The Emerald Hill Theatre was a theatre company and venue in Melbourne, Australia, which operated from 1962 to 1966. The 140-seat Emerald Hill Theatre was at 250 Dorcas St, South Melbourne, in a former church converted by architect Robin Boyd. [1]
It was established by director Wal Cherry and actor, writer/director George Whaley. Cherry described it being inspired by three characteristics appearing in Australian arts at the time: "dissatisfaction with the pose of the Artist as Garret Dweller, impractical and effete; a desire to break through the elite circle which surrounds the arts into a more popular culture; [and] a definite need to bring the arts closer together in order to put pressure on the community". [2]
David Keith Williamson AO is an Australian dramatist and playwright. He has also written screenplays and teleplays.
Ivan Heng is a Singaporean actor and theatre director of Peranakan descent. He is the founding artistic director of W!LD RICE, a theatre company in Singapore, and an outspoken advocate for respect for diversity and freedom of expression.
The Melbourne Theatre Company is a theatre company based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1953 as the Union Theatre Repertory Company at the Union Theatre at the University of Melbourne, it is the oldest professional theatre company in Australia.
The Australian Ballet is the largest classical ballet company in Australia. It was founded by J. C. Williamson Theatres Ltd and the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust in 1962, with the English-born dancer, teacher, repetiteur and director Dame Peggy van Praagh as founding artistic director. Today, it is recognised as one of the world's major international ballet companies and performs upwards of 150 performances a year.
Victorian Opera is an opera company based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The company was founded in 2005 by the Victorian Government as a replacement for the Victoria State Opera. It commenced operations in January 2006 with Richard Gill as Artistic Director. Richard Mills is the current Artistic Director. The company is supported through government funding, patron contributions and corporate sponsorship.
Ceremonial dancing has a very important place in the Indigenous cultures of Australia. They vary from place to place, but most ceremonies combine dance, song, rituals and often elaborate body decorations and costumes. The different body paintings indicate the type of ceremony being performed. They play an important role in marriage ceremonies, in the education of Indigenous children, as well as storytelling and oral history. The term corroboree is commonly used to refer to Australian Aboriginal dances, although this term has its origins among the people of the Sydney region. In some places, Aboriginal people perform corroborees for tourists. In the latter part of the 20th century the influence of Indigenous Australian dance traditions has been seen with the development of concert dance, with the Aboriginal Centre for the Performing Arts (ACPA) providing training in contemporary dance.
Nadia Tass is an Australian theatre director and film director and producer. She is known for the films Malcolm (1986) and The Big Steal (1990), as well as an extensive body of work in the theatre, both in Australia and internationally.
Theatre of Australia refers to the history of the performing arts in Australia, or produced by Australians. There are theatrical and dramatic aspects to a number of Indigenous Australian ceremonies such as the corroboree. During its colonial period, Australian theatrical arts were generally linked to the broader traditions of English literature and to British and Irish theatre. Australian literature and theatrical artists have over the last two centuries introduced the culture of Australia and the character of a new continent to the world stage.
Walter John Cherry was an Australian academic, drama scholar and theatre director, producer and manager
The New Theatre, formerly Workers' Art Club and New Theatre League, is a community theatre company in the Inner West Sydney suburb of Newtown, Australia. Its origins are in the international New Theatre movement of the 1920s, and it is the oldest theatre company in continuous production in New South Wales.
Helen Morse is an English-born Australian actress who has appeared in films, on television and on stage. She won the AFI (AACTA) Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for the 1976 film Caddie, and starred in the 1981 miniseries A Town Like Alice. Her other film appearances include Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), Agatha (1979), Far East (1982) and The Eye of the Storm (2011).
Robyn Anne Nevin is an Australian actress, director, and stage producer, recognised with the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards and the JC Williamson Award at the Helpmann Awards for her outstanding contributions to Australian theatre performance art. Former head of both the Queensland Theatre Company and the Sydney Theatre Company, she has directed more than 30 productions and acted in more than 80 plays, collaborating with internationally renowned artists, including Richard Wherrett, Simon Phillips, Geoffrey Rush, Julie Andrews, Aubrey Mellor, Jennifer Flowers, Cate Blanchett and Lee Lewis.
The National Theatre is a 783-seat Australian theatre and theatrical arts school located in the Melbourne bayside suburb of St Kilda, on the corner of Barkly and Carlisle Streets. The building was constructed in 1921 as The Victory Theatre, rebuilt as 2550 seat cinema in 1928, finally converted to a live venue 1972/4 with 783 seats. The stalls seating was converted to studios and rehearsal rooms for the schools
Lucy Durack is an Australian actress, singer and television personality who played Glinda in the Australian production of Wicked, and Elle Woods in the Australian production of Legally Blonde: The Musical. She starred as Tugger in Australian television drama Doctor Doctor in 2016 and as Roxy Karibas in Sisters in 2017.
Steve Mouzakis is an Australian film, television and theatre actor. He is known for his role in the Spike Jonze film Where the Wild Things Are, Van Gogh in Prison Break, Steven Ray in the film The Suicide Theory, and performing alongside Joel Edgerton and Sean Harris as Paul in the 2022 film The Stranger.
Harold Verdun Baigent , known as 'Baige', was a New Zealand theatre director, actor and arts manager. He trained as an actor in the USA at Yale University Drama School, and acted in Broadway and London stage productions, before returning to New Zealand in the late 1940s, where he founded his own drama company and worked as a drama tutor and stage manager. In the 1960s he settled in Melbourne, Australia. As director of the Emerald Hill Theatre Company and the Victorian Travelling Theatre, he was an influential figure in the Victorian theatrical scene, and played a significant role in promoting the arts in regional Victoria and South Australia. He was associated with the Warrandyte Arts Association Drama Group and performed in many productions including Twelfth Night (1964) as Malvolio, and as director of Salad Days (1968).
Brett Joseph Sheehy AO is an Australian artistic director, producer and curator. He is currently the CEO of the Melbourne Theatre Company (MTC). He was also appointed to direct three of the five international arts festivals in Australia's State capital cities, namely: Sydney Festival, Adelaide Festival and Melbourne Festival.
Zahra Newman is a Jamaican-born Australian actress.
Nindethana Theatre was Australia's first Aboriginal theatre company, founded in Melbourne in 1971, with its last performance in Adelaide in 1974.
The Record was a weekly newspaper published in Melbourne, Victoria, from 1869 to at least 1954, serving Port Melbourne, Albert Park, Middle Park, and Garden City.