Film - Sophie Boord, 'Paul Kathner: On Scenic Art', The Arts Centre Melbourne

This is “Les Sulphides” the Chopin Ballet that I did last year for the Australian Ballet. It needed a set that sort of echoed the romantic mood of the Ballet itself. I based the set on Caspar David Friedrich, the great romantic painter and I thought it’s got to look something like that…it’s got to have that quality. Technically it was a joy to paint, I mean it’s made up of a series of cut cloths, which are these side bits and a back drop<��it’s very simple. We decided we’d use the old trick in the theatre of back lighting the backdrop. The bits I wanted to have lit around the moon on the sky and the water, I painted that very thinly, like a water colour and I painted the bits I wanted to appear solid like the bridge, in a more opaque paint, so when it was lit from the front and the back it had a lovely sort of distance. And we under lit it in a way because after all when it’s all said and done the most important people in this production are the people who are dancing in front of that.

The younger ones in the studio helped me do it and did it very well I might say. I do every year, a set for the Port Fairy Spring Music Festival. So I hit on the idea of basing the set on Port Fairy itself and it had to link with music because it’s a music festival. So I did music lines down the design and I made all the lamp posts…where the lights are, became notes. And Port Fairy being an old whaling town has these marvellous stone buildings in it and it’s a great place for yachting, so boats…boats and houses are the things I that thought I’ve got to incorporate that some how or other. So, that was last years one and the year before that I did again a version of the town and water and music.

I like painting landscape. I don’t paint out of doors, I do drawings…you might be able to see on the wall behind me…and then work them up when I’m home. A place I find an extraordinary place is Hanging Rock. I find it a very sinister place, perhaps that the hangover from the movie or something.

So, I’ve been working on a painting of Hanging Rock. The difference between scene designing and painting is in scene designing you’re given a theme and you embellish that theme. The difference in painting of course is you have to say what you want to say completely in the painting. You can see the link between what I do as a designer and what I do as a painter. This is the Hanging Rock drawing that I based that painting on…that’s what I do all time, just a rough sketch that gives me the, sort of, feeling of the place and then I come back and develop it into the painting…but a lot of these on this wall are notes I’ve made when I’ve been out in the country and attracted by a view or building or what ever it is.

The drawing is the skeleton of the work and it sounds old fashioned these days to say drawing is the basic craft of painting but I’m sure it is. It has been for centuries and I think it still is.

I was asked to do lots of talks about the history of how a stage developed and the Theatre in Australia so I thought wouldn’t it be nice if I had a model…and so the curtain goes up and I’ve painted the…I’ve painted the scenery to look like the sort of scenery that would have been used in a Victorian Theatre because it was before movies and films so everything was naturalistic.

I decided I’d do a series of backdrops about Australia…and this one is a view of Collins Street in 1864, I think, that I took from a print…that’s a sort of Englishy Olde Worlde landscape and then I decided I’d paint the back wall with some scenic art just up in the loft …painting some scenery but you can’t see them from here and bits of scenery leaning against the wall and all that sort of stuff…and the front curtain would have been a painted curtain, like that, not a curtain as we are used to now…and the only Theatre that has one of these at the moment is Her Majesty’s Theatre in Ballarat, because I painted one for them for their 100th Anniversary.

Film - 'The J. C. Williamson Scenebook Interview with Margaret Marshall', Performing Arts Collection The Arts Centre Melbourne

As a major Company that staged many productions and owned numerous theatres around Australia, Williamsons was an important employer of, and training ground for, scenic artists.

This book depicts through photographs the skilful artistry of many such designers. Obviously it’s quite fragile and it would have had a previous life as a working catalogue used back stage. Each of the photographs has a number that corresponds to a caption that records, the name of the production, a description and the Act in which it was used, the size of the cloth and often the artist is also recorded.

One of the prominent scenic painters of the time working for Williamsons was George Upward and here are three examples of his work from a production called ‘Bird of Paradise’. You can see that the scenic painting of the time was very realistic and these cloths would have been used at the back of the stage to create the scene. This example shows a coastal scene and this one an erupting volcano.

This volume dates from around 1918 to the early 1920s. One of the large productions at the time was ‘Joseph and his Brethren’ and throughout this volume there’s many back cloths depicted for that production. This one here shows some very Egyptian columns and another example further on shows the pyramids of Egypt along with some palm trees. This was also painted by George Upward and the condition is noted here as perfect.

This is an example from a production called ‘High Jinks” and it shows how foliage was often hung at different levels to give a sense of a forest in a scene. This photograph is also interesting because it shows a little bit of the behind the scenes area of the stage that’s crept in to the photograph. And there’s a note here saying that it was sent to Sydney on the 19th of November 1920.

