Jan Cornall — Current CV.

 

QUALIFICATIONS &TRAINING: 
Master of Arts in Cultural and Creative Practice, University of Western Sydney, 2012.
Certificate in Training Small Groups, TAFE, 2005.
Diploma of Homeopathic Medicine, Sydney Homeopathic College, 1994.
Teacher Training, Melbourne Teachers College 1967-70.

TEACHING –Universities, Writers Centres, Colleges, private.

2022: Writer's Journey Byron Bay, GlassHouse Mts, Draft Busters Weekly Online, Class Bento Online.

2021: Tutor,WEA, Draft Busters Weekly Online, Class bento Online

2020: Tutor,WEA, Writer's Journey, Draft Busters Weekly Online, Class Bento Online

2019:  Tutor,WEA, Writer's Journey, Draft Busters.
2018: Tutor,WEA, Writer's Journey, Draft Busters.
2017: Tutor, WEA, NSW Writer's Centre, Writer's Journey, Draft Busters.
2016: Tutor, WEA, Stitch and Weave,Laneway Learning, Class Bunny.
2015: Tutor, WEA, NSW Writer's Centre, ACT Writer's Centre.
2014: Tutor, WEA, NSW Writers Centre, University of Western Sydney - Moving Images Seminars
2013: Tutor, Writing For Performance, University of Western Sydney.
2012: Tutor, Creative Writing Project, University of Western Sydney.

2011: Tutor, Writing For Performance, Writing Fiction, University of Western Sydney.

2010: Tutor, Writing Fiction, University of Western Sydney.

2009: Tutor, Creative Non Fiction, University of Western Sydney.

2008: Tutor, Fiction Writing, University of Western Sydney.

2007: Associate lecturer, Creative Non Fiction, University of Western Sydney. Associate lecturer, Writing For Performance, University of Western Sydney.

2006, 09: Guest tutor Diponegoro University, East Java, Indonesia.

2003-5: Part-time lecturer, Writing For Performance, University of Technology Sydney.

2000 -15:Writing tutor/faciliator New South Wales Writers Centre, New England Writers Centre, South Coast Writers Centre, Victorian Writers Centre, Hunter Writers Centre WEA Sydney, Eastern Suburbs Community College, Inner West Community College, Byron Bay Adult Education, Mission Beach Community Arts Centre.

TEACHING -  Writers Journey - writing workshops in international locations. 

 

2020: Moroccan Caravan (pre Covid), Six Senses of Sefrou ( Morocco, virtual).

2019: Bali Retreats, Kumano Kodo, Japan, Iran workshop.
2018: Moroccan Caravan, Haiku Walking in Japan - the Nakasendo Way.
2017: Backstage Bali, Taste of Tibet (Nepal Tibet).
2016: Creative In Bhutan, Haiku Walking in Japan (following Basho)

2015: Temple Writing in Angkor Wat, Creative In Bhutan retreat.
2014: Vietnam Writing Journey, Morocan Caravan, Seize The Moment Workshop Massachusetts.

2004 -13 Annual Retreats inc.Breakthrough Writing in Fiji, Desert Writers (Alice Springs), Tarkine Wilderness (Tas) Backstage Bali, Mekong Meditations (Luang Prabang, Laos), Temple Writing in Burma.Moroccan Caravan. Workshops/retreats Indonesia, Hong Kong, Cambodia, Myanmar.Workshops in Bali in conjunction with Ubud Writers and Readers Festival(04,05, 06) Annual Workshops -Sydney - Summer and Winter Writers Lab, Draft Busters, Draft Swap, Write Your Book On A Weekend.

GRANTS and COMMISSIONS 

2015: CAL Copyright Agency, travel and residency grant, Istanbul, Turkey.
2009: Australia India Society travel grant.
2006: Asia Link Literary Residency, Indonesia.

2000-2: Writer In the Community, Upper Hunter Arts.

2001: Creative Development, CCD, Girls of The Reel.

2000: New Work, Theatre Fund, Hanging Onto The Tail Of A Goat.

1997: Creative Development, At the Crossroads.

1994: Writer In the Community, Newcastle Community Centre.

1989: New Work Grant, Binge.

1988: Creative Development, Music Board with Dal Babare.

1987–1991: Australian Film Commission screenplay development, Talk.

1989: Writer’s Fellowship, Literature Board, The Good Daughter.

1987: New Work grant – Tisket, Tasket, co- writer.

1986: New Writers Fellowship Literature Board, Escape.

1983: Art and Working Life Grant - Working Woman’s Lunch.

1982: Theatre Board, New Work, Woman On The Run .

1979: Writer In Residence, Pram Factory, Australian Performing Group, Melbourne.

