A thousand natural shocks

Joanna Erskine recounts the impact the education programs had on one young actor

Joanna Erskine (Head of Education at Bell Shakespeare) recounts the impact the education programs had on one young actor
A thousand natural shocks was written by Beatrice Waller, a Master of Museum and Heritage Studies student, who explored the history of Bell Shakespeare through oral histories in 2025 as a part of her degree. Oral history refers to the process of recording history in the voice of those who witnessed it and consists of conversational interviews recorded in audio format. This project was completed in collaboration with the University of Sydney, partner of Bell Shakespeare.
 
I feel very proud and I'm constantly discovering the legacy impact of this company. And I think that there's, you know, here's a particular example. I love this story because it just proves the cyclical nature and the value of all these programs and how they feed into each other even though we don't necessarily mean them to or design them to. But we had a young actor called Oliver who grew up in a little beach town. When he was in school, he went along to our production of Hamlet at the Newcastle Civic Theatre. And that was a defining moment in his life where he was like, I wanna be in it, like sitting in that show, was like, I wanna do that, I wanna be that, I wanna be an actor, do what they're doing on stage.
 
And as part of that, he was inspired to audition for the John Bell Scholarship, which is the program that we run, which is about identifying talented young actors who live in regional areas. And he put himself up to audition for that. He went to the audition and the person who was auditioning him, had just played Ophelia in Hamlet that he had seen and had this extraordinary experience. So he was like, my gosh, you're Ophelia. Ollie was excellent and he ended up winning the John Bell Scholarship, And then it was amazing and I remember working with him that week and he did his performance and John Bell got him to do Benedict from Much Ado and then he jumped up and he said, Ollie, you're a natural comic and Ollie's jaw dropped to the ground, like, he was just so amazed.
 
And anyway, then Ollie went off to drama school and lo and behold, after drama school came and auditioned for the Players. He was fantastic. And he got himself a spot in the Players, which was amazing to have someone who won the John Bell Scholarship to then come and, you know, do that. So there's all these beautiful connections as well, I think.

Justice François Kunc explains the collapse of the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust

Justice François Kunc (Judge of the Supreme Court of New South Wales and long term supporter of Bell Shakespeare) explains the collapse of the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust
A thousand natural shocks was written by Beatrice Waller, a Master of Museum and Heritage Studies student, who explored the history of Bell Shakespeare through oral histories in 2025 as a part of her degree. Oral history refers to the process of recording history in the voice of those who witnessed it and consists of conversational interviews recorded in audio format. This project was completed in collaboration with the University of Sydney, partner of Bell Shakespeare.
 
It was expected that the Elizabethan Theatre Trust would be the vehicle through which other people would support Bell Shakespeare. That plan, like all the Lepest-laid plans of Mice and Men, went a bit astray because only within a year the Elizabethan Theatre Trust itself had real financial problems and went into liquidation for a while. So part of, I guess, what I was doing was not only setting it up, but in a way pulling it out from under the collapsing wreck of the Elizabeth Theatre Trust so that it was an independent organisation of its own.

Justice François Kunc explains how The Players program benefits young actors

Justice François Kunc (Judge of the Supreme Court of New South Wales and long term supporter of Bell Shakespeare) explains how The Players program benefits young actors
A thousand natural shocks was written by Beatrice Waller, a Master of Museum and Heritage Studies student, who explored the history of Bell Shakespeare through oral histories in 2025 as a part of her degree. Oral history refers to the process of recording history in the voice of those who witnessed it and consists of conversational interviews recorded in audio format. This project was completed in collaboration with the University of Sydney, partner of Bell Shakespeare.
 
But it's also a wonderful way, and this is true across the performing arts in my experience and observation, to give young artists a go. Doing your first Hamlet to a bunch of school kids in Western New South Wales or in the Northern Territory is probably a character-forming experience for the young artist. The performing arts, music, theatre, they are a craft. You can read all the books in the world about being a shoemaker but until you've actually watched someone make shoes and then tried yourself, you're not going to be a shoemaker. So these things are crafts and you only learn them by A, watching really good people do it, and B, having a go yourself. So those sorts of touring programs I think are just foundational experiences for young artists and again in environments where I guess you're not relying on tech, it’s not about clever special effects, it's not about lighting sound or anything else. You are standing there naked performing.

Justice François Kunc explains the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust

Justice François Kunc (Judge of the Supreme Court of New South Wales) explains the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust and how Bell Shakespeare was established
A thousand natural shocks was written by Beatrice Waller, a Master of Museum and Heritage Studies student, who explored the history of Bell Shakespeare through oral histories in 2025 as a part of her degree. Oral history refers to the process of recording history in the voice of those who witnessed it and consists of conversational interviews recorded in audio format. This project was completed in collaboration with the University of Sydney, partner of Bell Shakespeare.
 
So in 1990 I was a solicitor, a senior associate at a firm called Alan Adlon and Hemsley, which was one of the great establishment firms of lawyers in Australia. And it had for many years, in fact I think from its inception in the 1950s, been the lawyers to a thing called the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust.
 
