Julian Meyrick

Biography

Professor of Creative Arts at Griffith University and Literary Adviser for the Queensland Theatre. I have directed over 40 award-winning theatre productions, written the histories of five Australian theatre companies, and published numerous articles on Australian arts and cultural policy, including 90+ pieces for The Conversation. I was Literary Manager at the South Australia Theatre Company 2013-2019, Associate Director and Literary Advisor at Melbourne Theatre Company 2002-07, and Artistic Director of kickhouse theatre 1989-98. I was Deputy Chair of PlayWriting Australia 2004-09, and a member of the federal government’s Creative Australia Advisory Group 2008-10. I was General Editor of Currency House’s New Platform Paper series and also a board member of Northern River Performing Arts 2019-23. From 2013-2021, I was Lead CI for Laboratory Adelaide, an ARC project studying the problem of culture’s value, and from 2012-19, Lead CI for the AusStage performing arts database. My latest books are Australian Theatre after the New Wave: Policy, Subsidy and the Alternative Artist (Brill 2017), What Matters? Talking Value in Australian Culture, co-authored with Robert Phiddian and Tully Barnett (Monash Publishing 2018), Australia in 50 Plays (Currency Press 2022) and Theatre & Australia, (in Bloomsbury Publishing’s Theatre And series, 2024).

My research has two main strands: Australian theatre history, and evaluation methods in the arts and cultural sector. I am currently the recipient of three ARC grants, and they cover these topics. My focus as a historian is the contribution made by interwar immigrant artists to Australian theatre (including a broader understanding of Australia’s national imaginary). The second strand, drawing on my background as a social scientist, investigates policy frameworks for assessing the worth of cultural activities. I am currently engaged in a comparative study of value reporting instruments used by Australian and UK cultural organisations. This research will inform my next major project, on the environmental sustainability practices of the Australian performing arts industry.  As a named CI, my role in this ARC-funded Linkage is to help construct policy indicators whereby the industry can achieve a lower carbon footprint and an “eco-creative” approach to its production processes.