WRITTEN WORKS (produced)

2013: Archipelagogo, Love Songs to Indonesia, a collection of poems, songs, short stories (pub Saritaksu Editions).
2008: Take Me To Paradise (play).

2006: Take Me To Paradise (novella) set in Ubud, Bali between the bombs (pub Saritaksu Editions).

2001: Girls Of The Reel  (musical play).Canberra, regional Australia tour with Women On Shoestring Theatre Co.

2000: Hanging Onto The Tail Of A Goat (play). Sydney Opera House, Melbourne, Wollongong, Penrith,

1999: Escape From a Better Place (ABC radio drama adaption).

1997: At the Crossroads (musical play). Canberra, regional Australia tour, Alice Springs, Darwin with Women On Shoestring Theatre Co. Published by Gininderra Press.

1994: Talk (feature film). Australian season, festivals in Europe and NYC.

1987: Escape From a Better Place (stage play). productions by four different companies Canberra, Melbourne, Albury, Newcastle.
1987: Tisket - Tasket  (co-writer children’s play) Newcastle region schools tour.

1986: House Wife - The Musical. Newcastle.

1984: Binge (teenage musical play).Newcastle region schools tour

1983: Working Woman’s Lunch (co-writer, worksite play).Tasmania, NSW tour,

1982: Altered Egos (comedy). Various venues, Sydney.

1982: Standing Up Bent -Woman On The Run (solo play).Seymour Centre, Sydney plus Melbourne, Canberra.

Aroma Billings exotic artiste ordinaire (comedy). Kinselas, Sydney plus various vennues.

1981: Worse Than Perverse (cabaret) Sydney, Canberra, Adelaide.

1980:Failing In Love Again (cabaret). Melbourne, Adelaide, Canberra, Sydney, Brisbane, plus regional NSW.

1979: Failing In Love Again (musical). Pram Factory, Melbourne.

PUBLISHED ARTICLES

Daily Telegraph, Newcastle Herald, Jakarta Post, Urthona Magazine, Realtime Arts Magazine, Arts Hub, Adelaide Advertiser, Living Now Magazine.

EDITOR

2012: The Electronic Swagman by Raymond Hawkins. (Halstead Press)

2008: Gang Re: Publik - Australia Indonesia Creative Adventures, co-editor.

2006: Aphrodite,  Laire Siwi Mentari.(Kata Kita)

2005: On Nothing, Selected poems by Sitok Srengenge, co-editor (Kata Kita)

2005: Recipes For Everyday Life, Alison Nancye.

ALBUMS, CD’S, CASSETTES.

2006: Singing Srengenge.

1998: At the Crossroads. 

1987: Invisible Woman.

1986: Housewife, The Musical.

1980: Failing In Love Again.

1976: On The Edge, Baba Yaga USA.

LITERARY MENTOR for many published authors including:

Ingrid Woodrow, Goddess and The Galaxy Boy (Penguin).
Margo Lanagan, Tender Morsels (Allen and Unwin, Knopf USA).
Anne Lovell, Connie's Secret (Allen and Unwin).

Margaret Wilcox, Gone (Penguin).

Marguerite van Geldermalsen, Married to a Bedouin (Virago).

Catherine Therese, The Weight of Silence (Hachette Livre).

Margaret Stephenson Meere, The Child Within the Lotus (Rockpool). 

Walter Mason, Destination Saigon (Allen&Unwin).

Mary Delahunty,  Public Life, Private Grief (Hardie Grant).

Niromi De Soyza, Tamil Tigress (Allen&Unwin).
Hilary Linstead, Elisabeth Davies, Growing Old Outrageously (Allen & Unwin)
Jennifer Smart, The Wardrobe Girl ( Random House) 

A.D. Scott, Beneath The Abbey Wall (Simon &Schuster)
Raymond Hawkins, The Electronic Swagman (Halstead Press)

FESTIVALS AND CONFERENCES - SPEAKER AND PERFORMER

2018:  Makassar International Writer's Festival, Sulawesi, Indonesia.

2016: Mountain Echoes Literary Festival,  Bhutan.

2015: Irrawaddy Literary Festival, Burma.

2013: Ubud Writers and Readers Festival, Irrawaddy Literary Festival, Burma.

2012: Northern Kingdom Poetry Festival, Cambodia

2010: Hong Kong International Literary Festival. Open Arts Festival Beijing (performance art festival)

2009: Ubud Writers and Readers Festival, Utan Kayu Literary Biennale,Women Playwrights International Conference Mumbai.  

2008: Perfurbance, Merapi Festival.  Salitiga Festival, Java.

2006: Ubud Writers and Readers Festival, Perfurbance performance art festival.

