Robert Chuter

Robert Chuter is an Australian theatre director, film director and producer.

Personal life

Robert John Chuter was born in Carlton, Victoria, Australia, the only son of Rita May (nee Spalding) and English immigrant Harry Chuter. He grew up in the historical suburb of Williamstown and was educated at St. Martin’s Theatre School and Melbourne Theatre Company Youth Theatre. In 1976, he studied with the Lindsay Kemp touring company and cites the experience as one of his inspirations for becoming involved in theatre direction.

In 1981, he was trainee director at the Queensland Theatre Company under the direction of the director Alan Edwards. His interest in film direction originated while he was working in a bookstore, when he met and was encouraged to create his own material using Super 8 film by the silent screen and stage actress Agnes Dobson. He subsequently attended the Victorian College of Arts - School of Drama and in 1983 graduated from the Swinburne Film and Television School winning the AAV Australia award for his short film The Mortal Coil.

He co-founded the Performing Arts Projects (now Fly-On-The-Wall Theatre) in Melbourne in 1985 with playwright and actor Daniel Lillford. In 1990, he won Best Production at the Green Room Awards for the highly acclaimed production of In Angel Gear. Chuter is known as a director not prone to making conventional work. His acclaimed works have earned him a reputation as a distinctive director who constantly tests his audiences and his unique style has produced over 200+ complex, confronting and visually stunning productions in both theatre and film . From 2005-2008, Chuter worked in London's West End.

Stage actor

• Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad (Monash, 1976)
• The Seagull (Guild Theatre, 1976)
• The Polish Girl (Playbox Theatre, 1977)
• Plague Island (La Mama Theatre, 1986)

Stage Director

• Johnny So Long (Arena Theatre, 1976)
• Curtains (Grant Street Theatre, 1977)
• Esther (Guild Theatre, 1978)
• Forget-Me-Not (La Mama Theatre, 1979)
• Esther (La Mama Theatre, 1979)
• The Spalding Family Album (Playbox Theatre, 1979)
• Two Tigers (La Mama Theatre, 1979)
• The Spalding Family Album (Universal Theatre, 1980)
• Upside Down at the Bottom of the World' (Queensland Theatre Company, 1981)
• Nijinsky (Universal Theatre, 1981)
• The Murderer's Song (La Mama Theatre, 1981)
• They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (Grant Street Theatre, 1983)
• Rebel Without A Cause (Union Theatre, 1985)
• The Seagull (New Theatre, 1985)
• Isadora (Universal Theatre, 1986)
• Quintessence (La Mama Theatre, 1987)
• The Music of Orpheus and Other Short Pieces ( La Mama Theatre, 1987)
• Shipwreck! (La Mama Theatre, 1988)
• Sal (La mama Theatre, 1988)
• Restoring the Picture of Dorian Gray (La Mama Theatre, 1988)
• The Death of Peter Pan (La Mama Theatre, 1989)
• Kisses for Vera (La Mama Theatre, 1989)
• The Hive (La Mama Theatre, 1989)
• The Death of Peter Pan (Universal Theatre I, 1989)
• In Angel Gear (St. Martin's Theatre, 1990)
• Figures in Glass (St. Martin's Theatre, 1990)
• Loving Friends (Rippon Lea, 1991)
• I Danced With A Girl Who Danced With the Prince of Wales (Rippon Lea Ballroom, 1991)
• Loving Friends (Rippon Lea, 1991)
• La Miracle de la Rose (Old Melbourne Gaol, 1992)
• Heights (La Mama Theatre, 1992)
• La Miracle de la Rose' (Belvoir Street Theatre, Sydney, 1993)
• An Indian Summer (Rippon Lea, 1994)
• Stage Door (St. Martin's Theatre, 1993)
• Good Morning, Midnight! (La Mama Theatre, 1993)
• Storm Is Her Name (Mietta's (1993)
• Sunset Children (La Mama Theatre, 1994)
• Little Lord Fauntleroy (Rippon Lea, 1994)
• Les Pecherurs de Perles (Victoria State Opera, 1994)
• Perks (Mietta's, 1995)
• Lady Chatterley's Lover (Rippon Lea, 1995)
• The Yellow Book (Mietta's, 1995)
• Lady Chatterley's Lover (Rippon Lea/Botanic Gardens, 1996)
• A Singular Man (Old Treasury Building, 1996)
• Lady Chatterley's Lover (Vaucluse House, Sydney, 1996)
• Anne of Green Gables (Rippon Lea, 1996)
• The Great Gatsby (Rippon Lea, 1997)
• Lady Chatterley's Lover (Vaucluse House, Sydney, 1997)
• Seven Little Australians (Rippon Lea 1997)
• The White Rose and the Blue (Council Chambers, Melbourne Town Hall, 1997)
• The Turn of the Screw (Rippon Lea, 1998)
• Lady Chatterley's Lover (Tranby House, Perth, 1999)
• Anne of Green Gables (Tranby House, Perth, 1999)
• Lady Chatterley's Lover (Carrick Hill, Adelaide, 1999)
• Miles Franklin and the Rainbow's End (Theatreworks, 2000)
• Homme Fatale (Theatreworks, 2000)
• Miles Franklin and the Rainbow's End (The Blue Room, Perth, 2000)
• Homme Fatale (The Blue Room, Perth, 2000)
• Women in Love (Rippon Lea, 2002)
• The Singing Forest (Theatreworks, 2001)
• The Murderer's Barbecue (La Mama Theatre on site, 2003)
• Five Minute Call (The Butterfly Club, 2004)
• The Lost (Chapel Off Chapel, 2004)
• Moments in Time (Dante's, 2004)
• A Thousand and One Night Stands (Theatreworks, 2004)
• Homme Fatale (Theatreworks, 2004)
• Falling So Slowly.. (St. Martin's Theatre, 2005)
• Fresh Pleasures (Pleasance Theatre, London, 2005)
• Homme Fatale (Pleasance Theatre, London, 2005)
• Shakin' the Blues Away (The Butterfly Club, 2005)
• Oblomov's Dream (Jermyn Street Theatre, London, 2006)
• Do You Know the Way to Ballarat? (The Butterfly Club, 2006)
• Half A Person: My Life As Told By The Smiths (Fowler's Live, Adelaide, 2006)
• Life As A Springer Show' (Fairfax Studio, 2006)
• The Object of Desire (La Mama Theatre, 2007)
• Half A Person: My Life As Told By The Smiths (Newtown Theatre, Sydney, 2007)
• Almost (Fairfax Studio, 2007)
• Dimboola (La Mama Theatre, 2008)
• Tipping Point (Fairfax Studio, 2008)
• Exploration (PlaySix, 2008)
• The Needle and the Damage Done (La Mama Courthouse, 2008)
• Thieving Boy/Like Stars in My Hands (La Mama Courthouse, 2008)
• The Dream Children (La Mama Courthouse, 2009)
• Half A Person: My Life as Told by the Smiths (Chapel Off Chapel, 2010)
• The Choir (Brightspace Gallery, 2010)
• Defaced: The Exhibition (Guildford Lane Gallery, 2010)
• All That I Will Ever Be (Chapel Off Chapel, 2012)
• The Death of Peter Pan (Chapel Off Chapel, 2013)
• November Spawned A Monster (Old Fitzroy Theatre, Sydney, 2014)
• Teleny (Chapel Off Chapel, 2014)
• The Fastest Clock in the Universe (Chapel Off Chapel, 2015)

