George Ogilvie directs State Theatre Co. South Australia (1972-76) creation and move into the Dunstan Playhouse
Among Australian plays commissioned by George Ogilvie for the State Theatre of South Australia was David Williamson’s The Department, that became a national hit.
George Ogilvie, first artistic director of the State Theatre Company of South Australia (formerly the South Australian Theatre Company) 1972-1976, was one of Australia’s most talented and diverse directors, working in all mediums: theatre, ballet, opera, television and film.
Born in Goulburn in 1931, Ogilvie was stagestruck from an early age: “I needed to become an actor so badly that during my school years I would lie, cheat, flirt with anyone in order to be part of any performance.” Ogilvie put down his pen in the middle of his final taxation exam and walked from the room to embark on acting abroad and studying mime in Paris, before settling back in Australia as a stage director – including time with the fledgling Melbourne Theatre Company in the early 1960s.
Ogilvie’s many great successes as artistic director of State Theatre Company of South Australia included productions of Jugglers Three, Major Barbara, A Flea In Her Ear, Equus, The Winslow Boy, As You Like It, Journey’s End and Coriolanus. He oversaw moving the company into the Dunstan Playhouse in the new Adelaide Festival Centre in 1974.
In that first season, Ogilvie produced, directed, and commissioned Australian plays he was passionately committed to and actively supported throughout his life. Among these was David Williamson’s The Department, written specifically for the company and a national hit.
Ogilvie fostered the careers of many great actors such as Edwin Hodgeman, Don Barker, Dennis Olsen, Helmut Bakaitis, Vivienne Garrett, Daphne Grey, Patrick Frost, Jacqy Phillips, Barbara West, Paul Blackwell and later Adelaide Festival Centre artistic director Douglas Gautier.
Ogilvie’s television credits included The Dismissal, Bodyline, The Shiralee, Princess Kate, The Battlers, The Feds and Blue Heelers. Film credits included Mad Max III with George Miller, Short Changed, A Place at the Coast and The Crossing – Russell Crowe’s first feature film. Ogilvie regularly taught and directed at NIDA (National Institute of Dramatic Arts) and the Actors Centre in Sydney.
His prizes included a three year Australian Creative Artists Fellowship; the Byron Kennedy Memorial Award from the AFI (Australian Film Institute) and three best- director gongs from the Melbourne Theatre Critics Awards. In 1983, he was made an AM (Member of the Order of Australia) for his services to the theatre and the performing arts.