A thousand natural shocks

Gill Perkins on why Bell Shakespeare gave supporters naming rights in the new building

Gill Perkins (Former Executive Director of Bell Shakespeare) on why Bell Shakespeare gave supporters naming rights in the new building
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.
 
We had a lot of people who very generously gave astonishing sums of money and we were able to give them naming rights for various parts of the building. It is really beautiful actually because it means that they're there in our consciousness all the time and I find that quite moving.

Gill Perkins explains her approach to leading the company through John’s retirement and their 25 year celebration

Gill Perkins (Former Executive Director of Bell Shakespeare) explains her approach to leading the company through John’s retirement and their 25 year celebration
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 suppose there was a nervousness that John stepping away would see a subscriber attrition and financially the company was in a difficult position anyway at that point. John was stepping away. Peter was the sort of new guy even though he'd been around for a while. So nerve-wracking. Nerve-wracking for everyone, I think. But there was a sort of dogged determination that we could not let it crumble. And we were going to make it work. And that's quite intoxicating, I think, for anyone. And if you want to come first, which quite a lot of people in the arts do, I think it's quite a good tool to galvanise everyone.
 
Peter had been around the company sort of as long as I had, in and out in various different roles. He was known to our audience and our donors and he, you know, in the sort of lead up to John stepping away from the company. Peter became the Assistant Artistic Director, the Associate Artistic Director, then the Co-Artistic Director. So there was a sort of very carefully thought through way of elevating him in the consciousness of our supporters and audiences, but kind of honoring John.
 
From my perspective, do you know what? I suppose I was really just focusing on the celebration, the year of celebration. I probably wasn't thinking too much about how it was going or that I quashed that thought, that kind of, is this company actually gonna survive after John steps away because he is the Bell of Bell Shakespeare?
 
Maybe I just pushed that psychologically to one side and focused on positive, you know, going, pushing the little red caboose up the hill rather than giving too much oxygen to, this all going to crumble? And I suppose the other sort of flip on that is that there were quite a few financial pressures and we had, you know, our new home sort of in the distance and capital fundraising sort of in the distance.I spent every waking hour in that first couple of years just thinking we're going to make this work.
 
We've kind of developed the next generation of philanthropy and managed to retain a huge whack of people from before as well as in more recent times people who supported us, you know, years and years ago have come back into the fold. And I think perhaps because they see the company succeeding, they see that it's we've remained true to our vision and mission, that we haven't sort of changed anything up too much that actually, you know, look, look, we're a successful company that has stayed very true to what John Bell put in place at the beginning. So, yeah, so, so we're sort of in a good place.

Gill Perkins recounts the process of moving into Bell Shakespeare’s home on Pier ⅔ in the Walsh Bay Arts Precinct

Gill Perkins (Former Executive Director of Bell Shakespeare) recounts the process of moving into Bell Shakespeare’s home on Pier ⅔ in the Walsh Bay Arts Precinct
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.
 
My sort of recollection goes back to when Jill Berry was the general manager. So that would have been back in the early 2000s. And I remember her marching off to the maritime board and talking to them about why Bell Shakespeare couldn't have a home in this disused pier and it didn't make any sense. So that was sort of my earliest memory. And then, of course, there's the famous Bob Carr letter promising Bell Shakespeare premises at Pier 2/3. And then a sort of process of which Christopher Tooher kind of steered the application and then being selected to be one of the companies that would ultimately go in there. And then, you know, successive government, change of government, it all sort of became very hotchpotch and fell away for quite some time. And then sort of got reignited. But there were just so many improbable sort of assumptions from government around how much we would contribute, how much rent we would pay in terms of capital contribution. And then it teetered because the government didn't have enough money and then we were supposed to be fitted out first, Pier 2/3, and 4/5 was going to go next to refurb. They flipped it so we again thought well this is looking really dicey and we'd raised money, we'd raised capital money for it. And then COVID hit, of course. So everything sort of fell into a bit of a heap again. But in a strange kind of way, COVID was one of the best things that happened in terms of the timing for us getting into that space because we had the bandwidth, because we weren't necessarily touring to turn our attention to fixtures and fittings and tiles and carpet and what we wanted in the space, et cetera. It's been a fascinating journey and a fascinating leap into the way government works.

Gill Perkins on what makes Bell Shakespeare special and what she is most proud of from her time at the company

Gill Perkins (Former Executive Director of Bell Shakespeare) on what makes Bell Shakespeare special and what she is most proud of from her time at 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.
 
