An Australian Auteur Vanishes

To explain what happened next during my desperate return to Sydney in 1991, I have to go further back to briefly describe how I initially got involved in Alexander’s bloody discovery.

Because to become a teacher, I had to end my boyhood dream of becoming an Australian film director. 

I was 20 years old at the time and my timing was perfect to enter the film industry…

The Australian Film Renaissance was underway, with a new cabal of cinema auteurs about to invade Hollywood. My contemporaries were Bruce Beresford, Phil Noyce, Peter Weir, George Miller, Geoffrey Wright and Gillian Armstrong.

Given my firm belief that great directors know how to elicit great performances, I decided to start my artistic training by directing actors in the theatre. I’d already been a professional actor in theatre and television since I was 17 – I understood how much of a difference directors can make to an actor’s performance.

At the time, a sure route to success was being accepted into N.I.D.A. - Sydney’s famous school of performing arts that has produced performers such as Cate Blanchett, Toni Collette, Mel Gibson and Judy Davis. This was the school where the guy who came and lectured you on how to produce a big show was the guy who produced big shows. And the gal who came to explain how casting agents work was the most prominent casting agent in Australia.

N.I.D.A. was the inside path for young artists in a hurry. 

But N.I.D.A. was no pushover. 

900+ applicants from around Australia were vying for 23 spots in its 3-year Technical Production Course. The Acting course was even harder, but I wasn;t going for that. For my course - which specialised in Theatre Directing in the 3rd year -  I presented a model set and breakdown for a production of Ray Lawyer’s classic Australian play “Summer of the Seventeenth Doll.” The Course Director later told me it was the best entry they had received. And I was accepted. My plan was looking good…

Two months later, I left.

I left because of what my family liked to nickname “Jerry’s God trip”.

The quick story is that a voice appeared in my heart declaring that Alexander’s Discovery was about fear and love and it was my job in this life to spread the work as best I could. 

(What?!)

The longer story is here if you want to read it.

The Day My Life Changed Forever - A Day I Can Never Forget | ATSuccess

I gave up so much for this bloody Discovery!

Anyway, that was when my artistic aspirations were first lost to ‘doing Alexander’. So again in Sydney in 1991 - sixteen years later - I came to the conclusion that I had had enough, and it was time for me to get back to directing films.

But whoever is guiding my life had different ideas, as you are about to find out…

This is the seventh in a series of daily emails exploring my challenges in communicating Alexander’s Discovery.