Retirement Plans

I spluttered my coffee all over the table his morning thanks to a little comment in an article in today's Sydney Morning Herald - Much ado about NIDA's direction by everyone's fave arts journo, Valerie Lawson.

Like all good arts features in the Herald, it starts off with the obligatory Shakespeare reference - well, not just one - but three;

"The secret plottings at Elsinore. The clash of ambitions in the court of King Lear. The deadly rivalry of the Montagues and Capulets. All familiar theatrical scenarios to the students and staff of Australia's leading acting school.

"But the National Institute of Dramatic Art has seen them all in a more intimate way in the past four years. Not so much on stage as in-house."

The article then goes on to profile the gordian relations between NIDA's GM Elizabeth Butcher, the former director John Clarke and the recently appointed Artistic Director Aubrey Mellor.

"The school, based at the University of NSW campus in Kensington, has been swept up in an intense but secret battle over the leadership of the institution, which is funded by the federal government and counts among its alumni such actors and directors as Cate Blanchett, Baz Luhrmann, Judy Davis, Mel Gibson and Hugo Weaving," the article continues.

"The private machinations were partly revealed late last month when Neil Armfield, the artistic director of Company B in Sydney, wrote to NIDA's chairman, Malcolm Long. His co-signatories were 20 other artistic directors, actors and film directors from all over the country.

"These future employers of NIDA students protested about the way in which the school's board had failed to renew the term of its immediate past director, Aubrey Mellor, calling his imminent departure an 'apparent dismissal'."

Apparently Butcher doesn't like Mellor very much and is making life a little difficult for everyone around.

Lawson writes that the signatories "suggested that Mellor continue in his past role as artistic director, with a 'strong and supportive' chief executive - the key word being 'supportive'. This referred to the past few years at NIDA when Elizabeth Butcher, general manager for the past 39 years, was often at odds with Mellor."

She continues by saying that "just as important is the involvement of... John Clark, 75, the director for 35 years."

And then the coffee splatter moment;

"Immersed in NIDA's past, the pair seem reluctant to let go."

Valerie, I like you and your wry humour had me buckled over today, bless you.

Reluctant to go indeed. Like chewing gum from a shoe. But it's all less a Shakespearean tragedy and more a British farce don't you think? Maybe more Ayckbourn than hard hitting tragedy. I mean, no one has died have they... well, not yet.

The board did try and get Butcher out of there with 'retirement plans' but they "f---ed up".

Often I think, thank god I didn't go to NIDA. I know there are a lot of you out there that feel very affectionately for the place, but for the rest of us there is some advantage to being at an arms distance from the major cultural institutions of this city. As my old aunt Margaret Rutherford once said, "we've got to be centrifugal".

All those incestuous appointments, the back scratching, the village mentality egotism. And NIDA isn't alone - oh no, no, no. Merely part and parcel of the whole cultural fabric. Again I ask the question - what is it with the committees of our arts institutions? Do they have too much time on their hands?

By the end of Lawson's article my head was spinning with the intricacy of the sphere of influence and the knots that they were tangled in.

If you were a manager employed under the eyes of these committees, I am sure you would start to develop some type of anxiety or phobia. "Another committee meeting tomorrow! Whatever will I do?!" There must be a word for it... maybe phronemophobia.

In the meantime, if these future employers of these NIDA students are so worried about the future of the organisation, just remember there is an institution down the road called the Victorian College of the Arts. Now, there's a place that's pumping out some damn fine talent... and they even know how to rig some lights as well.


Images: John Gielgud as Hamlet (top); Retirement plans? (bottom)