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A Space of Possibles Artistic Directors and Leadership in Australian Theatre

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A Space of Possibles Artistic Directors and Leadership in Australian Theatre A Space Of Possibles: Artistic Directors and Leadership in Australian Theatre Author Hands, Karen Ruth Published 2015 Thesis Type Thesis (PhD Doctorate) School School of Humanities DOI https://doi.org/10.25904/1912/3296 Copyright Statement The author owns the copyright in this thesis, unless stated otherwise. Downloaded from http://hdl.handle.net/10072/366162 Griffith Research Online https://research-repository.griffith.edu.au A Space Of Possibles Artistic Directors and Leadership in Australian Theatre Karen Ruth Hands BA (Drama), MA School of Humanities Arts, Education and Law Griffith University Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy This work has not previously been submitted for a degree or diploma in any university. To the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made in the thesis itself. ___________________ Karen Hands, August 2015 Theatre used to be, and still should be, at the centre of the arts and society. That it is not in Australia today is due to broad cultural forces, and also to its own derelictions, comfort-seekings, unyielding habits, and denials. What is to be done? Jack Hibberd, Australian playwright and founding member of Australian Performing Group, in Overland 1999. Acknowledgements It is fitting that I firstly thank the two scholars I was lucky to have as my supervisors. My principal supervisor, Professor Kay Ferres, and associate supervisor Associate Professor Georgina Murray, provided wise, kind and generous support of my research. Without their combined supervision, guidance, patience, sharp observations and knowledge of the arts, culture, sociological theory and Australian economics history this would be a very different thesis. In the School of Humanities at Griffith University, I acknowledge Dr Sarah Casey, Karen Laughton, Jillian Beard and Dr Lee Butterworth for sharing this long and winding road. I also thank Dr Susanna Chamberlain for her ongoing support, guidance and willingly sharing her office with me in the last stages of my writing. Additionally, Dr David Adair provided invaluable feedback on my confirmation presentation and Dr Saffron Benner read several chapters towards the end of my writing process, providing insightful comments. Closer to home, I have an extended family to thank for their support. Firstly I thank my parents, Yvonne and David, for giving their time over to child-care so that I could balance doctoral studies, employment and family life. Secondly, I thank my aunts-in-law, Robyn Goldstone and Judith Hemmingway, my brothers and sisters-in-law Tim and Alana Hands and Michael Hands and Melanie Holesgrove and their families for also generously giving their time in support of this project. Above all, I thank Shaun Charles for his continued, extraordinary support of this research project and me. I would not have been able to embark on a prolonged course of research without it. Finally, but by no means least, I thank Maggie, Emeline and Violet for being there and being cool about the whole thing. This thesis was undertaken with the support of an Australian Postgraduate Award and a Griffith University completion scholarship. i Abbreviations ABAF Australian Business Arts Foundation Australia Council Australia Council (1968 – 1973) and, The Australia Council for the Arts (1973 – present) AD Artistic Director ADT Australian Dance Theatre AETT Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust (the Trust) AMC Australian Music Centre BSTC Black Swan Theatre Company (1991 to 2009) BSSTC Black Swan State Theatre Company (from 2010) CEMA Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts (UK) CEO Chief Executive Officer CMC Cultural Ministers Council DOCITA Department of Communications Information Technology and the Arts EDC Expressions Dance Company GM General Manager GFC Global Financial Crisis IAC Industries Assistance Commission IFACCA International Federation of Arts Councils and Culture Agencies LSE London School of Economics MOB Major Organisations Board MOF Major Organisations Fund MPAB Major Performing Arts Board MPAG Major Performing Arts Group MPAI Major Performing Arts Inquiry MTC Melbourne Theatre Company NBN National Broadband Network NCP National Cultural Policy NIDA National Institute of Dramatic Arts NSW New South Wales OFTA Office for The Arts QTC Queensland Theatre Company RP Received Pronunciation SDC Sydney Dance Company STC Sydney Theatre Company ii STCSA State Theatre Company of South Australia TAC The Actors Company (an ensemble at STC between 2007 and 2009) The Trust The Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust UK United Kingdom VCA Victorian College of the Arts iii Definitions