Rationale

My reasoning for choosing theatre as my topic for my CAF display was simple; I love theatre. I plan to study its history at university. I am also a drama student so while I am researching, it is easier for me to understand what I am looking at and to know what I am looking for.

I used wordpress.com for my CAF display because it is a website with which I am already quite familiar, and is a simple yet effective and versatile way of presenting my research. It allows me to enhance my explanations with photographs, YouTube videos and other resources which aid the reader’s understanding.

I focused a lot of my research on the establishment of theatre companies and the performances of significant plays which displayed the development of certain themes, as opposed to merely discussing trends, movements and styles. While discussion of a movement such as workers’ theatre is important, it cannot be discussed in detail without the events that brought it to fruition. It is easier to make sense of a particular style or movement, and to explain its impact and significance, by giving examples of companies and productions where it is significant. Australia was still rebuilding itself after WWII, so the establishment of theatre groups itself was, in fact, a movement. Many theatre groups were established in this 50-year period, as were many arts festivals.

My research was displayed in a timeline, with each post titled with the year and the significant event which occurred in that year. A timeline is a clear and concise way of displaying historical information, and splitting information into small paragraphs makes for much easier reading than a long essay which rolls all information together.

I tried to find at least one picture for each event I researched. The results of this search were varied – while I was able to find photographs and even YouTube videos for some events, I was only able to find posters of others. This in itself shows the development of technology such as cameras and computers and its effect on theatre and how much it was advertised and famed.

Before I began work on my display, I did not intend to base either of my extended research questions on Aboriginal theatre. Three weeks of intense research later, however, I had realised how much information there was on the topic, hence coming to the educated conclusion that Aboriginal theatre was in fact a very important part of Australian culture and had a huge influence on the country’s theatre, particularly in the 60s and 70s. So I decided to construct one of my questions on the importance of Aboriginal theatre, and was able to find plenty of information and resources about companies, people, and productions which influenced it/which it influenced.

My how question was the result of one too many searches for “Australian theatre” which gave me results relating to film. TV had its negative and positive effects on Australian theatre in the 1950-2000 era, and as the two are closely interlinked, I decided that it would be a good point of research.

How did film and television influence theatre in post-WWII Australia?

The introduction of TV into Australia in 1956 had its good and bad points. One of its good points was that actors, producers and writers had a new avenue via which they could showcase their work. When something new and shiny comes to town, especially something like television, everyone wants to play with it. However, with so many theatre practitioners switching over to television, the stage industry almost went out of business.

Nearly every artist in Australia transferred to acting, directing, producing and writing for television shortly after it was introduced – if they didn’t transfer fully (i.e. only work in TV and not in theatre), their commitment to their TV work was much higher than that of their theatre work. It was clear that the television business would pay much better than stage.

The audiences as well as the artists were beginning to prefer TV to stage. Cinemas and drive-ins were much more popular with the youth and the modern culture. In the late 50s, this was more out of awe for this amazing innovative technology than anything else. In the 60s, however, theatre soon became a traditional and even “boring” element of entertainment and television skyrocketed to the top of the popularity ladder.

Luckily, this phase didn’t last long; within 20 years or so, people started attending stage productions again as well as enjoying the movies. One of the biggest movements of the 70s was Aboriginal theatre – as Australia’s blatant racism towards Indigenous people was still present at this time, it was clear that it would be harder for the Aborigines to get work in television. This, coupled with the fact that storytelling, singing and dancing live are a traditional part of Aboriginal culture, meant that Aboriginal people provided a form of live entertainment which wasn’t available on the television. This began to intrigue people and gradually, the love of theatre returned to Australia.

Not all aspects of television were so hindering as the aforementioned; television provided some very useful assets to Australia’s theatre business. With things like costumes, makeup and special effects being mass produced in high quality, theatre companies and groups were able to tag along and use some of them. Special effects in particular was one of the most significant factors in regaining the theatre’s once gigantic crowd of fans. The theatre-goers who had started to prefer television because of its higher quality and more convincing special effects were amazed and impressed at some of these techniques being adapted and modified to use in the theatre instead.

Why was Aboriginal theatre such an important part of Australian culture?