 
2005: Ubud Writers Festival, St Kilda Writers Festival, Two Fires Festival. Braidwood

 
Darwin Wordstorm, Global Healing Conference Bali. Utan Kayu Literary Biennale Indonesia.

 

2004: Ubud Writers and Readers Festival. 

2000: International Womens Playwrights Conference, Athens/ Delphi.

 RESIDENCIES

2019: Iran Residency, Kerman Province, Iran.

2015: Writer in Residence, Maumau Arts Centre, Istanbul, Turkey.
2014: Poet in Residence, Parliament on King Cafe, Newtown.
2013: Writer in Residence, Culture Vultures, Sefrou, Morocco.  

2009:Mata Air festival, Central Java.

2008: Bundanon Literary residency with Indonesian Artists.

OzAsia Festival, Adelaide, Workshop Residency with Sitok Srengenge,

Gang Festival Sydney, Literary Residency with Triyanto Triwikromo

2006: Asia Link Literary Residency at Teater Utan Kayu, Jakarta.

2004-5: Community History Writing Residency Hawkesbury City Council, NSW.

2000-02: Upper Hunter Arts, Farming Communities Residency, NSW, Newcastle Community Arts Centre Writer in Community.

2000: Writing Residency, Adishakti House, India.

COLLABORATIONS with writers and artists in Asian region.

2013:

2010-11: Triyanto Triwikromo (Indonesia) short story anthology, festival performances S; Dili, Vietnamese crime writer.
2008:  Take me To Paradise (stage) Oz Asia Festival: Juma Adi (artist, puppeteer) Sitok Srengenge (poet, actor), Deva Permana, Wendy Angerrani (musicians).

2007-10:  Triyanto Triwikromo, prose poetry performance, Sidoarjo, ANU Canberra, Ubud Writers Festival Borobodur. Literary Lesehan at Gang Festival Sydney.

2006: Indonesian poet Sitok Srengenge(CD) Performance Klub (performance art projects), musician Imel Rosalin(CD Singing Srengenge), Buta Buti Film Collective (documentary), Bastard Sons (poetry & music performance Yogjakarta - Mom and her Bastard Sons).

2005: Sitok Srengenge at Darwin Wordstorm, poetry performance.

2000: Tibetan Australian performer, Tenzing Tsewang, play. 

PERFORMANCE - acting, comedy and music.

Film Acting
1971  - 83: The Firm Man directed by John Duigan, Dalmas, directed by Bert Deling, On Guard directed by Susan Lambert & Sarah Gibson, Serious Undertakings — award winning short film by Helen Grace. 

Comedy
1982 - 83. The Gap - Women's comedy with Gretel Killeen, Mandy Salomon, Wendy Harmer, produced by Judy Barnsley and Larry Buttrose. Characters Tour with same line up to regional NSW.
Kinselas - opening act for Gary McDonald,  Aroma Billings, Multicultural Waitress, Exotic Artiste Ordinaire
The Comedy Pub Melbourne with Denise Scott.


Music

2020: Faiing in Love Again at Mardi Gras Oxtravaganza Festival, Sydney.

2019: Failing In Love Again at State Library and Girls In Our Town Concert with Elizabeth Drake, Marget Roadnight, Jeannie Lewis , Janie Conway, Krista Hughes in Sedition Festival, Sydney.
2005-9:  Darwin, Jakarta, Bandung, Ubud, Java - tour and festival performances.
1980 - 82:  Failing In Love Again east coast capital cities tour, concert tour with Elizabeth Drake, Margaret Roadnight, Jeannie Lewis, Janie Conway, guest spot Robyn Archer and Cabaret Conspiracy tour - Sydney North Coast, Canberra, produced by Johnny Allen.
1979: They Said It Couldn't Happen Concert at RMIT produced by Di Duncombe
1977: Baba Yaga band tour, west coast USA and Canada.

Jan Cornall - written works

2013: Archipelagogo (collection of poems, songs, short stories, also performed as acapella cabaret).
2008: Take Me To Paradise (play).

2006: Take Me To Paradise (novella).

2001: Girls Of The Reel  (musical play).

2000: Hanging Onto The Tail Of A Goat (play).

1999: Escape From a Better Place (ABC radio drama adaption).

1997: At the Crossroads (musical play).

1994: Talk (feature film).

1987: Escape From a Better Place (stage play).
1987: Tisket - Tasket  (co-writer children’s play)

1986: House Wife - The Musical.

1984: Binge (teenage musical play).

1983: Working Woman’s Lunch (co-writer, worksite play).

1982: Altered Egos (comedy).

1982: Standing Up Bent -Woman On The Run (solo play).