and Terminology Agency I use this term to reference two very different concepts in this thesis. The first refers to a body or organisation that operates at a discreet distance from government but acts on behalf of the government’s interests. These interests are typically conveyed to the agency through way of policy, regulation or recommendations. Throughout this thesis, this term is used in reference to the Australia Council as an arts funding agency of the federal government and other arts funding agencies such as the Australian Major Performing Arts Group and state arts funding bodies. The second, and most significant use of this term refers to the agency of the individual artistic leader. My use of this term draws from Max Weber’s theory of methodological individualism that seeks “subjective understanding of the action of competent individuals” (in Weber, Roth and Wittich 1968, p.15). More specifically however, in following the approach of Pierre Bourdieu I examine ‘agency’ in both subjectivist and objectivist frameworks. Paradoxically Bourdieu’s definition of agency in this context is notoriously lacking (Calhoun et al in Béhague et al 2008, p.492; Sewell 1992, p.15). To provide this term with clarity, I defer to the “dual” structure-agency dichotomy offered by Anthony Giddens (1976). In this model, structures provide both constraining and enabling forces for the actions of "knowledgeable" individuals to take place (Giddens 1976, p. 161). For Alex Callinicos, the role of agency thus becomes to “resist, blunt or actively alter the conditions” and power relations of these structures (Béhague 2008, p.491 – 493; Giddens in Callinicos 2004, p.3), essentially positing agency as engaging in “conscious goal-directed activity” (Anderson in Callinicos 2004, p.4). My research investigates this agency in terms of its capacity to challenge the historical and institutional structures of the subsidised theatre sector. As such, I am concerned with investigating the “transformative agency” of its artistic directors. Simply expressed, this represents the capacity of an individual to affect change in their structures for a desired outcome in their field. It is “dependent on the possibilities present in the positions inscribed in the field” (Béhague et al 2008, pp.491 – 493; Hesmondhalgh 2006, p.216; Bourdieu 1993). Bourdieusien To refer to the work of Bourdieu, or “pertaining to Bourdieu” (Susen & Turner 2011, p. 117), I have followed standards promoted by the British Sociological Association who advocate using iv “Bourdieusien”, over “Bourdieusian” and the more commonly used “Bourdieuien” (bsasbourdieu.wordpress.com 2012). Economic Rationalism I have used the term economic rationalism to refer to Australian economic policy that began to emerge in the early 1970s. ‘Economic rationalism’ is a term specific to Australian policy and literature, similar in political and economical logic – but not interchangeable – with the wider, international transition to neoliberalism (Beder 2009, p.17). While the term is used in several policy documents of the Whitlam era Government (1972 – 1975), the economic policy became firmly indoctrinated into the federal government vernacular “around 1984”, displacing the previous Keynesian economic ideology that fostered the financial, political and cultural infrastructure of the Australian theatre sector (Pusey 1991, p.5, p.21, pp.230 - 231). v Abstract This research investigates the agency of artistic directors of subsidised major Australian theatre organisations in the post Major Performing Arts Inquiry (1999) sector. The research was conducted in response to a new generation of artistic directors commencing leadership of the major theatre companies from 2008. This new era of leadership was expected to revitalise the sector, however it remained in a perceived state of artistic and financial crisis. This thesis considers the role of the artistic director as an artistic leader of the field, and examines how the agency of this position came to be shaped by arts policy, economic and artistic forces. I argue that historical arts policies and the recommendations of MPAI altered the structures of the sector. Furthermore, while the changes these policies introduced reorganised the structure of the sector and administration of the companies, they also restricted the transformative agency of its artistic leaders to advance the artistic and economic performance of their organisations. This research uses a qualitative case study methodology. The data was collected through interviews with artistic and administrative leaders in the field, document and archival analysis and observation. The data is analysed within a theoretical framework inspired by French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu’s space of possibles, a conceptual device put forward in “The field of cultural
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