Episode 7 - Wesley Enoch

Is all art, is in some ways manipulative? Isn’t entertainment just another means to educate? 

Today’s guest is Wesley Enoch, a writer and director that has helped shape some of Australia’s most iconic and celebrated Indigenous theatre productions including “The Sapphires” - the true story - turned play by Tony Briggs - that become a film earning 20 million at the Australian box office. 

It’s always a real personal treat to hear about the history and background to a iconic or landmark piece of art - but this conversation showed me the different philosophies and methodologies every individual takes to shape the messages and causes they are passionate about. How art can be as Wesley suggests a “trojan horse for change…”

He has worked as Artistic Director of Queensland Theatre Company, the Sydney Festival, a for the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games. His many original plays are celebrated pieces of Australian theatre and we chat from his office at Sydney Festival in 2019 - yes this is another one from the vault! - He ramble through his early days plying his trade, his mentor Nick Enright, the Australian playwright and director and how that infused his work and life as a director… but it comes back to the Sapphires today folks - the story of four women that travel to Vietnam to sing for troops in 1968. A true story turned play, turned film that inspired and educated many of us. Without us realising at the time. 

Produced by Old Fashioned Studios

Hosted by Bradley McCaw

Sound design by Matt Erskine & Cross Point Solutions

Story Producer & additional engineering by Gilang Candraditya

Theme composed by James Ryan

WESLEY ENOCH:

Wesley Enoch is the eldest son of Doug and Lyn Enoch from Stradbroke Island and is the current [2021] Indigenous Chair in the Creative Industries at QUT. Wesley is a renowned director and writer for the stage. His written body of work includes I Am Eora, The 7 Stages of Grieving (co-written with Deborah Mailman), Little White Dress, A Life of Grace and Piety, Black Medea, The Sunshine Club, Grace and The Story of the Miracle at Cookie's Table, for which he won the 2005 Patrick White Playwright's Award and was short listed for both the New South Wales and Victorian Premier's Literary Award.

After working across several aspects of theatre in Queensland, Wesley became Artistic Director for Kooemba Jdarra Indigenous Performing Arts in 1994, where he directed his own work including Little White Dress (Queensland Performing Arts Centre/Out of the Box Festival), A Life of Grace and Piety (Just Us Theatre Ensemble) and The 7 Stages of Grieving, which toured the London International Festival of Theatre, Melbourne, Tasmania, Adelaide and went on to be re- mounted in Sydney Opera House. Other directing credits include Murri Love (Metro Theatre Brisbane), Changing Time (Salamanca Theatre Company), The Dreamers (Brisbane Festival) and Up the Ladder (Melbourne Workers Theatre, Festival of the Dreaming).

In 1998, Wesley became Associate Artist for Queensland Theatre Company, for which he directed Radiance, Black-ed Up, The Sunshine Club and Fountains Beyond. His other credits in that time include The 7 Stages of Grieving, which toured the Swiss International Theatre Festival, Stolen (Playbox Theatre) and Romeo and Juliet (Bell Shakespeare). He became the Resident Director at Sydney Theatre Company in 2000 and directed Black Medea, The Sunshine Club, Black-ed Up, The Cherry Pickers (2002 UK Tour), and Stolen (Adelaide, Sydney, Tasmania and UK Tour) and remounted The 7 Stages of Grieving.

Following his term at Sydney Theatre Company, Wesley became Artistic Director of the Ilbijerri Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Theatre Co-operative in 2003 for which he directed Shrunken Iris and Rainbow's End, and remained on the Board until 2007. In this time, Wesley directed some of the most successful and prolific works in Australian theatre. For Company B, Wesley directed several productions including The Dreamers, Conversations with the Dead, Black Medea (with Malthouse Theatre), and The Sapphires, with Melbourne Theatre Company and which went on to win the Helpmann Award for Best Production and Best New Australian Work and was remounted at the 2005 Sydney Festival.

Wesley also directed the Helpmann Award nominated outdoor event Eora Crossing(Legs on the Wall/Museum of Sydney/Sydney Festival) and Riverland for Windmill Performing Arts, staged at the Adelaide, Perth and Brisbane International Festivals. Wesley's play The Story of the Miracles at Cookie's Table was directed by Marion Potts and staged at Hothouse Theatre Melbourne and the Griffin Theatre in Sydney to critical acclaim.

As Associate Artist at Company B from 2006-2008, Wesley directed Capricornia, Paul, Parramatta Girls (nominated for 2007 Helpmann Award for Best Direction and Best Production), and Yibiyung (with Malthouse Theatre). His more recent work includes Nargun and the Stars (Performing Lines), The Man From Mukinupin (Company B/Melbourne Theatre Company), One Night, the Moon (Malthouse Theatre) and a revival of The Sapphires (Company B/Black Swan Theatre Company).

Over several years, Wesley worked with Tom Wright in the development of a play about Indigenous soldiers of World War I. Black Diggers premiered at the Sydney Opera House in 2014, with an all-Indigenous male cast and was a triumphantly received.

He directed the Indigenous section of the 2006 Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony, is a member of the Hothouse Theatre Artistic Directorate, a Trustee of Sydney Opera House, a member for the New South Wales Government Arts Advisory Council and numerous other Committees. In 2008 Enoch was the Artistic Director for the Australian delegation to the Festival of Pacific Arts (FOPA) and in June 2010 he was appointed as the Artistic Director for the Queensland Theatre Company. In 2015, he left Queensland Theatre Company to become director of the Sydney Festival; his last festival was in 2021.

In 2018, he gave the Nick Enright Address at the National Playwrighting Festival.

In March 2021, he was appointed Indigenous Chair in the Creative Industries (a new role) at QUT.