Wayne Blair in Interview

Australasian Drama Studies, Oct 2008 by Meyrick, Julian

Wayne Blair, a member of the Butchala clan, is a thirty-six-year-old actor, director and writer, who works across theatre, film and television. He has worked for the Bell Shakespeare Company, the Melbourne Theatre Company, the Sydney Theatre Company, the Queensland Theatre Company, Bangarra Dance Theatre and Company B, Belvoir Street, where he is currently artistic associate. In 2005 he won the Deadly Award for Outstanding Achievement in Film for The Djarn Djarns, which he wrote and directed, and which went on to win at the Kinderfilmfest in Berlin and the Flickerfest Film Festival. He has acted in a number of Shakespeare plays, including Romeo and Juliet (1999) and Othello (2007). Here he talks to director, dramaturg and theatre historian Julian Meyrick about his background and training as an actor, and his understanding and approach to classic texts.

Did you train at Kelvin Grove?

Yes. Queensland University of Technology, Kelvin Grove campus.

Are you a Queensland man?

I was born in Taree, New South Wales, but I grew up in Rockhampton, so yeah, very much so. Right in the middle of central Queensland.

Did you go to university to study Drama?

Not at first. I have two degrees. As soon as I finished high school I did a Bachelor of Business and majored in Marketing Management . . . Then I went to QUT four, five years later to study Acting.

What brought that about?

Basically what happened was that in 1991 I finished university. Then I came to Sydney in 1992, primarily to play football for the Sydney Bulldogs, which is a rugby league side . . . and work with the Australian Tourism Commission as an Indigenous trainee in their marketing department ... So that was my first job. But I went to a couple of acting schools, dodgy places; you know, the sort where you get an agent but have to pay $4,000 to do photos etc. ... I had always been interested in drama because I had done an act with my cousin since we were both fifteen, called Didgeridont - like the Umbilical Brothers but with a didgeridoo - a Dean Martin/Jerry Lewis stand-up comedy routine where I was Jerry Lewis. We travelled round Australia and the world. It was a good little routine for two people, eighteen-nineteen years old, and good money. So basically, to answer the question, in 1993 and 1994 I stayed in Rocky, and worked in North Rockhampton State High School and the Dreamtime Cultural Centre, where we did Didgeridont, and I was also a tour guide and marketing officer. Then I auditioned for the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) - in 1993, I think. I didn't get in. I had no idea what NIDA was. I had no idea about Shakespeare. The only Shakespearean speech I knew was 'Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears' because I did that for one of my pieces.

Did you enjoy your time at Kelvin Grove?

Loved it. I had no idea you could give yourself permission to study drama from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day. I thought it was indulgent . . . The first day, I was a bit scared. I had no idea, of course. I was in a room with nineteen other [students]. I was twenty-five, and they were eighteen/nineteen/twenty, so I was very old! I was with these young people who loved drama; absolutely loved it, like their lives depended on it. At first I thought it was a bit much. But then I went with it. I was around people who liked drama more than I did. At that stage, I didn't realise how much I liked it. Then I went, 'yeah, I like the same things you do'. People were putting names to things that I knew [instinctively] already. That was empowering.

I was pretty raw but I looked back at my audition tape ... and it was actually quite good. It wasn't riveting, Academy Award stuff . . . But I wasn't over-acting; I was committing to a task that was dialogue on a page ... So I was happy about that. I wasn't the best student, but I was the best learner. I was the best learner I could be. When someone told me something, I took it on board and made it my own. I wanted to learn. I was a sponge. And the two or three years I had on the other students helped me immensely. I had experienced life a little bit - moved to Sydney, played football, done a business degree. I knew what life was about a little bit.

What sort of things were you learning about?

I did yoga for the first time in my life - that was a big thing. Doing that every day for an hour and a half was full-on. I lost a lot of weight. I actually got my body nimble again. My body changed shape. Because of football I was a lot bigger than I am now, a lot musclier ... My voice changed, too; because of voice classes, it lowered. [I learnt that] when you take a breath in, for instance, you go in through your diaphragm rather than up through your shoulders, and then you reverse that. I found that inspiring. It made sense. I love my voice, and I love having good breath. Classical texts. I had a little idea about Shakespeare, but I had no idea about Chekhov or Brecht or Stanislavski ... I became well-read in respect of the dramatic canon. Even David Hare. We did Fanshen in our first year. Mark Radvan directed. I played Chen Quong, a Chinese character who's had a very hard life, and was a very hard worker ... It was interesting. Even going to Queensland Theatre^ Company shows. They were great. I remember seeing Felix Williamson in a play where he spat a lot. It was a two-hander - Sanctuary. Then I found out later that I spit and sweat a lot on stage. And so does Richard Roxborough, which I was happy about, that a lot of good actors do. Marcus Graham does. Things like that. I was opening up my mind and entering this other world. Wayne Blair from Rockhampton, who knew a lot about the St George Dragons Football Club or the West Indian Cricket team, was starting to learn about Chekhov and Brecht and Stanislavski . . .