Fifty years ago, Flinders University stepped into the spotlight and announced itself as a lead player in developing Drama as a dynamic creative force In South Australia.
Flinders has taught Drama as a separate discipline since the School of Humanities was established in 1967, but within five years took the crucial step of introducing a professional actor training program at Flinders Drama Centre, with the first graduates emerging in 1974.
This was the first professional acting training program in Adelaide, and Flinders became the first university in Australia to offer actor training. It subsequently provided the springboard for a host of celebrated actors, such as the multiple AFI and Logie Award winning actor Noni Hazlehurst AM (BA ’75,DLitt ’07), Hollywood star Xavier Samuel (BCreatArts(Hons) ’06), and Helpmann Award winning actors Cameron Goodall (BA(Hons) ’01) and Amber McMahon(BA(Hons) ’02), directors such as the Helpmann Award-winning Gale Edwards AM (BA ’75, DLitt ’15), and Benedict Andrews (BA ’95, DLitt ’16), and Oscar-nominated film-maker Scott Hicks (BA(Hons) ’75, DLitt ’97) and playwrights such as the AWGIE winners Melissa Reeves (BA(Hons) ’84) and Caleb Lewis (BA(Hons) ’02) just to name a few.
Even more importantly, Flinders graduates and staff have driven the emergence of several important Adelaide theatre companies, including Red Shed Theatre, Brink Productions, Flying Penguin Productions, The Border Project and more recently CRAM Collective.
Drama at Flinders was built on key principles of innovation and bold presentation decisions – which was clear to see with the productions from the foundation chair of Drama, Professor Wal Cherry. The innovative former Melbourne theatre director presented the musical The Fantasticks at the newly-opened Space Theatre in November 1974, with a cast that included future star actors Noni Hazlehurst, Neil Melville (BA(Hons) ’77), Tom Considine (BA ’76) – alongside Douglas Gautier, who is now CEO and Artistic Director of the Adelaide Festival Centre.
Capturing the spirit of innovation and embracing bold new Australian works has set the Flinders Drama course apart from traditional acting conservatoire institutions, which were conceived more as an actor’s training college in service of the industry in its current form. The Flinders Drama vision has been more focused on nurturing the creative minds who will lead the industry into the future.
This maxim has been maintained throughout its 50 years, according to Dr Christopher Hurrell (BA(Hons) ’01), Lecturer in Drama, Course Coordinator for the Bachelor of Performance and current manager of Flinders Drama Centre, who recalls an inspiring spirit of creativity and innovation when he trained at Flinders as an actor and director in the 1990s.
“Excellence in Drama is not just about doing the work, but learning how to make the work. I know the benefit of that, because it led to my career in theatre that has given me national and international opportunities,” says Dr Hurrell. “Flinders’ unique research-and-practice approach, pioneered by Professor Cherry in the 1960s and 1970s, and Professor Emerita Julie Holledge in the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s, has been revived and secured for the next generation of South Australian emerging artists.”
This commitment was renewed with enthusiasm when Flinders undertook a review of Drama in 2020, ultimately resulting in the new Bachelor of Performance degrees launched this year, which respond to the changing needs of the sector in light of emerging trends, technologies and platforms.
“This is crucial,” says Dr Hurrell. “There has to be innovation for progress, and for this to occur at Flinders will ensure the dynamic future of Drama in this country.”
The tradition of innovation, and the fearlessness to step outside of convention, continues with Flinders Drama’s choice of celebration for its 50th anniversary – making this year’s Wal Cherry Lecture, in the Space Theatre on Friday 15 November, a screening of a rare documentary movie, The Hall of Mirrors: A Festival, being a behind-the-scenes expose of the 1982 Adelaide Festival. The event will also feature a discussion between Scott Hicks, who was commissioned to make the film, and 1982 Adelaide Festival Artistic Director Jim Sharman (also notorious as director of The Rocky Horror Picture Show).
“It appropriately focuses on a moment when the new and the exciting happened in Adelaide,” says Dr Hurrell, “and that moment inspires us all to keep being innovative, now and far into the future.”