• Dita Jevons and Penny Shaw present Arts Collage on Radio Fremantle.

IN this occasional series on Radio Fremantle, we feature Penny Shaw and Dita Jevons, who broadcast their Arts Collage show every Thursday from 8.30am – 11am. Listen live at 107.9 FM or via www. radiofremantle.com.au. Anyone who would like to be featured on the program can contact Arts Collage through the website, Facebook @artscollagefremantle or Instagram @radiofremantlearts.

OUR show is one of the longest running shows on Radio Fremantle.

Every week we interview artists: singers, painters, writers, actors, folk musicians, directors, dancers, film-makers etc – both local and interstate, about work they are presenting in WA. 

The interviews are live, relaxed and conversational and really give our guests a chance to open up. 

Between the interviews we play an eclectic, (some would say eccentric!) mix of music – you never know what you are going to get! 

There are often exclusive ticket giveaways or discount codes announced for listeners.

I WAS born in Vienna, Austria, and trained as an opera singer before the war.

I moved to the UK to get married. 

I immediately became involved with community arts programs around Cambridge University. 

When the family moved to Manchester I sang in Old Time Music Hall productions and had minor roles in TV productions (including Coronation Street) and was even an extra in the blockbuster movie Patton starring George C Scott.

I also ran a boutique theatrical agency.

The family moved to Geelong in 1976 and I contributed to numerous Geelong Repertory Society stage productions over a 10-year period as actor, singer and director. I was also the Arts Critic for the Geelong News for almost a decade.

I moved to Fremantle with my husband Fred in 1988 when he took up a new role as a Professor at Murdoch University. 

I immediately sought to become involved in the local community. 

I loved the thriving arts scene here; what talented people! 

I have enjoyed promoting the Fremantle arts community for 34 years now and I hope to continue doing it for many more.

I became involved with Radio Fremantle when I arrived in 1988. 

Radio Fremantle was less than a year old then and the radio station needed help in every area as it grew. 

At various times, I was the president and the secretary. I was the chief fund raiser for many of those early years. 

When you have a cause as good as Radio Fremantle, you do not take “no” for an answer!

My two whippets, Bambi and Chico, keep me active outside the arts community. 

They are well known in dog parks around Fremantle!

I STARTED by listening and observing, graduated to manning the desk and doing a few interviews and more recently Dita has stepped back from conducting the interviews herself but is always a wonderful presence in the studio and keeps me in check!

I guess my life in Perth has been as a ‘slashie’. 

In addition to having sung for WA Opera for 20 years I have also been a writer/director/cabaret artist/podcaster and of course, broadcaster.

As one half of comedy opera duo DivaLicious I have performed in many Fringe Festivals, on Australia’s Got Talent, at the Sydney Opera House and pre-pandemic on luxury cruise ships.

I have four children, a long-suffering husband and an adorable labrador-cross-retriever called Otto who often joined in my nightly balcony serenades during Covid lockdown. 

I love painting, the theatre, parties and skinny-dipping! But not all at the same time!