John Tasker (theatre director)
John Tasker was an Australian theatre director.
Biography
He was born in Newcastle, New South Wales and educated at Newcastle Boys’ High School. Travelling to Europe at age 18, he studied at the Central School of Speech Training and Dramatic Art and teaching at the University of London.He was at one time the lover of the English author, journalist, and broadcaster Colin Spencer. They met in Brighton in 1957, when both were 24 years old. Their off-and-on two-year relationship dramatically changed when Spencer married archaeologist Gillian Chapman in October 1959. Returning to Australia, Tasker became a theatre director, and died of cancer in 1988. Tasker had arranged for his letters to be returned to Spencer. Upon re-reading them, Spencer published his book Which of Us Two as a form of atonement.
Patrick White chose Tasker to produce the play The Ham Funeral for the . White's life partner Manoly Lascaris acknowledged Tasker as the 'virus' that re-infected White with the excitement of theatre. The Sydney Theatre Critics' Circle named their annual award for best freelance director after him.
Theatre productions
:1961 - The Break
1961 - The Ham Funeral, by Patrick White
1962 - The Good Woman of Setzuan, by Bertolt Brecht
1962 - The Season at Sarsaparilla, by Patrick White
1963 - Oedipus Rex, by Sophocles
1964 - Night on Bald Mountain, by Patrick White
1965 - The Representative, by Rolf Hochhuth
1965 - Inadmissible Evidence, by
1968 - America Hurrah, by Van Itallie
1968 - The Boys in the Band, by Mart Crowley
1969 - Candy Stripe Balloon, revue starring Grahame Bond
1977 - Don't Piddle against the Wind, Mate, by Kenneth Ross
1978 - The Cassidy Album.
1978 - The Good Woman of Setzuan
1979 - Rusty Bugles, by Sumner Locke Elliott
1981 - The Workroom, by Tom Kempinski
1982 - The Samseng and The Chettiars’ Daughter
1982 - Duet for One, by Tom Kempinski
1983 - Caravan, by Donald Macdonald
1986 - Absurd Person Singular, by Alan Ayckbourn
1987 - As Is, by William Hoffman
Opera productions
1974 The Excursions of Mr Broucek Adelaide Festival Theatre - New Opera1976 - The Consul
1979 - ''La Belle Hélène''