These pages show some of the architectural treatments that would have been used on stage…very effective use of perspective in this upper one, from ‘The Sign of the Cross’, depicting an arena and giving a real sense of space to the stage. This second one is also from ‘The Sign of the Cross’ and depicts a very realistic architectural feature of an arch with columns…and it is incredible because it really shows a three dimensional quality. The lower scene is from a production caller ‘Under Fire’ an’ it’s a cut cloth, with the arches cut out of the cloth, so the performers could’ve walked behind.

Throughout the book there are handwritten notes indicating that a lot of the cloths have been reused or sent on to other productions at other theatres…for example this one says “Reverse side painted for ‘Hello Everybody’ ”. Given the size, age and the reuse of these backcloths, it’s highly unlikely that any of them exist any more, so it really does make this volume a very important historical record.

Film - 'J. C. Williamson Costume Designs', Performing Arts Collection The Arts Centre Melbourne

The Performing Arts Collection holds several thousand costume designs and set designs. There’s about 500 costume designs that relate to J. C. Williamson productions. J. C. Williamson Company specialised in purchasing rights of overseas productions to be re-staged. As part of the process, production data including costume designs often were imported to Australia.

These particular ones are a series of designs from the musical “Chu-Chin-Chow” and they were donated to the Collection by Lady Viola Tait and they supplement the existing J. C Williamson archive. “Chu-Chin-Chow” was one of the hits of the London stage during the First World War. It Premiered in 1916 and ran for five years with a record breaking 2,238 performances. It was written by Oscar Ashe, who was born in Geelong and he stared in the production alongside his wife Lily Brayton. Based on “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves”, “Chu-Chin-Chow” was an extravaganza, full of oriental imagery as these designs show.

They are original designs by Percy Anderson and they were brought out to Australia when the production was staged here in 1920. It was actually first staged by Hugh D. McIntosh at Melbourne’s Tivoli Theatre and it was later sold to Williamsons. Williamson’s staged it over a number years. The majority of costume designs imported for J. C. Williamson’s were by Attilio Comelli. He was born in Italy and worked in London Theatres for many years. He worked mainly in Ballet, Pantomime and Musical Theatre and in fact was contracted by J. C. Williamson in 1910 to produce Pantomime designs directly for Australian productions.

These are some examples of Comelli’s work for Pantomime and his designs are often very whimsical. This is from Mother Goose 1915 design. This is how Comelli often signed his work and he often used the date 1915 without the one in front. This is another from the same production.

This is a design for a soldier from the Pantomime “Humpty Dumpty” also by Comelli and there’s a series of these in the Collection all using variations of the egg motifs and yolk effect. A lot of the designs have had hand written notes added to them. They’re annotations giving directions to costume staff that would have been making the costumes here.

This design indicates that certain props were to be supplied from Paris. These designs are also by Comelli. They’re from the Musical Comedy “Tonight’s the Night” which was staged in 1916. They’re interesting because they have swatches of fabric attached to them which give a clear indication of what the costumes would have been like. As well as the fabric on this one there’s also a detail. These designs are from a Musical called “A Runaway Girl” and they were designed by Charles Wilhelm in 1898. They’re the earliest of the Williamson related designs that we have in the collection. The production was staged here in 1902. Wilhelm was known for his historical accuracy, also his exquisite detail in rendering the designs.

This is a costume design for the Pantomime “The Forty Thieves” which was staged in Australia in 1922. This design’s for seahorses and sea urchins played by children and it also details the Act and Scene that it was to be used for. Over the years some costume designs were dispersed beyond the Williamson Company. It’s satisfying to know that some of these have come back to the Performing Arts Collection to supplement the others that have come directly from Williamsons.

Film - 'A Brief Overview of the J. C. Williamson Theatre Company', Performing Arts Collection The Arts Centre Melbourne

The name J. C. Williamson really dominated Australian Theatre for over a century. The Performing Arts Collection received the Melbourne archive from J. C. Williamson’s when the firm closed in 1976 and it really forms the backbone of our Collection. The Collection contains thousands of items, photographs, posters, programmes, press clipping books, stage designs and plans, correspondence, financial records and other business documents.

J. C. Williamson was an American comic actor who turned to management quite early on in his career. He first came to Australia in 1874 staring in a production called “Struck Oil” with his then wife, Maggie Moore. It was a huge hit and he toured around Australia with that and overseas as well. He returned to Australia in 1879 and brought with him the rights to “H.M.A.S. Pinafore”. He was a very astute businessman and this is proven by the success of his company, in particular the fact he was able to secure the Australian performing rights for all Gilbert and Sullivan works helped the company over many years, particularly during hard times.

