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Damien Ryan Damien Ryan i(11629537 works by)
Gender: Male
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BiographyHistory

'Managing Artistic Director of Sport for Jove theatre is the multi award winning director Damien Ryan, who is at the forefront of directing Shakespeare in Australia. From Romeo and Juliet to Titus Andronicus, Damien is a master of finding a truth and relevance that connects classic texts to modern audiences. Sharing Damien’s passion for these plays, you can gain an insight into interpreting, performing and staging the Bard’s work with theatricality and clarity.

'Damien Ryan is Managing Artistic Director of Sport for Jove Theatre, directing their productions of The Taming of the Shrew, Away and Antigone in 2016.  He recently performed in Twelfth Night for Belvoir, directed by Eamon Flack and NORA for Belvoir, directed by Anne-Louise Sarks. He has also directed the national touring productions of Hamlet and Henry V for Bell Shakespeare.

'Previous directing credits: for SFJ include Love's Labour's Lost, The Importance of Being Earnest, Hamlet, Macbeth, The Taming of the Shrew, As You Like It, Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Libertine by Stephen Jeffreys (with Terry Karabelas); and for Bell Shakespeare, co-directing Henry 4 with John Bell, Romeo and Juliet over three seasons, and the Actors at Work program. He founded the Sydney Hills Shakespeare in the Park and The Leura Shakespeare Festival.

'He has acted and directed many plays across Australia, celebrating over 20 years in the industry. Recent acting credits include Othello for SFJ, directed by Matt Edgerton, Hamlet directed by David Ritchie, and As You Like It directed by John Bell. He has also worked heavily in the Australian education sector, and bringing Shakespeare and theatre to young audiences is his life’s ambition.' (Author biography)

Awards: Sydney Theatre Awards for Best Supporting Actor in Independent Production for Iago in Othello; Best Independent Production for All's Well That Ends Well; Best Director and Best Mainstage Production Henry V; Best Director and Best Production for Cyrano de Bergerac; Best Production for The Libertine; and nominations for Best Director for The Libertine, Hamlet and The
Taming of the Shrew.

Most Referenced Works

Awards for Works

Cyrano de Bergerac 2017 single work drama
— Appears in: Antigone & Cyrano de Bergerac : Two Adaptions for Sport for Jove 2017;

'SFJ’s winter season brings an exciting venture for the many thousands who heard or read about, but haven’t yet seen our acclaimed production of Cyrano de Bergerac, winner of the 2013 Sydney Theatre Award for Best Independent Production. One of the world’s most original and finely crafted romantic comedies; the tale of the beautiful Roxane and the man who would love her, but for his outrageous nose – the play that brought the word ‘panache’ into the English language! Cyrano is a complete theatrical masterpiece.
 

'We are thrilled to announce that off the back of the huge success of Antigone and Of Mice of Men, Canberra Theatre Centre and Illawarra Performing Arts Centre have bought Cyrano for their 2017 seasons and we will bring this exceptional show back for a 2 week run on the big York Theatre stage at the Seymour Centre in June before going on the road. Damien Ryan’s new adaptation of the play won enormous acclaim in 2013 and we are thrilled to bring it to new Australian audiences.
 

CYRANO:
You see it, but you’ll never have this plume,
It soars above the battle’s mud and ash,
It stays with me, one thing…
ROXANE: (kissing him)
            …this!
CYRANO:
                MY PANACHE!

'Cyrano’s ideas and concerns are simply and profoundly human – what does individualism mean and how do we remain faithful to what we believe in? What is love and how do we get past its clichés and false ideals? How does self-esteem define us all our lives? What is beauty? What drives male aggression? What is courage? And for Rostand, it was a passionate condemnation and plea for a France that he felt was losing its soul, its romance and its creativity to return to a more enlightened, brave and individual sense of its identity – its panache.' (Production summary)

2013 winner Sydney Theatre Awards Best Independent Production
Antigone 2017 single work drama
— Appears in: Antigone & Cyrano de Bergerac : Two Adaptions for Sport for Jove 2017;

'HOW DO THE UNWRITTEN LAWS OF PERSONAL CONSCIENCE SURVIVE WHEN SET AGAINST THE LAWS OF A SOCIETY AND A NATION?

'Antigone is a child of war, like too many in our world. She asked a simple question thousands of years ago that remains too difficult for us to answer even to this day, as so many recent events have demonstrated. What do we do with the body of a terrorist, a murderer, who has brought destruction, death and horror to our community when that terrorist is our brother. Our own flesh and blood?

'Like Hamlet, Joan of Arc, Galileo and Sir Thomas More, Antigone inspires us with her courage, fortitude and impenetrable strength of conscience. But her excess of feeling and fundamentalist zeal are hard to reconcile in a world crying out for unity, order and the rule of law in a time of chaos. Her uncle, Creon, selflessly places his state above the welfare of his family, pursuing a principle with the sort of consistency of will that we cry out for in politicians who so often stand for nothing. Where is justice between these extremes? Antigone stands against the monolith and brings her society to a reckoning it sorely needs.' (Production summary)

2016 winner Sydney Theatre Awards Best Costume Design of an Independent Production Melanie Liertz
2016 winner Sydney Theatre Awards Best Stage Design of an Independent Production Melanie Liertz
2016 winner Sydney Theatre Awards Best Direction of an Independent Production
2016 winner Sydney Theatre Awards Best Independent Production

Damien Ryan and Terry Karabelas

Last amended 25 Aug 2017 09:01:47
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