Betty Rayner Betty Rayner i(A50762 works by)
Born: Established: May 1907 Wellington, Wellington (Region), North Island,
c
New Zealand,
c
Pacific Region,
; Died: Ceased: 1 Oct 1981 Melbourne, Victoria,
Gender: Female
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

BiographyHistory

Betty Rayner was an actor, director and dramatist, and the daughter of the cartoonist Freddy Rayner. She was the youngest of five children. Her sister, Joan Rayner (q.v.), was also an actor, director and dramatist. They pioneered children's theatre in Australia together. The Rayner sisters arrived in Sydney around 1920. Joan studied the art of the 'strolling players' with their godmother, Constance Smedley, at Greenleaf Theatre in London from 1921 to 1923. After a return to Sydney, Betty joined 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)

Most Referenced Works

Known archival holdings

National Library of Australia (ACT)
State Library of Victoria (VIC)
Last amended 15 Jun 2011 11:01:38
Other mentions of "" in AustLit:
    X