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Staff

  • Chris Bendall

    Artistic Director

    Chris is currently Artistic Director of Deckchair Theatre in Fremantle. Previously he was Artistic Director and co-founder of Theatre @ Risk (2001-2007), an Affiliate Director of Melbourne Theatre Company (MTC) (2003-2004). His most recent productions for Deckchair Theatre have been Lorelei, Grace, and The Lonely Hearts Club. Chris won WA Equity Awards for Best Director for his productions of Checklist for an Armed Robber in 2010 and The Modern International Dead in 2011.

    Career Highlights with Theatre @ Risk include director/dramaturg of the world premieres of: Requiem for the 20th Century by Tee O’Neill (nominated for an AWGIE award for Best New Play); 7 Days 10 Years by Louis Milutinovic (winner of Green Room Award Best New Play); Mrs Petrov’s Shoe (winner of QLD Premier’s Literary Award Best New Play). Other Theatre @ Risk directing highlights include: The Woman Before by Roland Schimmelpfennig; and Polygraph by Robert Lepage (nominated for Green Room Award for outstanding direction). With Melbourne Theatre Company: Two Brothers (Associate/Regional Tour Director); ‘ART’ (Associate/Regional Tour Director). Further credits include: Inheritance by Hannie Rayson (Full Dress Productions); Victory, Dolly West’s Kitchen (Victorian College of the Arts); Lysistrata(WAAPA).

    He has been awarded the* Queen’s Trust Australia & Foundation for Young Australians Centenary Grant* (2001) and the George Fairfax Memorial Award for Theatre (2003). He was the Australian delegate to the International Forum of Theatre Practitioners in Berlin (2004), and he most recently received both an Ian Potter Fellowship and a Playwriting Australia/Goethe Institut dramaturgy fellowship to research new writing theatres in Europe (2008).

    He has also taught acting to young people and adults at drama schools and high schools in Sydney and Melbourne for over ten years including at the Victorian Arts Centre, Victorian College of the Arts, National Theatre Drama School, St Martins Youth Arts Centre and Centrestage School of the Performing Arts. Chris holds a Graduate Diploma in Theatre Directing (VCA), and a Bachelor of Theatre & Film Studies (UNSW).

    Chris is currently Chair of Stages WA, the WA State Representative of PlayWriting Australia and a member of the Theatre Nominating Panel for the Helpmann Awards.