The Tasmanian Theatre Awards are just around the corner for their eighth consecutive year and the Theatre Council of Tasmania will be honouring one of Tasmanian theatre’s most respected professionals, Robert Jarman, with the 2022 Lifetime Achievement award.
As an actor, director, writer and designer, Jarman has been a leader of the performing arts across the amateur and professional sectors in Tasmania over the last 30 years.
A champion of Australian work, Jarman has directed the premiere productions of 23 new Australian works, 12 new Australian music-theatre works, 5 new Australian dance/physical-theatre works, 5 new festival-comedy shows and is the writer of 25 stage works. He has also directed over 80 productions and performed in over 85 productions.
Hailing from Sydney over 30 years ago, Jarman quickly established himself as one the leading entities within the Tasmanian arts industry. He co-founded Blue Cow Theatre in 2010 and was the Artistic Director for nine years. He has developed numerous programs and theatre-making workshops for local artists, and has directed and/or performed for all major Tasmanian companies.
Beyond Tasmania he has worked with Music Theatre Sydney, Australian Institute of Music, OzOpera, One Extra Dance Co., Melbourne Comedy Festival, JUTE, The Marais Project, La Boite, and internationally with Ashtar Theatre in Ramallah, Palestine. Significant acting credits include a series of almost a dozen one-man shows, notably ‘The Spectre of the Rose’ based on the life and work of Jean Genet, ‘I Am My Own Wife’, and ‘As We Forgive’, written specially for Robert by Tom Holloway. He directed the Australasian Premiere of Phillip Glass’s opera Hydrogen Jukebox at the Tasmanian Conservatorium of Music, where he has worked as the lecturer in Music Theatre. In 2001 he was awarded the Australian Centenary of Federation Medal for services to the performing arts.
“We are absolutely thrilled to be presenting Robert with this prestigious award,” said Theatre Council President, Petr Diviš. “Robert has had a profound impact on the careers of numerous directors, actors and other theatre creatives and is admired by so many in our community. We look forward to recognising his extraordinary contribution to Tasmanian theatre at the upcoming awards event.”
Presented by the Theatre Council of Tasmania, the awards have been held annually since 2015 to celebrate excellence and achievement in Tasmanian theatre. The 2022 Tasmanian Theatre Awards will be held on Saturday 5 March at Wrest Point. For more information visit: theatrecounciltas.org.
Featured image: Robert Jarman’s ‘I Am My Own Wife’, Tasmanian Theatre Co., 2009 Backspace Theatre, Hobart. Image courtesy Peter Mathew, Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC 2.0).
