The secret plottings at Elsinore. The clash of ambitions in the
court of King Lear. The deadly rivalry of the Montagues and
Capulets. All familiar theatrical scenarios to the students and
staff of Australia’s leading acting school.
But the National Institute of Dramatic Art has seen them all in
a more intimate way in the past four years. Not so much on stage as
in-house.
The school, based at the University of NSW campus in Kensington,
has been swept up in an intense but secret battle over the
leadership of the institution, which is funded by the federal
government and counts among its alumni such actors and directors as
Cate Blanchett, Baz Luhrmann, Judy Davis, Mel Gibson and Hugo
Weaving.
The private machinations were partly revealed late last month
when Neil Armfield, the artistic director of Company B in Sydney,
wrote to NIDA’s chairman, Malcolm Long. His co-signatories were 20
other artistic directors, actors and film directors from all over
the country. These future employers of NIDA students protested
about the way in which the school’s board had failed to renew the
term of its immediate past director, Aubrey Mellor, calling his
imminent departure an “apparent dismissal”.
They suggested that Mellor continue in his past role as artistic
director, with a “strong and supportive” chief executive - the key
word being “supportive”. This referred to the past few years at
NIDA when Elizabeth Butcher, general manager for the past 39 years,
was often at odds with Mellor.
The former chairwoman of NIDA, the Sydney businesswoman Jillian
Broadbent, used to refer to the pair as lacking “synergy”.
Replying to Armfield early this month, Long maintained that
Mellor was not dismissed but had simply reached the end of his
contract. No mention, then, that Mellor had been on a year-to-year
contract, had no recent performance review and was told only one
month before his final contract ended in December last year that it
was curtains for him.
Long, the former executive director of the Australian Film
Television and Radio School, also sent Armfield a two-page letter
distributed to NIDA staff and students late last year, outlining
the board’s decision to overhaul its structure by appointing a
single director-chief executive, in place of the past pairing of a
director largely with artistic responsibilities and a general
manager. (Nevertheless, the position of general manager was to
remain, with he or she reporting to the new boss.)
The new director-chief executive will need to be superhuman,
combining “artistic and educational vision” with a track record in
“strategic leadership and management”.
Long’s letter did not address the proposed leadership structure
suggested in the protest letter.
Last week, Mellor, 60, applied for the new position but it seems
he has little chance of success if NIDA’s 11-member board of
directors stands by the present job requirements.
Said Armfield: “There are major administrative problems in
running a place like that, and that’s not Aubrey’s skill. He is not
that politically savvy. He needs someone beside him.
“But he has the loyalty of just about every actor in Australia.
He loves and understands the art of acting.”
Judy Davis, the actor, former NIDA board member and signatory to
Armfield’s letter, agrees. In her student years at the school,
Mellor had been “a wonderful teacher %26#133; Aubrey was the reason
that made my time worthwhile there”, she said. “I’m not sure I
would have got through it without Aubrey.”
But Mellor’s role is just one strand in the complex recent
history of NIDA.
Just as important is the involvement of Elizabeth Butcher, 69,
NIDA’s general manager for almost four decades, and John Clark, 75,
the director for 35 years.
Immersed in NIDA’s past, the pair seem reluctant to let go.
Although he retired as director in 2004, Clark joined the board
of NIDA two years later.
Attempts by the board to negotiate Butcher’s exit over time
ended in tears for all concerned. Literally.
Both Broadbent, the then chairwoman, and Butcher were deeply
distressed over the aborted plans for Butcher’s departure. Last
year, Broadbent quit as chairwoman, leaving Butcher in situ.
Butcher joined NIDA as bursar in 1969, a decade after it was
founded. In the same year, Clark became NIDA’s director.
Over time, Butcher became the mother hen of the organisation,
involving herself in both the detail and the big picture - from
students’ scholarships to helping staff with parking fines, but
also overseeing funding and the big move to new premises in the
1980s.
During that decade, some board members attempted to initiate
regular audits of NIDA’s activities and to institute other reforms,
but they were in a minority. No one wanted to upset the boss -
Butcher.
The board continued in its own stately way. Malcolm Chaikin was
chairman for 13 years until he found his own replacement in Dame
Leonie Kramer.
With the exception of the university representative on the
board, at present Professor Tony Dooley, NIDA directors are
appointed by a body known as the NIDA “company”.
This is a rather incestuous system, as the company, made up of
about 100 members, is largely “a bunch of people who have been on
the board”, Chaikin said.
The NIDA company played an important role in the recent NIDA
troubles.
In 2001, David Gonski, a powerful city networker and founder of
the investment bank Investec, became chairman of NIDA. It is
understood that by 2003 he had worked out with Clark the timing of
Clark’s retirement.
That year, when Clark turned 70, he signalled his departure from
NIDA, telling the media “it’s time, it’s just time”.
A selection committee deciding on his successor unanimously
chose Mellor, a former NIDA student and teacher and then director
of Melbourne’s Playbox Theatre.
Butcher made her feelings known, arguing strongly against
Mellor. Both she and Clark had hoped the new director would be the
theatre director Gale Edwards.
Early in 2005, when Mellor took up the job, he was led to
believe that Butcher would retire in six months. Gonski might have
overseen her retirement. However, he resigned in August 2005, when
he became chancellor of the University of NSW.
The new chairwoman was his colleague, Jillian Broadbent, who sat
on several company boards and is a director of the Reserve
Bank.
The following year was a tough one. In September 2006, Clark,
with help from the members of the NIDA company, was elected to the
board. This was unsettling for Broadbent. She asked that Clark’s
first loyalty be to the board and that he distance himself from key
appointments.
At a board meeting held soon after, all NIDA directors - except
Clark, who did not attend - discussed a phased retirement plan for
Butcher.
After the meeting, Broadbent told Butcher that the board had
made a unanimous decision: it wanted to work out a timetable for
Butcher’s retirement. Butcher took alarm. Was she being sacked?
Loyal staff rallied to her support; petitions were signed in her
favour. A vote of no confidence in the board was mooted.
It was as if Butcher felt she had to save NIDA.
Some NIDA staff members blamed Mellor, thinking he must have
been the trigger for the board’s decision.
At a meeting called to calm the staff, Broadbent explained her
position while the deputy chairman, Bruce Cutler, a former managing
partner of the law firm Freehills, said half-jokingly that in terms
of handling Butcher’s retirement plans, “we f—ed up”.
Butcher is understood to have approached members of the NIDA
company for help, among them the former senator Chris Puplick, a
friend of Clark and former NIDA director.
Puplick discussed Butcher with Broadbent and while no one will
comment on that conversation, it is understood that Puplick
suggested Butcher’s supporters might go to the media.
In April last year, before NIDA’s annual general meeting,
Puplick wrote to NIDA members nominating himself as a director of
the board.
He was elected at the annual meeting on May 15. On the same day,
Broadbent retired from the board, to be replaced by Long.
Last week, Butcher told the Herald, “I will be retiring
some time later this year”, although she would be staying on for
about six months “to see the new person in” and will oversee the
organisation’s 50th anniversary celebrations next year.
Mellor is still at NIDA, under contract until June as “special
projects manager”.
Puplick said this week he had no comment. “I don’t want to add
to the rumour and gossip-mongering.”
Meaning he can’t discuss it?
“I won’t discuss it.”
NIDA, meanwhile, is inviting the public to its next open day, in
May, with its website announcing that “once in every two years,
NIDA opens its doors and invites you to explore. Satisfy your
intrigue and find out what goes on in the studios and theatres of
Australia’s most prestigious performing arts school.”
No indication, though, that the offices and boardroom will be
open for exploration.
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