Aroma Billings exotic artiste ordinaire (comedy)

1981: Worse Than Perverse (song cycle).

1980:Failing In Love Again (cabaret).

1979: Failing In Love Again (musical).

GRANTS and COMMISSIONS 

2015: CAL Copyright Agency, travel and residency grant, Istanbul, Turkey.
2009: Australia India Society travel grant.
2006: Asia Link Literary Residency, Indonesia.

2000-2: Writer In the Community, Upper Hunter Arts.

2001: Creative Development, CCD, Girls of The Reel.

2000: New Work, Theatre Fund, Hanging Onto The Tail Of A Goat.

1997: Creative Development, At the Crossroads.

1994: Writer In the Community, Newcastle Community Centre.

1989: New Work Grant, Binge.

1988: Creative Development, Music Board with Dal Babare.

1987–1991: Australian Film Commission screenplay development, Talk.

1989: Writer’s Fellowship, Literature Board, The Good Daughter.

1987: New Work grant – Tisket, Tasket, co- writer.

1986: New Writers Fellowship Literature Board, Escape.

1983: Art and Working Life Grant - Working Woman’s Lunch.

1982: Theatre Board, New Work, Woman On The Run .

1979: Writer In Residence, Pram Factory, Australian Performing Group, Melbourne.

Jan Cornall - written works and performance

2017               Performance poetry and song at Makassar International Writer's Festival, 
                       Indonesia.

2015                Performed readings, Irrawaddy Literary Festival, Burma
                        Readings, Maumau Arts Centre, Istanbul, Turkey

2014            Archipelagogo launch, The Bowery Poetry Club, NewYork City
                     Readings, poetry event Massachusetts
                     Poet in residence events, Parliament on King, Newtown

2013            Archipelagogo, launch, Ubud Writers and Readers Festival 
                    Poetry performance, Irrawaddy Literary Festival,  Burma

2010             Poetry performance at Hong Kong International Literary Festival

2009              Performance art at Open Art Festival, Beijing
                      Performance poetry collaboration at Mata Air Festival, Salatiga, Java

          

2004-8         Spoken and sung word performances at:

                    Ubud Writers Festivals, ‘04.’05.’06

                    Braidwood Two Fires Feb’05

                    Darwin Wordstorm’05

                    Utan Kayu International Literary Biennale ‘05
                    Take Me To Paradise, novel, launched at Ubud Writer's Festival, 2006
                    Winner, People's Choice,  Poetry Slam, Ubud Writers Festival 2006
                    Jazz poetry CD, Jan Cornall, Singing Srengenge, launched Bali and Java, 2006
                    Perfurbance Festivals, Jogjakarta ‘06,’07.’08

                    Gang Festival, Sydney ‘08
                    Take Me to Paradise, OzAsia Festival (writer, producer, performer)

1996-2003   Hanging Onto the Tail of A Goat (writer)

                    Girls Of the Reel (musical, writer0

                    At the Crossroads (musical, writer)

                    Charity MC, auctioneer

1986-96    Talk (feature film, screen writer)              

                  Escape From A Better Place(writer)

                  House Wife, The Musical (writer)

                  Tasket Tasket, (co-writer)

                  Binge (co-writer)

               

1980 - 85    Working Woman’s Lunch (co writer comedienne)

                    Altered Egos (comedienne)            

                    Characters Tour with Wendy Harmer, Gretel Kileen (comedienne)

                    Women’s Comedy at the Gap (comedienne)

                     Standing Up Bent (comedienne)

                    Aroma Billings Multicultural Waitress and Exotic Artiste Ordinaire (writer, singer, comedienne)

                    Woman on the Run (writer, actor)

                    Worse Than Perverse (singer, songwriter)

                    The Coming Out Tour (singer, songwriter)

                    Failing In Love Again Cabaret (writer, singer)

                  

1978-79       Nightshift at The Pram (actor)

                    Red Love (actor)

                    L’Amante Anglaise (actor)

                    World Premiere of Stephen Sewell’s play, Traitors (actor)
                    Failing In Love Again Musical (writer, actor, singer)

1974-8         Singer /songwriter USA, Europe

                    Percussionist with Baba Yaga (USA)

1968-74       Tribe at La Mama (actor)

                    Australian Performing Group at the Pram Factory(actor)

Festival Pix

After beginning her career as an actor at La Mama and The Pram Factory in Melbourne, Jan Cornall began performing her original cabaret works with pianist Elizabeth Drake at the Adelaide Fringe Festival in the early 80's. More recently she has read and performed her work at literary and performance art festivals in the Asia Pacific region. Below are some festival pics from the past decade.

2015: A performance of songs and poems from her collection, Archipelagogo - Love Songs to Indonesia, at Irrawaddy Literary Festival, Mandalay, Burma.

