Theatre board members
Rosalba Clemente SA (chair)
Rosalba Clemente was appointed chair of the theatre board and a member of Council for three years from 26 March 2008.
Rosalba is a highly regarded theatre director, actor and playwright. She was the artistic director of The Theatre Company of South Australia from 1998 to 2004, where she established an innovative theatre laboratory to bring new Australian works to the mainstage. Rosalba has worked as both an actress and director for many Australian theatre companies. She has directed many plays, including world-premiere seasons of the highly acclaimed plays Radiance and My Vicious Angel. Her work has been nominated for many awards including Sydney Theatre Critics Circle, Victorian Green Room Awards, Mo Music Industry Entertainment Award and The Helpman Awards. Her first play Helly’s Magic Cup received the Rodney Seaborn Australian Playwriting Award for 2008. She has served on many theatre boards and advisory bodies, including the Belvoir Street Theatre board, the dance and drama advisory committee to the NSW Ministry of the Arts, and theatre advisory committee to the South Australian Department of the Arts.
Elizabeth Butcher AM NSW
Elizabeth Butcher has been general manager of NIDA since 1969. She was seconded to the NSW Premier's Department Division of Cultural Activities as assistant director in 1978. Elizabeth established Sydney Theatre Company in 1979 and was appointed a member of the New South Wales Government Cultural Grants Advisory Council and to the Council of the University of New South Wales. Elizabeth has served as a member of the Australia Council and was theatre board chair from 1981 to 1985. Elizabeth was awarded a Member Order of Australia in 1984, for services to the Australian performing arts. From 1989 to 1995, Elizabeth was chairman of the Sydney Opera House Trust, and was deputy chairman of Playing Australia, The National Performing Arts Touring Program (1992-93).
Fraser Corfield Qld
Fraser Corfield has been the artistic director of Backbone Youth Arts in Brisbane since 2005. Over the past fifteen years he has worked as a director, actor, writer, workshop facilitator and artistic director. From July 1997 to December 2000 Fraser was the artistic associate of La Boite Theatre where he was responsible for coordinating development initiatives operating alongside the main house season. From 2001 to 2003 he was artistic director of Riverland Youth Theatre in South Australia and in 2004 was appointed as the regional touring officer for the Arts Regional Touring Service with the Queensland Arts Council. In 2007 Fraser was one of seven Australian artists selected for the Next Generation International Symposium meeting in Adelaide in 2008 and Linz, Austria in 2009. He has served on the boards of Young People in the Arts Australia (2007–09), Metro Arts (Qld, 2005–08) and the Theatre Arts Network of Queensland (2006-07). Fraser has been a company associate of Queensland Theatre Company (2006-08), chair of the selection panel for the Youth Arts Mentoring Program (2006-08) and is a member of the selection panel for Queensland’s theatre industry awards, The Matildas.
Sue Broadway (Vic)
Sue Broadway has been artistic director of Strange Fruit since January 2007. She was one of the founders of Circus Oz in 1978, working as an aerialist and acrobat. After working in Europe 1984 to 1992 with her own company, she became artistic director of Circus Oz from 1992 to 1995. She was the circus director for the opening and closing ceremonies of the Sydney Olympics, and associate producer, circus and street events, for the 2006 Commonwealth Games Cultural Festival. In 2006, she worked in Doha as special skills associate director for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the Asian Games. Sue maintains her practice as a freelance performer, director and teacher and is chair of ACAPTA (Australian Circus and Physical Theatre Association).
Pamela Creed Vic
Pamela Creed is the inaugural director and CEO of the National Institute of Circus Arts (NICA). Pam began her artistic pursuits in the performing arts, and has since had an extensive career in the arts and education. Her management and leadership roles have included the head of visual and performing arts (Swinburne University of Technology), head of drama and “Showbiz” (Prahran TAFE) and head of drama (NMIT). Pamela is Australia’s representative for Federation of European Professional Circus Schools and represents Australia as a member of the International Partners Network which was established by Cirque du Soleil to foster the training of social circus instructors for projects targeting youth at risk. Previous positions and appointments include the Arts Victoria - Drama Advisory Panel, Next Wave Festival - board member and company secretary, Drama Victoria - state president, National Association of Drama in Education - national vice president, and the Arts and Entertainment Training Board - Theatre and Dance Standing Committees.
Annette Downs Tas
Annette is currently the producer of Tasmanian Performs, an Arts Tasmania initiative for the performing arts, managed by Performing Lines Ltd. Originally trained as a dancer, Annette has worked as a university lecturer, performer, choreographer, director, artistic director and general manager. From 1992-99 she was artistic director of Terrapin Puppet Theatre and saw the company grow from a local Tasmanian schools touring company to one that regularly toured interstate and overseas. Annette is a Churchill Fellow and the 1998 Telstra Tasmanian Business Woman of the Year. She has served on numerous boards including the Australian National Playwrights Centre, Tasdance, Salamanca Arts Centre and six years with the Tasmanian State Development Board, Tasmanian Arts Advisory Board and the Playing Australia Committee.
Matthew Lutton WA
Matthew is a Perth-based theatre-maker and director of ThinIce. He has directed numerous productions including: Tartuffe (Malthouse Theatre), The Lady Aoi (Black Swan Theatre Company/Perth International Arts Festival 2007), Woyzeck, The Visit, Mountain Language, Striptease (Black Swan Theatre Company Be Active BSX-Theatre), The Goose Chase (deckchair theatre/ThinIce), The Gathering, Bed, The Bald Prima Donna (ThinIce) and Out at Sea, The Martyrdom of Peter Ohey (WAAPA). As assistant director, he has worked with Neil Armfield (Company B), John Pierre-Mignon (Sydney Theatre Company), Lindy Hume (West Australian Opera) and Tom Gutteridge (Black Swan Theatre Company). In 2006 he was Black Swan Theatre Company’s associate director and from 2003 was artistic director of their Be Active BSX-Theatre program. Matthew received Best Production at the Perth International Fringe Festival 2003 for The Bald Prima Donna, Best Production at the 2005 Equity Guild Awards for The Visit and was awarded Young West Australian of the Year for Arts in 2005. In 2007 he received an arts fellowship from ArtsWA.
Chris Puplick NSW
Chris Puplick has a long involvement with the arts industry, in particular the performing arts, dance and the film industry. During his term in Parliament (1978-1981 and 1984-1990) he chaired the Coalition Backbench Committee on Environment and the Arts and was Shadow Minister for the Arts and Heritage from 1987. Chris had been on the board of the Griffin Theatre Company where he served for 15 years, including several years as deputy chair or chair. He served six years on the Board of NIDA (from 1994), and in 2007 he returned to the Board of NIDA for a further three years. Chris Puplick has an extensive interest in museum and archive matters. He served as a Trustee of the Australian Museum, and is currently the chair of the Archive Forum (a national support group for the National Film and Sound Archive) where he is developing a project designed to research and preserve material which shows the way in which significant original Australian stage works have been developed into films.