...“Australian theatre reflects the changing artistic, social, political and personal issues and concerns of our nation.” Theatre performance has existed in Australia for around 200 years and the subject of Drama has been taught since the 1970’s. This is with the exception of Aboriginal corroborees, a form of dance drama which have been around for around 40 000 years. Australian theatre began officially on June 4th, 1789 with the production of ‘The Recruiting Officer’ months after the first fleet Arrived in Australia. The production was comedy that had been very successful in England. In Australia it was performed in a mud hut by convicts and had an audience of around sixty people. In the intermission things such as wheat, rum, tobacco and fowls were sold, as this was all that the convicts could afford. Theatre performance gained a new perspective in Australia in 1796 when Robert Sidaway, a convict, opened the first theatre in Australia, which seated 120 people and had an admission of one shilling. This theatre was closed due to pickpocketing and burglary, however another one was opened by Sidaway in 1800 though it did not last very long either. The main focus of Australian theatre has been on bushrangers and convicts. For over a century stories of Michael Howe, who was shot and killed in Van Dieman’s land in 1818, have been the types of stories that Australian plays have been written about. The very first play in Australian theatre was written by David Burn and was entitled...
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