Scott Rankin

Scott Rankin is an Australian theatre director, writer and co-founder and creative director of the arts and social change company Big hART. Based in Tasmania, Rankin works in and with isolated communities and diverse cultural settings, as well as in commercial performance.

Early life and education

Rankin was born in 1959 in Sydney and grew up there. His parents were businesspeople who owned an early learning specialist toyshop and lived on a Chinese junk in Lane Cove, moored on Sydney Harbour for 21 years.
Rankin enrolled in an arts degree but did not complete it, instead working in a retirement village and offering music workshops to homeless youth. Since 1981, he has mainly lived and worked from the far north-west coast of Tasmania.

Work

As creative director of Big hART and as playwright and director, Rankin has created or collaborated on many large-scale Australian stage productions: Namatjira for the Namatjira family; Ngapartji Ngapartji for Trevor Jamieson, Box the Pony for Leah Purcell; RiverlanD for Wesley Enoch; StickybrickS for the Northcott Public Housing community in Surry Hills, Sydney; Junk Theory for the Sutherland Shire, as well as internationally touring works such as Certified Male.

Recognition

Rankin is a Fellow of the Australia Council for the Arts.
Rankin and his theatre works have received many awards, including:

2000: Human Rights Award
2000: New South Wales Premier's Literary Award, for Box the Pony
2000: Queensland Premier's Literary Award, for Box the Pony
2002: Ros Bower Award for Community Cultural Development
2004: Three Melbourne Green Room Awards for Beasty Girl
Two Green Room Award Nominations for Namatjira ;
Two Sydney Theatre Critics Awards and another 6 nominations ;
Deadly Award
Critics Choice ArtsHub Award
Helpmann Award
World Health Organization Award for Safe Communities
2018: Tasmanian state recipient, Australian of the Year

His works have been included in many arts festivals, including Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane, Sydney, Edinburgh, and the Tasmanian 10 Days on the Island. He has also toured to Sweden, Iceland, Ireland, Scotland, England, South Africa, New Zealand, Germany and the Netherlands.

List of works

List of Rankin's works:

Glynn With a Why?
Kissing Frogs
Girl
Pandora Slams the Lid
Girl / Pandora Slams the Lid
Three Men Walk into a Bar
Glynn Nicholas Group – Wrung Out
Box the Pony
Pandora's Shed
Pumping Irony
Certified Male
Leaves Falling at Midnight
Career Highlights of the Mamu
What the World Needs Now
Beasty Girl: The Secret Life of Errol Flynn
Riverland
Junk Theory
Brave Men Run in Our Family
StickybrickS
Ngapartji Ngapartji
Nyuntu Ngali
This is Living
Beat Bop Road
Namatjira Project,
''Hipbone Sticking Out''