John Sumner (director)
John Hackman Sumner was an English and Australian theatre director, producer and impresario. He was the founder and artistic director of the Melbourne Theatre Company in Australia, gathering a group of later internationally famous stars including Ray Lawler, Zoe Caldwell, Barry Humphries and Fred Parslow.
Life and career
Sumner was born in England in May 1924. At an early age he attended the National Opera Studio. He served in the British Merchant Navy in World War II before commencing his career in theatre in 1947 in Dundee, Scotland, as an assistant stage manager. He later became a stage director and manager with H. M. Tennent Theatres in the West End of London before emigrating to Australia in 1952. In 1959, he married the actress Patsy King.In 1953, Sumner established the Union Theatre Repertory Company, which later became the Melbourne Theatre Company, where he was the artistic director until 1955. After a short time in Sydney managing the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust he returned to Melbourne and resumed his role as artistic director in 1959, continuing until 1987.
Sumner directed more than a hundred plays from Australia and overseas and established the Melbourne Theatre Company as a model for other state theatre companies. Her was involved in the television productions The One Day of the Year and Manhaul.
Death
Sumner died in Melbourne on 24 May 2013 at the age of 88.Honours and awards
He was appointed Commander of the British Empire in 1971 and was made an Officer of the Order of Australia in 1985.In 2009, the main performance space of the Melbourne Theatre Company's Southbank Theatre was named in his honour.