Joan Rayner was an actor, director and dramatist, and the daughter of cartoonist Freddy Rayner. Her sister, Betty Rayner, was also an actor, director and dramatist. They pioneered children's theatre in Australia together. The Rayner sisters arrived in Sydney around 1920. Joan departed for England in 1921 to study the art of the 'strolling players' with her godmother, Constance Smedley, at Greenleaf Theatre in London for two years. After returning to Sydney in late 1923 Joan was joined by Betty in her theatrical endeavours. They left for England in 1926 for further study with Constance Smedley but after a falling out with her left England. They engaged in further studies in Paris and Berlin and performed in New York on the way back to Australia in 1928.
In 1929-1931 the Rayner sisters directed the Theatre of Youth in Sydney and from 1932 to 1948 toured Australia, North America and Europe as 'strolling players' performing folksongs and folk-plays. In 1948 Joan and Betty Rayner founded the Australian Children's Theatre (ACT) in Melbourne as a nationwide travelling theatre that could reach country children. Education departments, headmasters and teachers were gradually persuaded to support the ACT. Their play, based on Aboriginal stories, The Girl Who Became a Bird, was so popular it was performed for two years. They toured through Australia and New Zealand until the late 1970s. In the first five years of the ACT, they played to 300,000 children. They also performed for adult audiences.
(Source: Adapted from Mavis Thorpe Clark Joan & Betty Rayner Strolling Players (1972); 'Joan and Betty Rayner', Currency Press Companion to Theatre in Australia ed. Philip Parsons (1995): 481-482)
