Australia Dancing - Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust (1954

Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust (1954 - )

A scene from 'Lola Montez', Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust [2], 1958

The Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust (AETT) was established under the guidance of H. C. ‘Nugget’ Coombs (Governor, Commonwealth Bank), Charles Moses (General Manager, Australian Broadcasting Commission) and John Douglas Pringle (Editor, The Sydney Morning Herald), to ‘provide a theatre of Australians by Australians for Australians’. Largely driven by Coombs, it drew on concepts explored by Gertrude Johnson in her National Theatre Movement, and sought to commemorate the visit to Australia of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh in 1954. Financial assistance from the federal and state governments, industry and the public enabled the establishment of the first Australian organisation to direct substantial public funds to the Australian performing arts on a national basis.

With government assistance the Trust acquired the Majestic Theatre, Newtown, in 1955, to serve as ‘a place where its companies could be formed and from which they could set out to visit all the States of the Commonwealth’. In 1956, under the auspices of the Trust, the Australian Opera Company, was formed in Sydney, later changing its name to the Elizabethan Theatre Trust Opera Company, in 1957. As part of the Opera’s 1957 season the Elizabethan Theatre Trust decided to employ several dancers who formed the short lived Elizabethan Opera Ballet Company. The company’s inaugural 1957 program consisted or three ballets: Eleonore Treiber’s Ballet Academy to music arranged by Georg Tintner, Laurel Martyn’s Sigrid to music by Edvard Greig, and the specially commissioned Wakooka by Valrene Tweedie, set to the music of John Antill with costume and set designs by Elaine Haxton. According to the AETT’s 1958 Annual Report the performances did not prove ‘sufficiently popular to encourage [the AETT] to present small-scale ballet in major theatres at the present time.’

Hugh Hunt (Executive Director, AETT) described the AETT’s lack of early involvement in the promotion of ballet, in 1956, as follows: ‘The one notable omission from our activities has been the promotion of ballet. Ballet companies are not grown in a hurry and in any case the country possesses a first-class Ballet Company in the Borovansky Australian Ballet. It is our hope that in time we may be able to stimulate the development of modern ballet in Australia with special attention to Australian subjects.’ In 1961, following the demise of the Borovansky Ballet, the AETT moved to rectify their previous omission and, together with J. C. Williamson Ltd. and with the assistance of a federal government grant, established the Australian Ballet Foundation. The Foundation was set up expressly to advise, administer and assist in the creation of a national ballet company, which it achieved with the employment of Peggy van Praagh as artistic director. The company commenced its inaugural tour in November 1962. In 1964 as the next step in the Trust’s policy to establish ballet in Australia at a national level, the AETT established the Australian Ballet School. The school, under the direction of Margaret Scott, received its first intake of twenty-seven advanced ballets students, following Australia-wide auditions in 1963.

At first relying on the ABC orchestras for its productions, the Elizabethan Trust Orchestra was established by the AETT in 1967, subsequently dividing into Melbourne and Sydney orchestras in 1969. These separate orchestras supported the Australian Opera and the Australian Ballet throughout around the country.

The AETT was also influential in the establishment of the National Institute of Dramatic Arts (NIDA), Marionette Theatre of Australia, the Elizabethan Trust Orchestra, and the Australian Theatre of the Deaf. The Trust also provided significant support for the Old Tote Company, Melbourne Theatre Company and South Australian Theatre Company.

The AETT’s influence on Australian dance also extended to the presentation of a diverse range of international theatrical, operatic, and dance companies to Australian audiences. Amongst the many international dance companies that the AETT has presented since its inception are Kolo Yugoslav Dance Company (1959), Bolshoi Ballet (1959, 1962, 1970, 1985, 1987, 1992, 1994), Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre (1962, 1964-1965, 1985), Chitrasena Ballet (1963), Jose Limon Dance Company (1963), Zorba Song and Dance Company (1971), Eleo Pomare Dance Company (1972), Leningrad Kirov Ballet (1973), El Sali and his Flamenco Dance Company (1973), Alice Reyes Ballet (1974), Scottish Ballet (1974), Stuttgart Ballet (1974), Dance Theatre of Harlem (1975), National Dance Theatre of Jamaica (1976), Chhau – The Masked Dancers of Bengal (1977), Polish Mime Ballet Theatre (1978), Jose Greco Flamenco Company (1974-1975), and the Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet (1982).

The activities of the AETT have also extended into administration and publishing services, providing the management of tax deductible donations, costume and props hire, management of superannuation funds, auspicing of funds from governmental bodies, and the publishing of numerous magazines through their various state offices. Despite operations having been scaled down in recent years, the Trust continues to manage the SBW Independent Theatre, publish a newsletter, and organises theatre parties, concerts and functions for its members.

Bibliography:

The Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust: the first year (Sydney: The Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust, 1956); Stephen Alomes, ‘The search for a National Theatre’, Voices (Spring 1993), pp. 21-37.

Research Materials

Ephemera | Manuscript | Oral history | Picture | All

Other resources

Find more about Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust in:

Internet - Google
Articles - New York Public Library Dance Collection
Pictures - Picture Australia