Stage producer

Heeding advice given to him by the British film director Ken Russell, Chuter has been diverse in his stage productions:

I direct family shows, like the sell-out seasons of Anne of Green Gables and the children’s classic: Seven Little Australians, to plays about gay porn icons, drug culture, the Bloomsbury group, the Brontes, IVF, flamboyant artists, feminist writers and serial killers. Diversity is the name of the game and I love work which is challenging to the imagination. Can you imagine directing an opera when you don’t speak French and can’t remember music? Yep, I’ve done it - not sure if I was successful or not.

Among the productions as producer have been:

• Trybe: An Opera in Paint (Chapel Off Chapel, 2012)
• The Polish Girl (Playbox Theatre, 1977)
• Stravanganaza (Napier Street Theatre, 1992)
• No Room for Dreamers (La Mama Theatre 1986)
• Life (St. Martins Theatre, 1991)
• The Secret Garden (Rippon Lea, 1994)
• Homme Fatale (Pleasance Theatre, London, 2005)

Films

Change (1983), The Mortal Coil (1983) and Come Said the Boy (2010). The 2015 international feature film release 'The Dream Children was directed and co-produced by Chuter. After being accepted into a number of international film festivals, the film had it's world premiered at the MQFF in March 2015 with two sold out screenings. Distributed by Media Luna New Films in Cologne, Germany, it was also screened at the American and European Film Markets and was seen in art house cinemas throughout the Netherlands and in April 2015 was released throughout North America. Chuter had previously directed a stage version, written by Julia Britton, for Fly-On-The-Wall Theatre at the La Mama Courthouse in 2009.

Film Actor

The Devil's Playground (1976), Adflow (1983), Unnatural Causes (1984), Dust Off (1984), Jacob's Dream (1984), Bedtime Story (1986), Tax (1986), Shut In (1988), Carbon Black (1988), Salt Salvia Sperm and Sweat (1988) and the documentaries Before and After Swinburne (1983) and Fearless (2006),

References

• Jones, Liz with Burstall, Betty & Garner, Helen – La Mama: The Story of a Theatre, McPhee Gribble/Penguin Books, 1988 p. 11, 78, 79, 80, 87, 100, 104, 107, 108
• Steel, Brett (editor) – Melborn08’s Playspotting, Melbourne Writers Theatre/Ligare, 2008 p. 4, 5, 9, 14, 59
• Breslin, Anthony – Frantic Bloom, Melbourne Books, 2010 p. 5, 227
• Martinetti, Ron – The James Dean Story, Pinnacle Books, 1975 p. 177
• Radic, Leonard - Contemporary Australian Drama, Brandal and Schlesinger, 2006 p. 285
• Buckrich, Judith - The Village of Ripponlea, Lauranton Books, 2015 p. 64, 65
• Paterson, Barbara - Renegades - Australia's First Film School from Swinburne to VCA, The Helicon Press, 1996 p. 184
• Milne, Geoffrey – Theatre Australian (un)listed: Australian Theatre Since the 1950s, Rotopi, 2004 p. 304
• Jones, Liz (editor) – The La Mama Collection: Six Plays for the 1990s, Currency Press, 1997 p. viii, 3

External links

• http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1970146/bio