AustLit

The Australian theatre, television and film industries are dynamic and creative in ways that could never have been imagined half a century ago. Since the 1950s these industries have expanded and demonstrated extraordinary vitality. Our vibrant Australian performing arts industry would not exist in its current form without the creative contribution of actors. Actors are the public face of the performing arts, carrying the immediate responsibility for the success of each show. Yet they are sometimes left out of theatre history. It is the actors, and often the characters they play, that we remember when we recall a favourite television program, film or play, long after we have seen it. It is the actors who make a play or a television program credible, enjoyable and memorable. The aim of the essays in this series is to document and interpret the specific contributions of actors who have worked in Australia for most of their lives, in order to understand their artistry and their world. The actors profiled in these pages came to maturity in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. They have shaped our ideas and our identity.

Actor-playwright Nick Enright believed in an actor-driven theatre, advocating that the actor should drive the theatrical event in strong collaboration with the director. He reminded us that the actor ‘shows us who we are, who we hope to be, and who we fear we may be’. (1) This is a truism recognised by the ancients and articulated by the critic, William Hazlitt. But it is particularly resonant during periods of social transformation such as the period from 1950 to the present.

In addition to shaping our sense of ourselves, our actors present the face of Australia to the world. The actors profiled here have made, and continue to make a major contribution to Australian cultural life, and to artistic culture beyond our shores. These biographical essays offer a window into the lives of actors, and into their industry. I have been fortunate in that so many actors have granted me interviews for this project, and I have corresponded with them over several years, in order to interpret their individual contributions to theatre, television and film. The actors generously shared with me their reflections about their family of origin and their earliest memories of performing. They spoke to me about how they began working, the training they received, their approach to their art and their sense of the profession, and its many changes, throughout a formative period in Australian theatre history.

Until the mid-1950s and early 1960s Australian actors were a minority on the stage in their own country. Actors who were trained in the United Kingdom dominated the industry and the big touring companies brought performers to Australia from overseas rather than employing local actors. Australian actors also departed for London to gain experience in the West End and in repertory companies all over the UK, wherever they could find work. This situation changed in the 1950s as a result of the production of new Australian plays by small but significant companies and the vision of a range of actors, playwrights and directors such as Doris Fitton, Sumner Locke Elliott, Hayes Gordon, Barry Humphries, Ray Lawler, John Sumner, Bill Orr, George Ogilvie and many others. For example the Independent Theatre, the Ensemble and the Phillip Street Theatre Companies in Sydney, and the University Theatre Repertory Company in Melbourne, began to stage Australian plays in the 1950s, and to offer popular satirical revue theatre that provided employment for Australian performers in extended seasons. Australian actors at last spoke in the vernacular when they performed Australian plays and revues, and did not have to worry so much about their accents, although the preference for a cultivated accent persisted for some years.

The introduction of television in Australia in 1956 provided employment for actors and began to transform their opportunities to perform. Later in the 1960s and early 1970s the film industry also transformed career paths for Australian actors. The opportunities provided by television meant that, at last, the actors could and did envisage for themselves a career in Australia. The changes took place gradually. Many of the actors I have interviewed worked on stage, on radio, on television and later on in feature films. Most actors work on stage, television and film, with radio drama all but gone in Australia. The actors adapted to the new environment of television with flair, energy and commitment, generally with no training for the new medium.

These essays reveal that actors must be brave souls. They have to submit themselves to constant scrutiny in auditions and rehearsals, and they must submit to their character in each production in order to create that character physically, vocally and psychologically. They must master technique and continue to learn and develop with every new production in which they work. Moreover, in Australia actors must be versatile in order to work across all genres of theatre, from serious drama to comedy and musical theatre.

Susan Lever has argued that Australian stage actors are ‘generally more energetic, more daring, more exuberant than their British counterparts and they do not share the reverence for a text which British actors, trained for Shakespeare, usually exhibit’.(2) It is apparent from my research that there is a distinctive style of Australian acting that the actors profiled here have developed. For example Max Cullen is an actor who early on rejected traditional acting modes in favour of a quieter, more naturalistic way of performing. Many of the actors whose work I have observed have demonstrated that exuberance, irreverence and relaxed style that Cullen and others actors such as Maggie Dence, Henri Szeps, Tony Sheldon and others display.

These profile essays also show that many Australian actors did not undergo formal training in studios or training schools. Some studied with directors like Doris Fitton, or took some training with commercial schools such as the Crawford Television Workshop before the National Institute for Dramatic Art in Sydney opened in 1958, offering a new opportunity for aspiring actors, further professionalising acting in Australia, and changing the status of training. In spite of this, a number of well-known Australian actors trained ‘on the job’, in productions with directors in rehearsal, and through observing other actors at work. As these essays reveal, many Australian actors have gone on to become successful playwrights and directors. Their work as actors has undoubtedly contributed to their ability to write and direct. Many of the actors spoke to me about their training, and of directors who nurtured their development, and their comments show the significance of the actor-director relationship in the theatre-making process.

Actor-director George Ogilvie, wrote in his memoir of his love of actors, ‘both as a breed and as individuals’. He observes that

The Australian actors profiled here have achieved this regularly and gloriously.

(1) Nick Enright, ‘Collaboration and Community’, Rex Cramphorn Lecture, 24 November 2002, Australasian Drama Studies, 42, April 2003, 19.

(2) Susan Lever (McKernan), A Question of Commitment: Australian Literature in the Twenty Years After the War, Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1989.

(3) George Ogilvie, Simple Gifts: A Life in the Theatre, Sydney: Currency House, 2006, 320.

Anne Pender is (2016) Professor of English and Theatre Studies. She held an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship from 2012-2015 and conducted a major study of Australian actors on stage, television and film. A Menzies Scholar to Harvard University and graduate of the Australian National University and the University of New South Wales, Anne taught Australian Literature at King's College London in 2002-03 and was Visiting Distinguished Professor of Australian Studies at the University of Copenhagen in 2011-12.

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