
