Terence Crawford (actor)
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Terence Crawford is an Australian actor, author, theatre director, academic and songwriter.
Early life and education
[edit]Terence Crawford graduated from the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney as an actor in 1984.[1]
He achieved a Masters of Creative Arts from James Cook University in 2000 with his dissertation on Chekhov in an Australian cultural context. His PhD thesis, from University of Sydney in 2015, was entitled "Real Human in this Fantastical World: Political, Artistic and Fictive concerns of actors in rehearsal: an ethnography".
Career
[edit]Crawford has acted with many of Australia's major theatre companies, as well as in television programs and films, including The Babadook and Stateless. He was part of State Theatre Company of South Australia for five years.[2]
In 2017 and 2018, he toured Australia, and to the Auckland and Singapore Arts Festivals, playing O'Brien in Headlong, Almeida Theatre and Nottingham Playhouse's production of Duncan MacMillan and Robert Icke's adaptation of George Orwell's 1984.
His plays include Pushin' Up Daisies and Shondelle the Tiger.[3] Crawford's work has been produced by theatre companies including Griffin Theatre Company Theatre or Image and Sydney Theatre Company, as well as for radio and television. Love's Triumph was published in a collection by the Australian Script Centre in 2006.[3]
Crawford has directed productions of many Shakespearean plays. He has spoken about the importance of producing new Australian drama:
- "We must stage Shakespeare and Chekhov and the great plays of the canon. ... Bell Shakespeare is a great theatre company, led by a great actor and director, doing a great service to its community. But it is in [sic] nonetheless true that if that company was producing a new Australian play a year that was three-quarters as good as the plays it is presenting, a play with actors at the centre of the event in the manner that Shakespeare teaches us, we would now be celebrating a great Australian theatrical epoch."[4]
Academia
[edit]Crawford has held head of acting positions at Theatre Nepean (New South Wales),[1][3] Theatre Training & Research Programme (Singapore, now Intercultural Theatre Institute),[3] Lasalle College of the Arts (Singapore),[3] and Adelaide College of the Arts.[5] He has also been a director at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts and a guest at L'École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq (Paris).[citation needed]
As well as teaching acting, Crawford has taught play-writing, dramaturgy, and directing at under-graduate and post-graduate levels.
Other roles and recognition
[edit]In 2018, Crawford gave the keynote address at the inaugural AusAct conference, at Charles Sturt University, and in 2013 he was honoured by the University of Adelaide, which awarded him the title of adjunct professor.
He has written many songs with songwriting partner Richard Davies as well as on his own. These songs have featured in various theatrical and musical contexts, and are played by his current[when?] band, Almost Evelyn.
In 216, he stood for election to the South Australian Senate for the Arts Party.[5]
Selected publications
[edit]- Dimensions of Acting: An Australian Approach Currency Press 2011; ISBN 9780868198835[6]
- Trade Secrets: Australian Actors and Their Craft Currency Press 2005; ISBN 0868197637
- "The Castanet Club: History, provenance and influence". Australasian Drama Studies, No. 66, Apr 2015: [225]-252. ISSN: 0810–4123.
- "Feudal positions and the pathology of contentment: Sites of disconnection for Australian theatre actors". About Performance, No. 13, 2015: 23–43. ISSN: 1324–6089.
- "Finding the light: Acting as an artistic and social project" Fusion Journal, no. 15, 2019, pp. 6–17.
- "Real Human in this Fantastical World: Political, Artistic and Fictive Concerns of Actors in Rehearsal: An Ethnography"
References
[edit]- ^ a b Pitches, J.; Aquilina, S. (2017). Stanislavsky in the World: The System and its Transformations Across Continents. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 325. ISBN 978-1-4725-8789-3. Retrieved 6 September 2024.
- ^ "Meet the Cast: Interview with Tina Bursill, Genevieve Mooy and Terence Crawford". State Theatre Company. 22 January 2024. Retrieved 6 September 2024.
- ^ a b c d e Australian Script Centre (2006). Collection # 6: 30 New Scripts from the Australian Script Centre. Australian Script Centre. p. 43. ISBN 978-0-9577544-6-1. Retrieved 6 September 2024.
- ^ Crawford, Terence; Clark, Sue (3 August 2005). "Perspective: Trade Secrets". ABC Radio National. Retrieved 6 September 2024.
- ^ a b "Spotlight on Equity member Terence Crawford". Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance. 10 June 2016. Retrieved 6 September 2024.
- ^ Johnstone, Richard (September 2005). "Aussiewood by Michaela Boland and Michael Bodey & Trade Secrets by Terence Crawford". Australian Book Review (274). Retrieved 6 September 2024.