2013: Irrawaddy Literary Festival,  Feb 1-3, Burma. Performance with Burmese poets at the boathouse venue, Inya Lake Hotel. Jan collaborated with poet Nyein Way.

 2012:  Performed reading at Asia Pacific Writers Conference, Bangkok.

2012: Northern Kingdoms Poetry Festival, Siem Reap, Cambodia.

2011: Trentenalle Merigar Festival, Tuscany, Italy.

 
2010. Hong Kong International Literary Festival, Asia Pacific Writers Conference, Hong Kong.

2009: Open Art Festival Beijing.

2009:Mata Air Festival, Salatiga, Indonesia.
Ubud Writers Festival (Borobodur with Triyanto Triwikromo), Utan Kayu Literary Biennale,

Women Playwrights International Conference Mumbai,

 

2008:  OzAsia Festival, Adelaide, Perfurbance Jogjakarta,Reality Bites Festival Noosa,
Gang Festival, Sydney.

2007: Perfurbance, Jogjakarta.
Awakening Global Action, Bali.

2006: Ubud Writers Festival, Perfurbance #2.

2005: Ubud Writers Festival, St Kilda Writers Festival, Two Fires Festival. Braidwood

Darwin Wordstorm, Global Healing Conference Bali. Utan Kayu Literary Biennale Indonesia.

2004: Ubud Writers Festival.

Escape From A Better Place

 Escape was written on a theatre Board Fellowship, was workshopped by Playworks and had four productions in the late 80's : Interact Theatre Canberra, Melbourne Universal Theatre, Albury, Newcastle Playhouse  and was adapted for ABC Radio Drama in 2000.

 AN EXCERPT

Sunday morning - two characters, George (career woman) and Georgy (house husband) have locked the kids (they don't remember how many they have) out of their bedroom until 11 am so they can have 'special mummy and daddy'. Exhausted from the week G&G fall in and out of sleep and conversation in a bid to 'connect'. At the same time each is trying to escape while the other sleeps.
They have disconnected conversations like

GEORGE - Put your sock on
GEORGY - Huh
GEORGE - Put your sock on
GEORGY - Huh
GEORGE - Put your sock on!

and

GEORGY - do you want peanut butter or vegemite?
GEORGE - huh
GEORGY - do you want peanut butter or vegemite?
GEORGE  - huh
GOERGY - do you want peanut butter or vegemite!!!

and

GEORGE - I love you
GEORGY - Uh Huh
GEORGE - No, what I mean is I really love you.
GEORGY - Uh huh
GEORGE - I love you in a way you probably wouldnt understand
GEORGY - Uh huh
GEORGE - I should hate you I know you so well. But I don’t. I love you.
GEORGY - Uh huh
GEORGE - I love all the things I hate about you. God, I’d hate you to love all the things you hate about me, but then you probably do don’t you?
GEORGY -Uh huh
GEORGE - So you’re not leaving?  You’ll stay?
GEORGY - Uh huh

(c) Jan Cornall 1987

Northern Kingdoms Poetry Journeys

Siem Reap, Cambodia, Chiang Mai, Thailand,  November  2- 9, 2012.

The ancient kingdoms of Angkor and Lanna provide the perfect backdrop for the first Northern Kingdoms Poetry Journeys, a two-city, seven-day adventure of culture, workshops, readings and tributes to the written and spoken words.  Festival organiser Loven Ramos is opening his wonderful art Hotel 1961 for readings and workshops as well as lining up some stunning venues around town and among the ruins of Angkor Wat (see program at the end of this post).

 

Some of the poets attending...

Siem Reap, Cambodia schedule:

NOVEMBER 2 (FRIDAY)

11am - Brunch at Hariharalaya Retreat Center, an oasis for meditation in an old Khmer wooden house set in the middle of Rolous, the site of the first capital of the ancient Angkor empire

1 pm - Poetry and Meditation workshop by Joel Altman

3 pm - Poets in Tuktuks - a Creative Visualization workshop by Marcel Milliam

individual dinner and sightseeing

NOVEMBER 3 (SATURDAY)

9 am - Breakfast picnic at Wat Enkosa’s Ankorean ruins with spotlight on Smot, the ancient Khmer form of lyrical poetry

lunch at 1961

3 pm - Experimental Sound Poetry workshop by Jan Cornall

9 pm - poetry in motion + poetry and music + green poetry + open mic performances - all at 1961

NOVEMBER 4 (SUNDAY)

8 am - journey to Ta Prohm

10 am - Ekphrasis workshop by Ms. Marjorie Evasco at Takeo temple, an imposing Khmer pyramid originally built as a state temple but was completely abandoned because lightning hit its peak just before final decorative work was done.

