Kristine Landon-Smith appointed to NIDA Acting Department
After an extensive international recruitment campaign, Kristine Landon-Smith is set to join the Acting department at NIDA, the National Institute of Dramatic Art.
Kristine returns home to Australia after many years in Europe and the United Kingdom, where she has established herself as a theatre director, cultural entrepreneur and arts educator.
Currently, she is Artistics Director of Tamasha Theatre Company, one of the UK’s leading theatre companies, specialising in artist training, new writing, and intra-cultural theatre practice. Kristine co-founded the company in 1989 with the ojective of creating theatre to reflect the ethnic diversity and global perspectives of Britain’s artists and audiences.
While at Tamasha, Kristine has commissioned and produced 23 new works for theatre and film. Her landmark 1996 Tamasha production of East is East is cited as the first work of its kind to mark the crossover of Asian work into the mainstream. It was nominated for an Olivier Award and later developed for the screen.
Her original production of Fourteen Songs, Two Weddings and a Funeral won the Barclays Theatre Award for Best New Musical, and her productions of A Tainted Dawn in 1997 and Strictly Dandia in 2000 were given premiere performances at The Edinburgh International Festival.
Kristine’s freelance credits include directing for the Royal Danish Theatre, where she directed a production of Iphigenia aimed at developing cultural diversity in Scandinavian theatre.
She has worked extensively as an acting teacher and director at training institutions in the UK such as Rose Bruford, Central School of Drama, Circus Space and East Fifteen, at l’Ecole Philippe Gaulier in Paris and at The National School of Drama in Delhi.
Kristine has twice been a visiting international director at NIDA. In 2009 she directed the Australian premiere of East is East, returning again last year to direct an extremely well-received production of Port. On both occasions she led workshops for both industry practitioners and students, sharing her work on celebrating cultural context in the training of actors and on verbatim theatre techniques.
Kristine has been the recipient of the Asian Women of Achievement Award in Arts and Culture in 2005, two Commission for Racial Equality ‘Race In The Media’ Awards for radio drama productions of A Yearning and Women of the Dust. In 2010 she received the First Women Award for Leisure and Tourism for her cultural entrepreneurship.
Kristine trained at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and L’Ecole Philippe Gaulier in Paris.
“We are delighted that Kristine will be joining Head of Acting Jeff Janisheski and the NIDA acting team,” said NIDA’s Director/CEO Lynne Williams.
“In a time of unprecedented change in the performing arts industries and in the way audiences engage with the arts, NIDA needs to attract expert national and international teaching staff who will help to foster a culture of experimentation and innovation.
“Kristine has been a pioneer in the UK in her approaches to artist training and in making work that recognizes and celebrates cultural difference. She will be an extraordinary asset to NIDA as we continue to explore new ways for the great diversity of Australian voices to be heard.”
Kristine Landon-Smith will begin her new role with NIDA in April 2013.
