DAVID GEORGE
Artistic Director

David George is a writer, an award-winning playwright, theatre director and international expert in Asian Theatre.

He now lives in Margaret River, Western Australia where he and Helen Trenos have founded a new, professional theatre company called "Noble Rot."

Production highlights
Productions in full
Academic career
Publications

PRODUCTIONS IN FULL
1978 TIME TO PAY (a multi-media political play about ecological terrorism)
Wrote and directed
Princess May Theatre, Fremantle and numerous other venues including the Comfest

1979 BRECHT'S WAY (Brecht between Taoism and Marxism)
Adapted and Directed
Murdoch Undercroft Theatre

1980 SAINT GENET (the life and works of Jean Genet as metatheatre)
Adapted and directed
Murdoch Undercroft Theatre

" Saint Genet excerpts a provocation ...

it is not a conventional panorama of Genet's writings, nor a mere challenge to the sensibilities of audiences, rather provocation with outrageous emphasis on points held previously irreversible

... great emotional and intellectual tension."
The West Australian , Tuesday, May 27, 1980

1981 COMMEDIA DELL'ARTE
Round House Fremantle and F.A.S.T. Sydney
Devised and directed

1981 IMPROVIZATIONS (theatrical and video improvisations on paintings and pop songs)
Devised and directed
W.A. Art Gallery

" Stunning Use of Light and Shadows

... the venture was bold, all the elements expertly and faultlessly assembled and a credit to the group that worked so hard to initiate the series.   It will be remembered for its daring innovations.

... we should be grateful for something radically new appearing on our `stages."   
Artlook , October, 1981

1982  AN EVENING FOR EVE (images and roles of women from Greece to today)
Devised and directed
Murdoch Undercroft Theatre

1982 LEAR - THE MONOLOGUE
Festival of Perth production at the W.A. Art Gallery
Professional production
Adapted and directed

" Challenge for WA's Theatre

'Lear - the Monologue' looks like being the Festival's most revolutionary theatrical venture.

With W.A.'s leading professional actor Edgar Metcalfe, most radical theorist David George and a pianist, Greg Goodman, who can make his instrument a raging storm or a needling Fool, Lear should lead adventurous theatre-goers into realms hitherto unexplored by Perth audiences.

... the one Festival production true theatre lovers should not miss."
Sunday Times

"... both brave and successful.

... an incredible performance.

We should have more of this kind of theatre ..."
Sunday Times, Sunday, March 7, 1982

1983 MISHIMA - CONFESSIONS OF A MASK (the first play to use both Japanese texts and performance techniques to be performed by Western actors in Australia)
Murdoch Undercroft Theatre
Adapted and directed

"European actors performing a Japanese play could have created a disaster - but they didn't.

Assisted by the sensitive direction and simple but superb stage sets of David George and Serge Tampalini, the small cast moved with dreamlike fluidity through the fantasies and realities of Mishima's life.

... the Murdoch group has achieved an almost perfect blend of the traditional Japanese, its simplicity and the Western ways of communicating emotions.

Confessions of a Mask' is a fine, intriguing production."
Daily News

"Confessions of a Mask':   David George and Serge Tampalini have created something rather special.   With the assistance of a disciplined and talented cast they focus on the romantic agony of Yukio Mishima.   The techniques of noh and kabuki staging are the medium for a powerful presentation."  
The National Times, June 3 to 9, 1983

1984  ANYTHING FOR THE CAUSE (agit-prop political play)--professional production--Princess May Theatre, Fremantle and the The Maltings
Wrote

1984 THE COMMANDER OF KALDA (surrealistic play by Guy Weller)
The Maltings, Professional production
Dramaturge

"I believe The Commander of Kalda' would be at least a minor sensation somewhere like New York or Paris."
The West Australian , Saturday, August 18, 1984

1984 1984 (Theatre-in-Education adaptation of George Orwell's novel)
performed at numerous metropolitan high schools
Wrote and directed

"... brilliantly devised and staged ..."
Sunday Times,  June 10, 1984

1984 MAP OF THE WORLD (David Hare)
Indian Ocean Arts Festival
The Maltings - Professional production
Dramaturge

" Clear as a Map

... an exciting multi-national cast of professional actors and students.
The West Australian

1987  THE TEMPEST IN BALI
Performed at Arts Centre, Denpasar Bali and Tabanan; filmed by SBS Television and shown nationwide, April 1988
Adapted and directed

"carving out new territory, a bold combination of the theoretical and the practical."
New Theatre Australia , February, 1988

1989  1789 AND ALL THAT   
Performed to a sell-out season in Perth (April) then on National Tour (23 performances in Melbourne, Canberra, Sydney, Adelaide), published in parallel English/French translation: funded by the French Government.
Professional production
Wrote

1989 THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO   Dolphin Theatre, 12-22 July
Directed

"one of the all-time great stage creations ... great fun explaining questions of identity, meaning, signs and symbols"
West Australian, July 14th 1989

1990    YOU CAN CALL ME NONNO
Extended, sellout season at Hole in the Wall Studio Theatre,
November - December, Professional production
Wrote

Shortlisted for Special Award, Premiers Book Awards, 1991

"surreal beauty"   
The Australian

"Hugely enjoyable ... the sort of part actors kill for: full of mystery, subtlety, danger and depth..."
The West Australian

1990 EYRE'S DREAMING
Won first prize in national competition organised by The Royal
Historical Society
Wrote

1994 AN ABORIGINE ANTIGONE
 Nexus Theatre--Murdoch University
Directed

1994  LOU- and Fritz and Rainer and the Professor  
Professional production, Taganka Theatre, Moscow, Russia
Wrote

John Freedman wrote in the Moscow Times that: "George's play is almost certain to bring him international recognition.   It is feminist without being doctrinaire; it is intellectual without being pretentious."