We're very singular in terms of Shakespeare mostly. I think of course the education program and to kind of come right back to my first comment is where we all sort of encounter Shakespeare, many of us encounter Shakespeare at school and so I suppose there's desire to have that switch flicked in the way we all had the switch flicked for us. So that and then of course the nationalists, you know, they're going to every state and territory. Taking the work to people, not expecting people to travel great distances. I think that's very intoxicating for people. And then, you know, the size. I mean, it's a fairly small outfit really that does big things. People feel that sort of intangible kind of family thing. And they like it. They like that they know who's on the front desk and the actor in that show. And they like that, which you don't always get with other companies because they're a bit bigger. I think I'm most proud of the people and the art. I mean I could say the balance sheet and reserves position and the new home and those sort of, and the transition and those things which are in the media release and they're absolutely accurate but when I reflect with a bit of distance on what has been so wonderful and I'm so proud of are the people, the people that have passed through, the careers that have been made, forged, the opportunities that have been given to people, that's pretty special.

Peter Evans introduces his career and explains how he became John’s replacement

Peter Evans (Artistic Director of Bell Shakespeare) introduces his career and explains how he became John’s replacement
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.
 
Hello, I'm Peter Evans, I'm the Artistic Director of Bell Shakespeare. So I grew up in New Zealand. I was always interested in the arts, I grew up in Christchurch and although I was acting in school plays, the idea of being a theatre director was quite foreign to me. There weren't a lot of people who were doing it for a living, certainly in Christchurch and really in New Zealand there weren't that many people. At university in Auckland, I got part of the drama club there and really found my people and became quite obsessed and I got the opportunity to direct when I was about 19, so very early and then I just, we just, a group of us just got together and made as much work as possible. I ended up dropping out of university and just committing to trying to make plays. I moved to Sydney and went to NIDA to study directing. That's when I met John and was doing a lot of assistant directing in Sydney and then I moved to Melbourne in the late 90s and did a lot of independent theatre and teaching at the VCA and I was teaching also in Adelaide. And then my career started to get established when I was about in my early 30s. And then I was the associate director at Melbourne Theatre Company, all the while freelancing for Sydney Theatre Company and Bell Shakespeare. And then I became full-time here as John's associate in 2011.
 
There's a lot of examples of when founding members leave, the company not continuing. It's a very tricky thing to achieve. We had a really good board at the time who had really thought about it and had been talking about it for a long time and talking very respectfully with John. They offered John, they said to him, if you want the company to finish with you, then that's what we'll do. We can just wind it up and go, this is 20 years or 25 years and it stops. But if you want it to continue, then we need to get steps in place and we need to have a process. I think it certainly felt to me like a very well run thing. And I hope, I think he felt really respected and that he got to choose exactly how it happened.
 
I mean, it's a very particular kind of job. I think, and this is doubly true now, finding someone who has the experience to do it and who also wants to commit to the company is quite hard. A lot of directors want to do a variety of work. So the idea of just doing Shakespeare, there's not many people who want to do that, particularly in this country. I think if you're in England, it would be different. But I don't think there were heaps of us that had had a connection with the company and had, you know, wanted to do it. So at one level, I think the pool was quite small. But I would hope that he saw a kindred spirit and thought, the company will be in good hands I would hope.

Peter Evans explains how he felt about the transition

Peter Evans (Artistic Director of Bell Shakespeare) explains how he felt about the transition
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 really hard. Because, I mean, what I half-jokingly kept saying at the time is my job is to kind of refresh the company without frightening the horses, which I think any new leadership is pretty much. But the not frightening the horses bit, I took very seriously and I'm pleased I did. Because the legacy bit and because it's always been such a philanthropy led company, the people who bought into the vision needed to know that that was gonna continue.
 
Now I didn't have any plans to change any of that. I believed in it anyway. And although our work was different, it wasn't philosophically different. It was just kind of different ways of, different styles of production. But philosophically, I completely believed in everything that he believed in and didn't want to change any of that. But we, during, in 12, in 13 and 14, we had major financial problems. And so the idea I was going to have any security going into my tenure was blown away. And in fact, I wasn't sure that there'd be a company to take over. And I had thrown everything in to do it. So it was very stressful and scary, scary as hell.

Peter Evans reflects on the company’s ongoing relationship with their supporters

Peter Evans (Artistic Director of Bell Shakespeare) reflects on the company’s ongoing relationship with their supporters
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.
 
We do lots of dinners and drinks and stuff. You actually get to know people as people. And they get to know you and they get to know my wife and they get to know my kid. And also, there's work that they like and work that they don't like. And so I tease them about that. You get to know what their tastes are. And the great thing is that, I mean, I'm very honest with them and I go, I don't think this is your cup of tea. And I know they'll still come and I know they'll still support and they still make the best of things, but some works they like more than other works. But, you know, I love having that kind of group who's in it, no matter what we're making, there's clearly enough of the work that they like to stay in it. But...Yeah, we tease our donors a lot. They tease us. It's a nice relationship. They're really nice people, because that's the other thing is they're self-selecting. They tend to be interested in the same things we're interested in. It's not difficult to find things to talk about.

