Belvoir’s Associate Director – New Projects, Eamon Flack, has been appointed to lead the company from 2016. He will be the company’s third Artistic Director and lead it into its fourth decade.
Flack is widely regarded as one of Australia’s leading theatre directors. He is best known for his recent sold-out production of The Glass Menagerie and for his Helpmann Award-winning production of Angels in America in 2013. He has also worked as a writer, actor and dramaturg for Belvoir, Melbourne Theatre Company, Malthouse Theatre and many other companies.
Born in Singapore, Flack travelled widely as a child, but spent most of his youth in Darwin before attending high school in Brisbane. He holds a BA from Queensland University and graduated from the acting program at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts in 2003.
“I’ve served a kind of apprenticeship for this job for the last nine years – half under Neil Armfield and half under Ralph Myers – and again and again I’ve seen astonishing things achieved in ridiculous circumstances,” said Flack.
“Running a theatre is a quixotic undertaking. Everything you ever do is doomed to disappear forever on closing night. And yet I can think of nothing better. To my mind, the cardboard crown of the artistic directorship of Belvoir is the absolute height of honour and responsibility.”
“A theatre is one of society’s test cases. If a rich, liberal country can’t find a way to include the full variety of life in the model of itself on stage, then how can we hope to include the full variety of life in the real society off stage? The ideal theatre company is a combination of a nineteenth-century playbill and SBS world movies: our greatest actors in the finest plays, delivering the world on stage.”
“I’d like the Upstairs Theatre to be Sri Lanka one moment, Lakemba the next and Elizabethan London after that. Belvoir is a little building on a hill where people gather to say what they really mean and to let it all out then and there – all the outrage and bafflement and astonishment at what we’re living through – in order to go home again with some faith in humanity and a sense of purpose. I cannot imagine a more wonderful job than leading such a company.”
“Eamon is a very good theatre director indeed,” said Belvoir’s current Artistic Director Ralph Myers. “His work is sophisticated, delicate and finely wrought. In addition to his skills as a director, he is a generous and sensitive mentor and supporter of artists. He has a keen eye for emerging talent, and is often the first person to spot the worth of exciting new projects at their genesis.”
“During my tenure here as Artistic Director he has been an invaluable Associate Director, and I am delighted at the Board’s decision to appoint him as my replacement. I look forward to many years of thrilling, bold, and engaging theatre under his leadership.”
“The Board is excited at the appointment of Eamon Flack to the role of Artistic Director at Belvoir,” said the Chair Andrew Cameron. “Eamon is clearly one of Australia’s most exciting and talented theatre directors, as we have seen in his recent productions of The Glass Menagerie and Angels in America.”
“We now look forward to working with him as he takes overall responsibility for the artistic direction of the company, building on the exceptional legacy of his predecessor, Ralph Myers.”
Flack will continue in his position as Associate Director – New Projects and as Artistic Director designate throughout 2015 while programming the 2016 Season. He will assume the role of Artistic Director as of January 2016.
For more information, visit: www.www.belvoir.com.au for details.
Image: Eamon Flack – photo by Brett Boardman