lunch at Angkor Café

1 pm - Poetry by the ruins; readings at the sacred grounds of Angkor Wat led by Ms. Marjorie Evasco

4 pm - Further visits to Bayon and Baphuon temples at the Angkor Thom complex

8 pm - exhibition opening by Oun Savann and Darshana Bolt + readings by the Siem Reader + closing program + open mic performances - all at 1961

NOVEMBER 5 OR 6 - travel to Chiang Mai by land or air

Chiang Mai, Thailand schedule:

NOVEMBER 7 (WEDNESDAY)
7pm - welcome cocktails

NOVEMBER 8 (THURSDAY)
10 am - Poets on tuktuks - traveling poetry sessions and paste ups around the Old City with workshop by Marcel Milliam

lunch by the Mae Ping river area (The Gallery Restaurant)
The Gallery 25-27-29 Charoen Raj Rd., Chiang Mai 50000, Thailand
For reservation: Tel. 053 248 601-2

2 pm - Water and poetry - poetry release on the Ping River

9 pm - Poetry readings at the Chiang Mai Writer’s Club and Wine Bar

NOVEMBER 9 (FRIDAY)
9 am - Poetry in bloom; readings at the Royal Flora Park

Tribe

It's not easy to find information on the experimental performance group Tribe I joined in 1969 so I have gathered some quotes and links here to help put a picture together, mostly from the Pram Factory site put together by Sue Ingleton. Tribe eventually merged with the Australian Performing Group at the Pram in the early seventies.

Early Tribe(Melb) L-R Fay Mokotow, Nick, Jane Clifton, Bill Doblo,Jan Bucknall, Carol Porter, Jan Cornall, Doug Anders

Bill Garner says

"Carol Porter. I met her at la Mama when she was in Tribe. I was well disposed towards Tribe. I liked the people and had quite a bit to do with them especially later when they joined the Pram Factory I sustained that connection. Doug Anders. I hitchhiked to Queensland with Alice when she was five. We were going to visit Lou Costello. At Maleny I found Doug Anders in a converted milking shed, beautiful country, and we went out each morning stark naked with a hoe. We stayed there for a while. Later I heard he was growing herbs or nuts. He did a production of the Hills Family Show. He did my role of Sandringham and he had to get the secret of the mind reading act."

 Robyn Laurie says

"Tribe was around with Doug Anders. They were very influenced by Joe Chaikin’s work and did performances at La Mama where the audience looked through little holes in the  wall into the performance and they performed the Plague, dying horribly in audiences’ laps. I was friendly with them but I only got to work with them later on Bert Deling’s film Dalmas. (in 1973) Peter Handke’s Ride across Lake Constance brought some of Tribe into the Back Theatre.  Alan Robertson was directing, Carol Porter and Red Symons, Jan Cornall and Jane Clifton were all performing.  Alan broke his leg in a motorcycle accident in the last week or so before it opened and I stepped in to get the show on. It was a great production."


Richard Murphet says
 "When I returned to Australia in 1970, the APG had moved to the Pram from La Mama and the kind of work that was being done - the shows investigating the various aspects of Australian history - were not the type that I could at that time relate to. So my connections then were to the surreal improvisations of Tribe which were full of crazy humour and always seemed to hover between panic and terror. The people I got to know through Tribe were Alan Robertson, Fay Mokotow, Frank Starrs, Jane Clifton, Carol Porter and Bob Daly."

  

The Great Stumble Forward performing in a Carlton Park

Jane Clifton lists

"TRIBE - experimental theatre group directed by Doug Anders and which performed at La Mama, the Pram Factory and in the streets. ( 1969 - 1972.) Co-directed A Ride Across Lake Constance by Peter Handke at the Pram Factory.

Rob Tillet (from the Adeaide band Red Angel Panic) says
Viet Rock was a play performed at Adelaide University by in 1969,
directed by Doug Anders, featuring among others Margot Nash. Doug
(originally from Brisbane I think) had a theatre group called Tribe,
which went on to greater things in Melbourne. I wrote the music or most
of it, as it's a bit blurry now (if you can remember the 60's you
weren't there etc etc). It was based on the US play, but Doug's method
was to form a group that then more or less reinvented the script (if
there was one). In fact the Red Angel Panic was first formed in 1968 to
work with Doug in an absolutely incredible piece called Rites
Underground, which was performed at Theatre 62. This led to us forming a
theatre/poetry/dance performance group called Holocaust (an Adelaide
version of Tribe), and we put on some plays here and there, published
magazines, did some poetry readings, and various street theatre events,
along with a vast amount of revolutionary fervour. We were known as the
"Psychedelic Left" Hahaha. It was always a spiritual journey for me,
rather than a political one.