Peter Evans reflects on his relationship to the company’s closest supporters and why he makes Shakespeare in Australia now

Peter Evans (Artistic Director of Bell Shakespeare) reflects on his relationship to the company’s closest supporters and why he makes Shakespeare in Australia now
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.
 
Well, because more than any other company that I know, it's been in its DNA because it started with, with that initial conversation. And so the access that the supporters have had to the work has always been quite high compared with other companies. So I remember when I first worked there, as the AD that we would have these, what we now call in the rehearsal room. These evenings where the people would come in and we would show them a piece of the play and we'd talk to them and stuff. So the work has always been quite porous in terms of its relationship. And I'm quite proud that we've actually made that more during my time, that there's even more opportunities for supporters to literally get in the room with the work.
 
And so you get to know that hardcore group very well. And a lot of them have been with the company for a long time. Like so then that is very kind of rusted on and close but they're also your audience so they can talk to you about the work and they're curious and they're really interested in meeting the new people working with the company. They're really interested in telling you their knowledge of the company and what they've loved over the years. People's ownership over the company and their pride in knowing all its iterations is profound, I think.
 
The stuff that I'm most interested in is universal. And so our responsibility is to make sure that Australian voices, all different types of Australian voices, get to participate in that. The Australian-ness in it is actually a kind of opportunity and a participation bit. My responsibility over this last decade is to try and increase the opportunities for a variety of voices to participate in that. But the work we come together to work on is all the same work. That's the bit. It's who's playing with it is the Australian bit.

Sue Pugh on why she supports Bell Shakespeare

Sue Pugh (long term supporter of Bell Shakespeare) on why she supports 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.
 
John Bell is an icon. His acting skills go without question. His vision for setting up this company showed incredible foresight. And filling an obvious gap in Australian theatre and having, obviously he spent some time at the RSC, you know, so having some understanding of how a company that focuses on the works of Shakespeare might operate and so on and so forth, and how that could be translated into the Australian context. Again, keeping things Australian, not trying to copy the RSC or copy what they do in England or even now at the Globe, but to present the plays in an Australian context with Australian accents and mostly in a contemporary setting. I mean, not always, but most of the time in a quasi contemporary setting. And not only presenting plays, but also the emphasis on education and how Shakespeare is taught in schools, how teachers learn or never learn how to teach Shakespearian works. That I think that was all, as far as I can understand, was always going to be part of the company. And the emphasis that has evolved regarding education, I think is one of the most significant reasons why I support Bell Shakespeare. You could support any other theatre company, but they don't do this incredible educational thing with players going into schools, getting teachers to come here and again be immersed in the ethos of the company and giving them techniques on how to be able to teach and engage students because most of the time. You say Shakespeare to any school student and their eyes glaze over. So for me, that's one of the quintessential elements of this company that's the reason I support them.

Sue Pugh explains how she became involved in the Artistic Director’s Circle and why she loves being a part of it

Sue Pugh (long term supporter of Bell Shakespeare) explains how she became involved in the Artistic Director’s Circle and why she loves being a part of it
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.
 
Initially it would have been just buying your subscription package and chucking in bit of extra money in as a donation. And then I remember one particular gala that we came to, about four or five years ago. And so at the gala, you know, we'd buy a few raffle tickets and stuff and they were asking for people to be, provide support for the syndicate for Romeo and Juliet. And my husband said, why don't you do that? So I donated some money to that. And as a consequence of that, got invited to the first day of rehearsals, to the company run, first opening night, dinner on stage, and it was that extra involvement, immersion within the creative process of the play that was just extraordinary. It just enhanced my whole enjoyment of the production. And I think I might've said flippantly at the dinner on stage, what do you have to do to get into this happening all the time? And not long after that, an invitation came to join the Artistic Directors Circle, which I did. And so that's become a regular part of, as I said, the rehearsals, going to opening nights, just getting that closer proximity to the actual mechanics of the production. So sneak previews into the rehearsal room, understanding what the director is aiming for with the play, how they've thought about the design, the costumes, and all of that has just enhanced my enjoyment of the plays enormously.
 
I think it's mutually beneficial and certainly they get the financial benefit out of it and I think those of us who are part of the Artistic Director Circle really value that association with the company and the sense of being part of the family it just feels as if everybody's part of this one organism, if I can put it that way. And you feel connected and part of that as well, which is wonderful. I know quite a bit about Shakespeare and the plays and so when I come to rehearsals, first day of rehearsals or something like that, I will usually have done some homework about the play. And so Peter, if he's directing, will go into details about how he sees the play and so on and so forth. And jokingly, at the end of that presentation, he'll ask my opinion and whether I have any particular advice. I know that he doesn't need my advice. But again, it's this genuine sense of they like my interaction with the company and just being a bit playful.