Zac Martin in a scene from Basically Black, 1973 Image: Courtesy of the ABC

SPOTLIGHT ON: TESS ALLAS, Managing Curator of our 181 Regent St Exhibition

181 Regent St is an exhibition celebrating the National Black Theatre, which was located in Regent St, Redfern, and operated during the political and cultural revolution in the 1970s. This exhibition honours the people who founded the National Black Theatre and the many indigenous actors and writers whose careers were launched or furthered through the organisation.

The exhibition will open this Sunday, 8 January, at Carriageworks, and is part of Sydney Festival’s Black Capital program. A symposium addressing the legacy of 181 Regent St will take place on Saturday 14 January.

Recently we caught up with Tess Allas from from the College of Fine Arts, UNSW, Managing Curator of the exhibition, to get her perspective and insights into the show:

Carriageworks: The National Black Theatre was sadly short lived, however it made a great impact on the Australian arts scene today. What do you think is the most important aspect of the National Black Theatre’s legacy?

Tess Allas: It certainly did make a great impact. It helped launch many careers of Aboriginal actors. It has provided a very strong foundation on which other Aboriginal actors, directors, writers and technicians can be proud. Their pioneering efforts of creating a space where the stories, imaginings and ideas of Aboriginal Australia can be explored and presented by Aboriginal people and for Aboriginal people has, I believe, provided a very strong and secure foundation that allowed others to follow. Without these people and their tireless efforts I wonder would we have the amazingly large back catalogue of Aboriginal plays, films and other theatre based performances that have been produced since those heady days of the 1970s.

This exhibition contains memorabilia from such productions as The Cherry Pickers and The Cake Man; Why are these productions important to remember today?

It is always important to remember when, where and who made a difference. Those who paved the way for others to follow should always be honoured. Without these people who created, devised, performed and wrote productions such as this we would be without theatrical heroes and role models. When you consider that Robert Merritt, who wrote The Cake Man and Kevin Gilbert, the author of The Cherry Pickers wrote these plays whilst living in the most trying of conditions you begin to understand why these works and their subsequent success was so important.

Can you give us a bit of an idea about what we can expect to see?

A visitor to this exhibition will see an exhibition that contains photographic images of some of the founding members of The National Black Theatre as well as imagery of plays that the National Black Theatre produced. Other imagery includes plays that were produced by graduates of the National Black Theatre’s drama class. The exhibition also contains a film of a Basically Black rehearsal as well as six Basically Black skits filmed for the ABC along with an episode of Pig in a Poke which starred the celebrated director, Brian Syron. Pig in a Poke was a drama series produced by the ABC that looked at the everyday lives of a group of Aboriginal people living and working in inner-city Redfern in the 1970s. That is just a glimpse as to what you can expect.

Many of the items in this collection were found within personal collections and national archives. What do you regard as your greatest find for the show?

My greatest find for this exhibition would have to be, without a doubt, the typed drafts with handwritten edits of Kevin Gilbert’s play, The Cherry Pickers as well as carbon copies of some of his letters. One to a funding agency to have The Cherry Pickers published, which was rejected, and a letter to the Adelaide Festival asking that The Cherry Pickers be included in their next festival season, which was also rejected. These materials were kindly donated by Kevin Gilbert’s widow, Eleanor Gilbert.

Did the Carriageworks space influence your decisions when curating this exhibition?

Yes it did. It is a challenging space to stage an exhibition within. Curatorial decisions had to be made in regards to the timeframe on what material was collected and shown. Many donators wanted to give material of events that were occurring around the same time that the National Black Theatre was established and, sadly, I had to leave these pieces out as the space where the exhibition is being held is quite limited. All exhibition spaces provide a curator with unique challenges which help inform the structure of all exhibitions.

What do you hope audiences will take away from the 181 Regent St exhibition?

I hope the audience leaves this exhibition with a new or renewed regard for those people who were the pioneers of Aboriginal theatre. I also hope they leave with a sense that this exhibition has honoured those voices and their vision.

181 Regent St
Addressing Black Theatre
Exhibition
8 – 29 Jan 2012
FREE
More

Symposium
14 Jan 2012
FREE
More