IAC Art Talks Series 3 Lecture 1: Australian Performing Arts Managers’ Delegation to China by Carrillo Gantner AC (Catch up Online)
This event was held on 19 March 2025.
Abstract
Retired theatre director and actor, Carrillo Gantner AC, has had a long career in the promotion of Australian theatre and closer cultural engagement with our neighbours in the Asian region.
Carrillo was a founding Artistic Director of the Playbox Theatre Company in Melbourne from 1976 and later led the building of The Malthouse Theatre complex as the Company’s home. In the 1980s, with various partners, Carrillo toured major Chinese and Japanese performing arts companies around Australia, including the Fujian Puppet Company, the Nanjing Acrobatic Troupe and The Jiangsu Beijing Opera Company from China, and the Suzuki Company of Toga and the Kanze Noh Theatre of Japan. From early 1985 to the end of 1987, Carrillo served as Cultural Counsellor at the Australian Embassy in Beijing working to enhance constructive and creative links between our two countries. During his three-year stint, he also directed Jack Hibberd's classic Australian play A Stretch of the Imagination, the first Australian play staged in China.
Carrillo believes that Australia’s major arts festival directors and arts centre program managers should be as, or more conversant with the rich and diverse performing arts across Asia as they are with those of Western Europe and North America. To this end, over the last 15 years, three times he has led delegations of senior Australian performing arts managers to China as guests of the Ministry of Culture & Tourism, most recently in October last year (2024).
Carrillo’s talk will focus on this last delegation: its purpose and anticipated outcomes, its itinerary and activities in Shanghai, Wuzhen and Beijing where they saw many performances, visited venues and festivals, and met leading performing arts companies and artists.
About the Speaker
Carrillo Gantner has a BA from the University of Melbourne, a Master of Fine Arts (Drama) from Stanford, California, and a Graduate Diploma in Arts Administration from Harvard. He trained as an actor and worked professionally in the USA before returning to Australia in 1969. He was the first Drama Officer at the Australia Council for the Arts 1970-1973 and General Manager of the Melbourne Theatre Company from 1973-1975. He was a Founding Director of the Playbox Theatre Company, (now Malthouse Theatre), Executive & Artistic Director from 1976-1984 and Artistic Director from 1988 to 1993. In this time he produced over 200 Australian plays, most of them as premieres, and during the second term at Playbox he led the construction and opening of the Malthouse Theatre. From 1985 to 1987 he was Counsellor (Cultural) at the Australian Embassy in Beijing.
Carrillo has acted in over forty professional stage productions, the last as King Lear for Playbox in several Australian cities, Japan and Korea. He has brought many Asian performing artists and companies to Australia and initiated many exchanges with the region.
Carrillo was Chair of the Performing Arts Board and a member of the Australia Council 1990-1993. He was a member of the Australia-China Council 1989-1994. He was appointed a Governor of the Federation for Asian Cultural Promotion in January 1995 and was elected Deputy Chairman of this regional organisation in 1999. He was Chairman of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival for six years to March 2000. He was Chairman of Asialink from 1992-2006, during which time hundreds of Australian performing and visual artists held three month residencies in many countries across the Asian region. Carrillo was President of the Victorian Arts Centre Trust from 2000-2009 and President of The Melbourne Festival 2010 -2014.
Carrillo was awarded a Companion of the Order of Australia in 2019 for Service to the Community through professional involvement in, and philanthropic support for, the performing and visual arts, and to Australia- Asia cultural exchange. Carrillo was awarded an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2001 for services to the performing arts and Australia's cultural exchange with Asia. He was the first recipient of the Dame Elisabeth Murdoch Cultural Leader of the Year Award in 2001 and in 2002 received the Dorothy Crawford Award from the Australian Writers’ Guild for services to Australian playwriting. In recognition of his cultural and philanthropic service, he was named the 2007 Victorian of the Year. In March 2011 Carrillo was awarded a Green Room Lifetime Achievement Award for his services to the performing arts. He has Honorary Doctorates from the University of New South Wales and the University of Western Sydney, and is an Adjunct Professor at the Institute for Australian and Chinese Arts and Culture at the University of Western Sydney.