The Elizabethan Theatre Trust, as the name suggests, was set up in response to the visit of the Queen to Australia in the 1950s. And its purpose was to encourage the arts and to support the arts. And it played a very big role as the sort of, almost one might say, the birth mother of a lot of Australian arts organisations. In a financial sense, it played a very important role because unlike today where we have a system that arts organisations can apply for deductible recipient status to get tax deductions or be able to give donors tax deductions, in those days there was no way you could do it other than through the Elizabethan Theatre Trust. And so any arts organisation that wanted to set up and continue to receive public support would have a relationship with the Elizabethan Theatre Trust. The way it used to work was that if you wanted, for example, to support the Australian Ballet, you would make a donation, you make your donation to the Elizabethan Theatre Trust with a little piece of paper that said, I'm giving it to you, the trust, but when you're thinking about how you, the trust might hand the money out, I'd be very grateful if you gave this bit of money to the Australian Ballet. And so it was literally a trust in almost every sense of the word system, but it worked very well. And so the trust was the conduit for philanthropy, for tax deductible philanthropy to the arts in Australia. 
 
So in 1990, John Bell, who I'd known of as a theatre goer, I'd never met him, but I'd seen him on stage, of course knew of his extraordinary reputation in the Australian theatre world. The Elizabethan Theatre Trust, its then Chief Executive Adam Sulzer, came along and said, well, John Bell wants to set up this dedicated company for Shakespeare under the wings of the trust and so go ahead and sort of set them up. The money primarily to start with was coming from a private philanthropist, great Shakespeare lover and friend of John's called Tony Gilbert.

Justice François Kunc reflects on his experience in the circus tent

Justice François Kunc (Judge of the Supreme Court of New South Wales and long term supporter of Bell Shakespeare) reflects on his experience in the circus tent
A thousand natural shocks was written by Beatrice Waller, a Master of Museum and Heritage Studies student, who explored the history of Bell Shakespeare through oral histories in 2025 as a part of her degree. Oral history refers to the process of recording history in the voice of those who witnessed it and consists of conversational interviews recorded in audio format. This project was completed in collaboration with the University of Sydney, partner of Bell Shakespeare.
 
So the tent out at Moor Park and the Hamlet was an extraordinary start. I remember being there. It was hot, humid, smelly under the tent. It was hard to hear. I think we just completely take for granted now the high level of audio capacity we have for outdoor performance. John also cast as part of this sort of, wanting to be very egalitarian, wanting to be multicultural, an interesting cast. We are now so used to what you might call colour and every other else blind casting. That was not so back then.
 
And so even to have what you would think was a sort of racially and ethnically diverse cast was a pretty novel proposition. So it was a very striking way to make your first statement, but I think people could see the essential brilliance of the idea. And so, you know, it took off.

Justice François Kunc describes the way the company uses Shakespeare’s work to reflect on our times

Justice François Kunc (Judge of the Supreme Court of New South Wales and long term supporter of Bell Shakespeare) describes the way the company uses Shakespeare’s work to reflect on our times
A thousand natural shocks was written by Beatrice Waller, a Master of Museum and Heritage Studies student, who explored the history of Bell Shakespeare through oral histories in 2025 as a part of her degree. Oral history refers to the process of recording history in the voice of those who witnessed it and consists of conversational interviews recorded in audio format. This project was completed in collaboration with the University of Sydney, partner of Bell Shakespeare.
 
But I think that's the other thing that Bell captures well and why Shakespeare is in a sense such a safe bet. Because it's such great art, and as I said before, is malleable, or to go back to my diamond has so many facets, you can...it morphs with the times and you know we read Shakespeare in a particular way in our particular experience I mean we've all had the experience you read a book that you read 30 years ago and it's a completely different book the book is the same but you're different it's like the as the old pre-socratic Greek philosopher Heraclitus said you cannot put your foot in the river twice because whenever you do it's a different river. The water keeps moving. So Shakespeare is so able to be presented in ways that reflect our times or make us reflect on our times. One might say, you might put it the other way sometimes and go, well, actually the play is the same, but we're in a very different place. So our engagement with it is different.
 
Bell now is in the very happy position of, you know, it is established, it has a reputation, it's not just about John Bell, it's really, you know, a senior fixture in the arts in Australia. And, you know, that's great to see.

Justice François Kunc describes the success of the transition of Artistic Directors

Justice François Kunc (Judge of the Supreme Court of New South Wales and long term supporter of Bell Shakespeare) describes the success of the transition of Artistic Directors at Bell Shakespeare
A thousand natural shocks was written by Beatrice Waller, a Master of Museum and Heritage Studies student, who explored the history of Bell Shakespeare through oral histories in 2025 as a part of her degree. Oral history refers to the process of recording history in the voice of those who witnessed it and consists of conversational interviews recorded in audio format. This project was completed in collaboration with the University of Sydney, partner of Bell Shakespeare.
 