It is only recently that Aboriginal people are being recognised for their integral role in Australia’s unique history. Back in the 20th century, Australians remained as ignorant as ever to the people who traditionally owned the land they’d set foot on back in 1788 – that is, until Aboriginal theatre began in the late 1960s.

In the 60s and 70s, Aboriginal theatre became an integral part of Australian culture. It is descended from a 40,000-year-long history of cultural storytelling within their communities. In an interview on Message Stick, Aboriginal theatre pioneer Bob Maza said that theatre was “the best way that Aboriginal people can protest effectively.”

Kevin Gilbert, an Australian playwright, wrote the play The Cherry Picker, which was performed 4 years later by Australia’s first Aboriginal theatre company, Nindethana Theatre. The Cherry Picker is recognised as the first Aboriginal play. It was performed to a huge audience consisting of both white and black people, and it was with this performance that Indigenous theatre began its ascent into the world of Australian theatre.

National Black Theatre was another highly influential element of Aboriginal theatre. NBT’s performances presented to the white Australian community a realistic show of what life was like for them at the time, as well as reminding the audience of the ornate cultural history of the country. It tackles some complex issues from an Aboriginal person’s perspective.

Once Aboriginal theatre took the stage, the white Australian community started listening. The plays gave them a whole new perspective, showing them the difficulties of living as an Aboriginal person in an Australia which was taken by Europeans. They started to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land, and to this day, we formally acknowledge the Indigenous people at all formal ceremonies and gatherings.

To conclude, Aboriginal theatre was, and remains to be, an important part of Australian culture because it presented to “us” (us being the non-traditional custodians of the land) just what it was like to be living as an Aboriginal in a clueless and racist community. It was also important because it conveyed important traditional stories about Australia’s unique cultural history.

1990s: The Dolls’ Revolution

The decade in which women entered mainstream theatre was christened the “Dolls’ Revolution” by writers Rachel Vensham and Denise Varney, who wrote a book called “Dolls’ Revolution: Australian Theatre and Cultural Imagination”. It was characterised by women providing a different perspective on what it means to be Australian and what it’s like to be a woman in Australia in the 90s. This was significant not only because there were finally women on the scene, but some of these women were Aboriginal. Aboriginal influence on theatre was very strong in the 1990s.

1990: Bell Shakespeare

John Bell established Bell Shakespeare. Bell Shakespeare is a company which modifies Shakespeare plays to suit a younger/more modern audience and travels around to perform them. Bell Shakespeare is based in Canberra and currently in its 25th year of operation.

1990: Bran Nue Dae

Also in 1990 was the first stage performance of Bran Nue Dae, which has been made into a movie with the same name. Bran Nue Dae is an insightful Aboriginal play presented in a funny and light way, but also presents some serious underlying issues. It was pivotal in Australian theatre as it was the first ever Aboriginal musical.

Bran Nue Dae musical poster

 

1997: Out Cast

Out Cast was established. Out Cast is Australia’s longest running theatre collective performing works relatable to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transexual communities. Its first production was not particularly successful, but was enough for the small group of determined individuals to reawaken “queer theatre” in Australia.

Some pictures from one of the company’s earliest productions, “Sex … With Men” 1999

(Source: http://www.sub.net.au/~outcast/)

1998: The Boy From Oz

The Boy From Oz is the most successful Australian musical of all time; so successful that it was also the first Australian musical to hit Broadway. It ran 766 performances over a 2 year season from 1998-99. The play is based on the life of Australian singer-songwriter Peter Allen and features some of Allen’s songs.

 

1979: Australian Theatre of the Deaf

Possibly one of the most exciting parts of the 1980s for the theatre industry was the Theatre of the Deaf. Originating in 1979, this Victorian theatre company focused on performing classics – Tennessee Williams, Brecht, Beckett, Shakespeare – in sign language. To assist the hearing audience in understanding the plays, there was often a voiceover in the wings or hearing actors onstage.

1981: Melbourne Home Cooking Theatre Company

Barbara Ciszewska and Meredith Rogers teamed up and performed a production of I Am Whom You Infer. This project developed and became the Home Cooking Theatre Company, one of Australia’s two professional feminist theatre companies.

Home Cooking Theatre Company’s production of “Running Up A Dress” 1986