Theatre company in Melbourne, Australia
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.
[1]
The company's
Southbank Theatre
houses the 500-seat Sumner and the 150-seat Lawler, and the company also performs in the
Arts Centre Melbourne
's Fairfax Studio and Playhouse, all located in Melbourne's
Arts Precinct
in
Southbank
. Considered Victoria's state theatre company, it formally comes under the auspices of the University of Melbourne. As of 2013 it offered a Mainstage Season of ten to twelve plays each year, as well as education, family and creative development activities, and reported having a subscriber base of approximately 20,000 people and played to a around quarter of a million people annually.
[2]
History
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]
The Melbourne Theatre Company was founded in 1953 by
John Sumner
as the Union Theatre Repertory Company, based at the Union Theatre of the
University of Melbourne
's
Student Union
building.
[3]
Sumner's original idea was to present a season of plays over those months when the Union Theatre was not being used by student drama societies. It was Australia's first professional repertory theatre, presenting a new play every two weeks during the season. Later, that became three weekly repertory. The first play,
Jean Anouilh
's
Colombe
, opened on 31 August 1953, starring
Zoe Caldwell
(who was later to have considerable success on
Broadway
), George Fairfax and Alex Scott.
Over the years, Melbourne Theatre Company has championed Australian writing, introducing the works of writers such as
Alan Seymour
,
Vance Palmer
,
Patrick White
,
Alan Hopgood
,
Alexander Buzo
,
David Williamson
,
John Romeril
,
Jim McNeil
,
Alma De Groen
, John Powers,
Matt Cameron
,
Ron Elisha
,
Justin Fleming
, Janis Bolodis,
Hannie Rayson
,
Louis Nowra
,
Michael Gurr
,
Jack Davis
,
Michael Gow
and
Joanna Murray-Smith
(to mention only a few) to mainstream Melbourne audiences. The first Australian play produced by the company,
Summer of the Seventeenth Doll
by
Ray Lawler
, in 1955 was quickly recognised as an Australian classic.
Lawler had by that time succeeded Sumner as Director of the company, taking it through the 1955 and 1956 seasons. When Lawler left to perform
The Doll
in London, he handed the directorship to
Wal Cherry
, who oversaw the company from 1956 until 1959. Cherry's experimental and daring approach to theatre did much to broaden the tastes of Melbourne theatre-goers, though the company suffered at the box-office. In 1959,
John Sumner
returned and subsequently steered the company through twenty-eight years of growth, watching it become, by the time he retired in 1987, the largest theatre company in Australia. Since then the company has had three artistic directors:
Roger Hodgman
(1987?1999), who steered MTC through the financially troublesome period of the late 1980s and 1990s;
Simon Phillips
, who was Artistic Director from 2000 to 2011; and
Brett Sheehy
from 2012.
Robyn Nevin
,
Pamela Rabe
, and
Aidan Fennessy
managed the 2012 season in the interim between Phillips and Sheehy.
Fennessy was Associate Director for some time.
[4]
The Melbourne Theatre Company has performed in many Melbourne venues in its history, including the
Russell Street Theatre
, the
Melbourne Athenaeum
, St Martins Theatre, the Merlyn and Beckett Theatres at the
Malthouse
, the Playhouse and Fairfax Studio of the
Arts Centre Melbourne
, the
Comedy Theatre
and the
Princess Theatre
.
[5]
Artistic Directors
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]
Awards and nominations
[
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]
Helpmann Awards
[
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]
The
Helpmann Awards
is an awards show, celebrating live entertainment and performing arts in Australia, presented by industry group
Live Performance Australia
since 2001.
[7]
Note: 2020 and 2021 were cancelled due to the
COVID-19 pandemic
.
References
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Bibliography
[
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]
- Geoffrey Hutton (1975). "It won't last a week!": the first twenty years of the Melbourne Theatre Company. Melbourne: Macmillan.
ISBN
0-333-17506-9
.
- Julian Meyrick, ed. (2004). The Drama Continues: MTC the first fifty years 1953?2003. Southbank: Melbourne Theatre Company.
ISBN
0-9751712-0-8
.
External links
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]
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Note:
this includes theatres in the Melbourne City Centre and its immediate surrounds, not the
Greater Melbourne
metropolitan area.
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