 Mic Conway ( Captain Matchbox ) says
In the early days I’d worked with ‘Tribe’. Tribe was a group that were weaving in and out of the areas that I yearned towards and with people like Alan Robertson, Doug Anders etc. I found the basis of my future work. In one of our performances I remember we were once headlined in Truth newspaper. There was Margaret, a woman from Tribe, who was playing a vamp on a sofa and all the guys walked in as Charlie Chaplin and had (simulated) sex with her to the song, ‘Who walks in when I walk out?’ Truth wrote it up as ‘Sex in Rock shows!’

Aubrey Mellor says

Conference Transcript Day 1, Session 4,aspects of the New Wave, Panel.

"In Brisbane when I was a student we had The Tribe and Doug Anders and there were all the influences from Europe and America. We don't call them group gropes any more; we call them crutch and armpit exercises. You would be naked from top to toe and have your nose up someone's private part." 

Stephen Cummings writes about Tribe in his memoir - Will it be Funny Tomorrow Billy

Tribe's leader/director Doug Anders was his english teacher and as a school boy he often used to visit the big hippy house where Tribe members lived in South Yarra.

Tribe is mentioned in Adelaide University Drama Society archives

Doug Anders and the Tribe - 2 copies

"Tribe was in existence before I joined in 1969 and had sister groups in Adelaide (Margot Nash) and Brisbane (Bob and Barb Daly)

One hot summer (must have been 1970) we took our big cast production of Megan Terry's Viet Rock and performed it on the campus of Adelaide Uni."

Carol Porter has the best memory on Tribe:

"Tribe was where I began. Alison Ware and myself went to a summer school of drama at Brighton Girls School where, initially, Jim Sharman was teaching the course, but then Jim had to leave to do something else so Doug Anders took over the second half, and it was out of that that we formed the Melbourne Tribe. It was a totally new concoction from the Queensland original. Doug Anders stayed on in Melbourne and  the group  that formed around him included Bob Daly, his wife Barb, Fay Mokotow, Jan Cornall, Alan Robertson, Bruce Spence- who was with me in art school at RMIT and myself. The first show we did was ‘Saturday’ by Barry Mc Kimm at La Mama, that was the one that was made up from newspaper stories and ‘Programme A and B’, which consisted of ‘Serpent’ and ‘Viet Rock’, and we subsequently took that show to Adelaide. The cast by then included Jude Kuring and Jan Bucknall (who is now in America), Bruce Webster, Jane Clifton, Lutz Presser, et al.

A whole stream of people who eventually were going to veer into the Pram kept working at La Mama for a number of years. Bob Thorneycroft and Joe Bolza did ‘My  Foot, My Tutor’, and Fay Mokotow did a production of ‘Punch and Judy’ with Michael Price and Alan Robertson. I think it was on Fay's initiative that we did  Peter Handke’s ‘Ride Across Lake Constance’, she’d read the script in a TDR and she really wanted to put it on. I remember we went to an APG meeting and asked if we could do it in the Back Theatre Space. ‘Lake Constance’, in ‘73 was the first time I performed at the Pram. The cast included Red Symons and Jan Cornall. I remember it was a gorgeous set, Stephen someone from RMIT who was a friend of mine did the set. Just before ‘Lake Constance’, I was performing with bands alongside the work with Tribe. Then I had a break. I got married to Bruce Woodcock the musician who lived in a double decker bus. I don't know why I got married, maybe because it was something to do. It lasted eight months and then it was over.  By then I had lost touch with Tribe, who had gone on and done other things. Later Doug Anders moved to north Queensland and lived on a commune for twenty years. He came down to Melbourne a couple of years ago and we had lunch but I didn't connect with him after that."