The foundation of J. C. Williamson Limited really began in 1882, when Williamson formed a partnership with Arthur Garner and George Musgrove. This was known as “The Triumvirate” and it was a very successful partnership, however it did end and Williamson continued on in various partnerships until forming J. C. Williamson Limited in 1911. Williamson died however in 1913 on a trip to Paris but his company continued on. In 1920 J. C. Williamson’s amalgamated with a competing management J. & N. Tait. There were five Tait brothers who became the controlling force in Williamson’s until the mid-1960s.

When the Company closed in the mid-70s it was thanks to Lady Viola Tait, who was the widow of the youngest brother Sir Frank, that the collection was saved from the stores behind Her Majesty’s Theatre and the offices at the Comedy Theatre and they were donated to the Performing Arts Collection. Lady Tait’s legacy has been continued recently as her three daughters have donated their late mother’s collection to the Performing arts Collection which really continues on the J. C. Williamson archive.

The massive J. C. Williamson archive has been sorted, listed and re- housed thanks to the help of Gerald Taylor, one of our wonderful volunteers.

Film - Sophie Boord, 'Paul Kathner Discusses his Career', The Arts Centre Melbourne

I landed a job by sheer luck, actually, as assistant to Bill Constable, who was then art director of the Borovansky Ballet. Of course in those days, this is now 1951. And there were no schools in scene design. You learned on the job. And you learned by observation more than anything else, and did all the menial jobs, like cleaning the brushes, and washing the palette, and sweeping the floor, and doing all that-- and filling in the big areas that nobody ever saw.

Just before Bill left Australia, he thought that I ought to start designing as well. And so being a friend of everybody in the theatre, he rang Doris Fitton, who is the sort of extraordinary woman who ran the Independent Theatre.

I learned an enormous amount at the Independent, because it had a tiny stage, very limited lighting equipment. And so we learned to sort of paint the light on the scenery to a certain extent.

There was little money around even to spend on the production itself, so you had to be inventive. There were no subsidies, for instance. And there were no state theatres as there are now.

And I started then to be asked to do other things. I designed a couple of operas. And then the John Alden company was formed by JC Williamson's. And I designed a Shakespeare for John.

And then the music hall opened in Neutral Bay, which was a sort of converted cinema. And I was asked to do the interior design for the hall, which was great fun, because I did murals and things in the foyer of old Sydney, and it was all a bit mad.

And then out of the blue I was asked to take over from John Truskett, who was leaving St. Martins theatre as resident designer to go overseas. And I came down on a two-year contract. And I ended up staying 11 years. So I did an enormous number of productions at St. Martins, because we did a new one every four weeks as a rule.

St. Martins eventually folded up. Again, as a private organization-- which it was-- it was starting to feel the pinch. And of course at that stage, the state theatre companies were formed-- and Melbourne Theatre Company, which was in the Union Theatre, and Sydney Theatre Company. And so they really took over from the little theatres that were around when I was a young man.

There were more resources. They were being funded properly by the government and universities and all sorts of people. And there was money to do really very, very, very good productions.

For the first time, I was out of a job. But I wasn't out of a job for more than two days, because Ross Turner rang me up, who was chief scenic artist at JC Williamson's, and said you'd better come and work here. So off I went and worked for Williamson's for four years in the scenic department. And I think the first show I painted for Williamson's-- or helped paint-- was "A Little Night Music."

And again, Williamson's were finding it tough, too, because they were a private enterprise. And however big they were, they were finding the cost of touring and maintaining large companies impossible to do. So Williamson's gradually wound down, still doing shows, but sort of contracting out.

They suggested to Ross that he form a private company. So he approached me and said, how about you and I going into partnership and forming Scenic Studios? And Scenic Studios has been going ever since.

I'm retired from it now. But I still sort of do guest spots when they need me. And it trains people. And that's what I'm pleased about, that it's got young people on the staff that, I think, are well and truly going to be able to carry on the tradition.

Scenic Studios has painted virtually everything in the Australian ballet repertoire. And the one that sticks out in my mind that I enjoyed doing most of all was "Manon," because it was very pictorial. It was very painterly. And it needed all the tricks that a scene painter could use to actually do it.

I find that the link between painting and design have been lost a little bit. It's become architectural and minimalist. And sometimes that cuts across the work itself. I sound like a grumpy old gentleman.

But a lot of young scene designers seem to be doing the same thing. They all seem to be frightened of color. So everything's black or white or gray-- or mirrors or something. But it seems to me to be sort of not easy on the eye.

There are some designers who are now using computerized imagery. So there's no sort of handwriting of the artist on it. It's mechanically contrived. I find it impersonal, and I would not care to have to interpret a computerized design, because I feel there's no pleasure in it.