If you want to see the gold standard in terms of how you deal with that kind of transition in the arts, just look at how Bell has transitioned as John has left it and Peter Evans took over and still the company is called the Bell Shakespeare Company. And I think that's, that is the challenge in the arts and I did a lot of work in charitable foundations as well and know well known people would set up a charitable foundation. Very few survive the founder. And I think Bell is one of the ones that has done that incredibly successfully. And it says a lot about John, because I think, whilst people think actors are full of ego, and we all need ego and you need ego to be an actor, I think, to get up there on stage. It was also an extraordinary act of vision and humility on his part in terms of how he then said, right, this organisation is more than just me, it's more important than me and we'll work out a way to transition out. And I watched that with great fascination and admiration. And of course, like so many, regret because we absolutely love John.

James Evans discusses John Bell’s role in defining the Australian theatre sector

James Evans (Executive Director of Bell Shakespeare) discusses John Bell’s role in defining the Australian theatre sector
A thousand natural shocks was written by Beatrice Waller, a Master of Museum and Heritage Studies student, who explored the history of Bell Shakespeare through oral histories in 2025 as a part of her degree. Oral history refers to the process of recording history in the voice of those who witnessed it and consists of conversational interviews recorded in audio format. This project was completed in collaboration with the University of Sydney, partner of Bell Shakespeare.
 
He's a great, I mean, he's an absolute legend. And the way that he basically kind of founded and started the way that we do theater in this country in the 1970s, he went to the UK in the 1960s and joined the Royal Shakespeare Company and did all that. Then he came back in 1970 and I think was the head of acting at NIDA for a year and started basically every theatre company that is here, had the hand of John Bell in it from the Sydney Theatre Company, Belvoir, Bell Shakespeare, obviously. John Bell was there at the founding of each of these companies. and he started a way of doing Shakespeare in Australia, which was in our own voice and in modern dress. And that was outrageous at the time in the 1970s. People were like, how dare you? Shakespeare is British. Do it like that. And John said, no, it's not a museum piece, it's for us and for everyone. And so he really transformed the way, not only that we do Shakespeare, the way we do theatre in Australia.

James Evans discusses how having the Nielson Nutshell has benefitted the company

James Evans (Executive Director of Bell Shakespeare) discusses how having the Nielson Nutshell has benefitted
A thousand natural shocks was written by Beatrice Waller, a Master of Museum and Heritage Studies student, who explored the history of Bell Shakespeare through oral histories in 2025 as a part of her degree. Oral history refers to the process of recording history in the voice of those who witnessed it and consists of conversational interviews recorded in audio format. This project was completed in collaboration with the University of Sydney, partner of Bell Shakespeare.
 
Yeah, that was a very, very long time coming. And there were moments throughout that period, even leading right up to when the construction was about to start, when it could have just all fallen over. It really almost happened a few times. So, you know, by an incredible series of fortunate events and some people in government suddenly having a vision, which doesn't always happen, here we are.
 
I remember being on the senior management team when we were working on the plans for what this place would look like and that was a really exciting time because that's when you could just dream. And Peter Evans was the artistic director during that time as well. And he was able to go, you know what, we were never gonna have a theater up here. And he was the one who said, you know what, I think this big rehearsal room, if we stuck a few seats in it actually, we could get people in and watching. And so away they went and did the drawings and figured it out and worked it out. So that was a really kind of exciting, creative time where we came up with what this whole thing could be.
 
And the most important thing that we wanted it to be was a place where the administrators and the artists could all be together in one. So in our previous premises, those two sections were separate. We had the Argyle rehearsal room where the artists would rehearse and gather and hang out. And then we had the Cleveland Bond administration where everyone else was and they rarely mixed. But here we have one green room for everyone and so everyone mixes together and it's just like yeah this is one company we're all focused on exactly the same thing and moving in the same direction and so that has been conducive I think to an even more inclusive and happy culture here.
 
Kerr Nielsen was the largest single donation in Bell Shakespeare's history. And really those transformative gifts are the lifeline for a company like this. A major gift like that helps you leap forward in a way that you couldn't otherwise. And Kerr Nielsen and Paris and Beau and his whole family have been really, really thrilled and impressed with the work that we've done in education, juvenile justice particularly and they continue to support us.

James Evans on the future of the company

James Evans (Executive Director of Bell Shakespeare) on the future of the company
A thousand natural shocks was written by Beatrice Waller, a Master of Museum and Heritage Studies student, who explored the history of Bell Shakespeare through oral histories in 2025 as a part of her degree. Oral history refers to the process of recording history in the voice of those who witnessed it and consists of conversational interviews recorded in audio format. This project was completed in collaboration with the University of Sydney, partner of Bell Shakespeare.
 
Look, think, you know, short of something terrible happening, I'm here for life. This company will have a strong future because there will always be, I think, a love and need for these kinds of stories, for Shakespeare's kind of broad stories about who we are as human beings. All theatre is wonderful in the different aspects and the way that it tells our stories, but there's something kind of essentially human about Shakespeare's characters and the relationships and something universal about the way that we understand who we are through the lens of these plays and how they constantly reinvent themselves. So I think there'll always be a place for Shakespeare in our arts landscape.