Ride Across Lake Constance. L-R, Red Symons, Jan Cornall, Pudding, Carol Porter

Jan Cornall says
 In 1967 I was studying Speech and Drama at Melbourne Teachers College. Peter Green and Max Gillies were among my tutors. I flunked all my subjects except Drama (got an HD) and decided to go to a theatre summer school run by Jim Sharman and dance guru Margaret Barr.There I met Doug Anders. I'd first seen him with his group, Tribe at the Monash Theatre Festival in late 1968 where they performed: Interview, TV and War and the controversial Motel in which one of the cast wrote ‘obscenities’ on the set wall and the cops closed the show down (info from Jane Clifton). I glimpsed them later walking around in their cool capes and hats and knew in that moment — that is what I want to be. Just a couple of months later Doug, Joe Bolza, Carol Porter, Alison Ware and others attending the summer school formed the Melbourne chapter of Tribe. There were already cells in Brisbane (Bob and Barb Daly and others) and Adelaide (Margo Nash). Doug was the leader and asked for total committment. He didn't really need to ask. We were happy to spend all our week nights and weekends improvising and rehearsing.We did a lot of Artaud inspired guerilla/street theatre and did our first theatre show, Saturday, by musician Barry McKimm, at La Mama in 1969 (see cast below). The script consisted of headlines from newspapers which were written on a black board and acted out in repetition.One of the headlines was about a bikie gang doing bad things. We found some real bikers who rode their big loud motorbikes up to the carpark outside, banged on the tin fence and terrified everyone inside. Allan Robertson was one of the bikers. Bruce Spence was in it, Jude Kuring, Jane Clifton and more (see below).

We were spending all our time together.Doug, Alison and Joe rented an old Toorak mansion. Some people lived in La Basa. I moved into the second Tribe mansion in South Yarra with Alan Robertson, Fay Mokotow, Doug and numbers of others who came and went including Paul Bailey, Bill Doblo. Around the same time the APG - Australian Performing Group - Kerry Dwyer, Graeme Blundell, Allen Finney, Bill Garner, Meg Clancy, Peter Cummins and many more, were resident at La Mama. We came together for some workshops and to lead the Vietnam Moratorium marches with street theatre.

 I left Tribe in 1971 to go out teaching and worked that year with Syd Clayton at La Mama in Hands Down Gourds.In 1972 I went travelling to the Adelaide Festival with a bunch of Melbourne poets including Chris Mann (we became Allen Ginsberg's unofficial entourage). I went north for a year or so and when I came back Doug had split and most of Tribe were doing work at The Pram Factory. I acted in the Ride Across Lake Constance by Peter Handke (which could have been the last official Tribe production), opposite Red Symons and Carol Porter and the cast mentioned above, in the Back Theatre at the Pram. It was a brilliant production seen by so few (performed in the dead of winter with no heating). I decided to give up theatre and concentrate on music. I took off for a four year stint overseas.When I got back in 1978 former Tribe members had fully merged with the APG at the Pram Factory or doing their own thing.  I applied for and was awarded the Pram's first Writer In Residence grant and wrote the musical Failing In Love Again which was performed to sold out houses in Nov/Dec 1979.

TRIBE (Melbourne) SHOWS (not all listed)

SATURDAY-Barry McKimm.                                                                   feb 1969

LA MAMA

Dir: Doug Anders. Cast: Doug Anders, Joe Bolza, Fay Mokotow, Carol Porter, Alan Robertson, Jan Cornall, Alison Ware, Jane Clifton, Lutz Presser, Bruce Webster, Bruce Spence, Jenny Jones, Judith Kuring, Jan Bucknall.

PROGRAMME ’A’                                                                                       July 1969

LA MAMA-TRIBE

Dir Doug Anders cast:Carol Porter , Alison Ware, Jan Cornall, Joe Bolza, Doug Anders, Frank Starr,

PROGRAMME ‘B’

LA MAMA-TRIBE

Dir Doug Anders cast: Carol Porter , Ines Martucci, Fay Mokotow, Jan Bucknall, Susie Wolf, Irene Crombie, Mandy Pearce, Jane Nisbet, Eric Colladetti, Bruce Webster, Alan Robertson, Frank Starr, Doug Anders

STREET THEATRE- INTERNATIONAL WOMENS DAY                8/3 1970

STREET THEATRE AT VIETNAM MORATORIUM                        8/5 1970

Other shows:

The Hieronymous Bosch Hour,  La Mama.

The Serpent by Jean Clude van Itallie.

Viet Rock by Megan Terry. Adelaide Uni, 1969.

Art Gallery Happenings including performing excerpts of the Serpent at the opening of the Victorian Art Gallery main hall.

Plague Scene Public Events (inspired by Artaud's Theatre of Cruelty).

Working with bands at The TF Much Ballroom including Spectrum and others.

RMIT Show - an experiential performance involving tons of soil in a basement.

Melb Uni Event- a plastic experience extravaganza where you crawled through plastic tunnels and slid into a pond of jelly  - at Melb Uni swimming pool.

The Ride Across Lake Constance by Peter Handke, directed by Allan Robertson, Robyn Laurie, Jane Clifton, actors included Carol Porter, Red Symons, Pudding, Jan Cornall and more.  

Films - The Firm Man, dir. John Duigan - Tribe played itself.

          - Dalmas, dir. Bert Deling, a number of Tribe members took part.

          - Pure Shit, dir Bert Deling with some Tribe members and associates.

The Pram Factory

This information has been gathered by Jan Cornall from linked websites.