1995 BOAT PEOPLE
A street theatre piece performed at Conference and in other venues
Devised and directed  

1996 LOU
Professional production, Festival of Perth

1997 DO YOU LOVE ME?
An adaptation of Peter Carey's two short stories. Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts. Professional production: Shadow Industries Theatre Company.
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ACADEMIC CAREER
Born in the UK, David won a Scholarship to Trinity College, Cambridge where he studied French, German, Russian and Norwegian language and literature, and then wrote a Ph.D. on "Ibsen in Germany." He then began to travel the world: first to the University of California at Berkeley where he began publishing - in German. His first book, "Ibsen in Deutschland - Rezeption und Revision" was one of the first contributions to the emerging methodology of "Reception theory." It was published in a series reserved for "Habilitationschriften" - the "second dissertation" required in Germany for candidates to Professorial chairs. His second book - "Deutsche Tragödientheorien" - was published in Munich by the Beck Verlag and then reprinted in paperback a few years later.

During that same period he also spent two years as Associate Director of the California Study Center in Göttingen, Germany and began to work with the Council on International Educational Exchange, helping to organise its international conference in Florence in 1967.

His career then sharply diverted into a new direction: Asia.

At the University of Malaysia he was employed to establish a new stream in comparative literature and began his study of Chinese which eventually led him to work in Beijing for a year. It was at this time that he also began the intensive study of Asian theatre and drama, which then produced his next three books. It is an interest which has continued, including extensive fieldwork in India (four times), Japan (twice), China, Thailand (twice), Bali (six times), Java, Sri Lanka (three times), and Nepal.

It was this East-West, comparative approach which then attracted him to Australia where he set up a new series of comparative courses ( Drama East and West, Drama Society and Politics, Drama Ritual and Magic, Comparative Drama Theory, Buddhist Philosophy and Meditation ) complementing that with courses combining theory and practice - using experimental production to test theories and vice versa.

This is reflected in his own career; besides continuing to publish both books and articles, he has also written and/or directed over 20 theatre productions (including some professionally performed and sponsored by foreign governments - "1789 And All That...," commissioned by the French Government; it toured Australia where it was seen by over 6000 people, has been published in parallel French/English and made into an educational video tape; "You Can Call Me Nonno," sponsored by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs; " The Tempest in Bali" - which he adapted and directed and produced, was the first Shakespeare play ever performed in Bali; it was attended in Bali by the Governor of Bali and the Ambassador to Indonesia; it was filmed by SBS and this documentary is shown regularly on television; "Lou - and Fritz and Rainer and the Professor" had its world premiere in Moscow at the prestigious Taganka Theatre, and was then performed at the Festival of Perth, starring an international actress....
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PUBLICATIONS

BOOKS:
Henrik Ibsen in Deutschland, Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, Göttingen, 1968

Deutsche Tragödientheorien vom Mittelalter bis zu Lessing Beck Verlag, Munich, 1972 (re-issued in paperback, 1981)

Indian Ritual Drama, Chadwyck-Healey, Cambridge, 1986 (Theatre in Focus Series)

Balinese Ritual Drama, Chadwyck-Healey, Cambridge, 1990 (Theatre in Focus Series) (Rewritten, republished and remarketed as Masks and Faces, 1991)

1789 and All That, Alliance Francaise, 1989

Buddhism As/In Performance , New Delhi, 1999

CHAPTERS IN BOOKS:
"Ibsen in Germany - reception and revision," Transformations in Modern European Drama , Humanities Research Centre and MacMillan, 1983

ARTICLES IN REFEREED JOURNALS
"Ibsen and German Naturalist Drama," Ibsenarbok , Oslo, 1967

"Letter to a Poor Actor," New Theatre Quarterly , August, 1986

"On the Ideology of Popular Drama," Literature and Popular Culture , ed. Ruthrof and Fiske, 1987 (Special Issue of Journal in Cultural Studies )

"Ritual Drama - a theoretical Essay," Asian Theater Journal, Vol. 4, no. 2. University of Hawaii, 1987

"Quantum Theatre - Potential Theatre: a New Paradigm?" New Theatre Quarterly, 1988

"On Ambiguity," Theatre Research International , Glasgow, 1988

"The Tempest in Bali - a director's Log," Australasian Drama Studies , nos. 15-16, 1989-1990

"Theatre as Ideology; Ideology as Theatre," Spectator Burns , Sydney, No. 3, 1989

"The Tempest in Bali," Performing Arts Journal , New York, Special Interculturalism Issue, 1989

"Performance as Paradigm: the Example of Bali," Modern Drama , 35, 1992

"Performance Epistemology," Performance Research , 1996

"On Origins: Behind the Rituals," Performance Research , 1998

VIDEO
The Theatres of Asia
An Introduction

Masks and Faces
A Visitor's Guide to the Dances and Dramas of Bali

Buddhism
As/In Performance CDROM version
All these titles available from Contemporary Arts Media www. hushvideos.com
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