UNE > News and Events > Browse by article > Conference to discuss Enright’s dramatic legacy

Next Chickens have built-in ‘compass’ to find their way August 8, 2005  

Previous UNE professor ranked among Australasia’s top 12 August 4, 2005 

Conference to discuss Enright’s dramatic legacy

August 05, 2005

AdrianK.thumb.jpgA conference in Sydney next week will examine the work and legacy of a major Australian playwright: Nick Enright.

The conference, organised jointly by The University of New England in Armidale and the Australian National Playwrights’ Centre in Sydney, will initiate the critical appreciation of Enright, who died in 2003.

“Nick Enright was one of Australia’s most significant and most successful playwrights,” said UNE’s Dr Anne Pender, the convener of the conference. “As a writer, director, actor and teacher he influenced theatre in Australia for over 25 years. He wrote more than 50 plays for theatre, television and radio, translated and adapted plays, and taught acting to students in varied settings both in Australia and the United States. I believe that his plays are the third-most-produced in Australia, after those of Shakespeare and David Williamson. They include Good Works and A Property of the Clan, and the musicals Summer Rain and The Boy from Oz. His greatest international success came with the screenplay for the feature film Lorenzo’s Oil, written in collaboration with George Miller.”

Dr Pender is a member of UNE’s new Centre for Australian Literature, Language, Theatre and Screen. She explained that one of the Centre’s missions was to establish links between academics and theatre professionals. “The Nick Enright conference is a first step in that direction,” she said. It will be at the Sydney Theatre (22 Hickson Road, Walsh Bay) on Friday 12 August, running from 9 am to 5 pm.

Speakers at the conference will include Terence Clarke from the National Institute of Dramatic Art (Enright’s co-author and collaborator on Summer Rain and The Venetian Twins), and Julian Louis, the Artistic Director of State of Play (the theatre company that he and Enright established together). Other speakers will include the actor Sandy Gore and the director George Ogilvie, as well as academics from UNE, the University of NSW and the University of Queensland. UNE’s Professor Adrian Kiernander (pictured here), who is investigating the theatre and television archives of the ABC, will inform the conference about existing film footage relating to Enright’s career.

“Nick Enright was a passionate advocate for the actor and the theatre in contemporary society,” Dr Pender said. “He clung to his belief in the power of collaboration in the theatre, and stressed the creative strength of actors and directors in community.” She said conference speakers from community and young people’s theatre groups would be a living testament to the influence and continuity of his vision.

She said she was expecting about 80 people at the conference: the majority of them from Sydney, but others coming from regional NSW and inter-State. “People have been very keen to contribute,” she said. “It’s time we began some serious academic work on Enright; so far very little has been done, partly because he was so young (52) when he died, and it was such a shock.” For more information on the conference, contact Dr Pender on (02) 6773 3248 (e-mail: anne.pender@une.edu.au).


Media contact: Dr Anne Pender, School of English, Communication and Theatre, UNE (02) 6773 3248 or Jim Scanlan, Public Relations, UNE (02) 6773 3049.

Posted by Jim Scanlan at August 5, 2005 10:39 AM