Brian Syron
Encyclopedia
Brian Syron was a human rights advocate, teacher, actor, writer, stage director and Australia's first Indigenous feature film director who has been recognised as the first First Nations feature film director.
country in the inner city suburb of Balmain
, Sydney
, New South Wales, but, as he wrote in various papers and books:
Syron also lived an indigenous life with his paternal grandmother in his ancestral Birrippi lands at Minimbah, New South Wales, seven miles (11 km) up the Coolongolook River from Forster
and 200 miles (321.9 km) north of Balmain. Minimbah means in Birripi language "Home of the Teacher" and his traditional country encompassed Taree
, Forster and the Great Lakes area of the Wang Wauk and Coolonglook rivers on the North Coast. He was a child of a bicultural marriage with his mother coming from the coal fields of Yorkshire
, England. His paternal dreaming was the Eagle, although he described himself as a Magpie - half black, half white. He was also exposed to Aboriginal mission life at Purfleet
and Forster through the 1930s and early 1940s and spent time as a 14 and 15-year old in Grafton Correctional Centre
. Even with this background Syron told the Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission (HREOC) on 15 November 1992:
Brian Syron died of leukemia on 14 October 1993 in his Eora country birthplace.
, Kirribilli
, Sydney under the guidance of New York trained American actor/director and esteemed teacher of the Strasberg Method
, the late Hayes Gordon
. His fellow students included Jack Thompson
, Clarissa Kaye Mason, Reg Livermore
and John Ewing
. Syron always believed that it was Gordon who gave him the dream to be part of the theatre by allowing him to experiment, expand and create.
Wishing to travel overseas, Syron was forced to deny that he was Indigenous in order to obtain an Australian passport. This was because Indigenous Australians were not allowed to have passports and were designated in government publications as fauna. Syron left Australia in 1961 to work in Europe as a male model with Dior
, Cardin
and Balenciaga
. In the Fall of 1961 he moved to New York living initially on Fifth Avenue with one of Australia's first supermodels, Pauline Kiernan, and later in a small walk up when he became an acting student again. In September 1961 he was accepted as a student with the Stella Adler Studio where he studied for the next 18 months with fellow students Robert De Niro
, Gloria Graham
, Pamela Tiffen, Warren Beatty
and Peter Bogdanovich
. Then followed two years of study under various teachers including Olympia Dukakis
, Sanford Meisner
, William Bell
and Rose Ingram while continuing study with Adler. As a result of this 3½ years of training Syron became the first Australian, indigenous or non- indigenous, to study with Stella Adler
and one of the few Australians to have learnt the Stanislavsky drama technique from so close to the source – "the source was almost pure - only one place removed." {Syron}
Completing his American training he spent 12 months in Britain studying with Cecily Berry as well as Doreen Cannon
, head of acting, at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
before returning to New York. There he co-founded a theatre company based around the Cafe Lena in Saratoga Springs, Upstate New York while touring as a director with the Boston/Herald Travellers Shakespeare Company with such actors as Spalding Gray
and Clara Duff-McCormack and doing stints as a teacher for Adler's studio. In 1965 Mrs. Hollister Rexford Shause donated the Cafe Lena theatre company 27 acres (109,265.2 m²) on the Mohawk River near Schnecteddy to build a theatre complex. Following this donation Syron returned to New York where he worked as an actor on various American Shakespeares festivals, toured through the Appalachian Mountains and worked with the Louisville Shakespeare Festival, Cincinnati In the Park as well as productions in Ohio, New Jersey and Paducah, Kentucky.
As well as touring he worked as an actor with the Establishment Theatre Company for producers Sybill Burton Christopher, Joseph E. Levine
, Ivor David Balding, Peter Cook
and Dudley Moore
. He worked for The New Theatre on 53rd and 3rd and various productions including The Mad Show Review for Stephen Sondheim
and Mary Rogers
.
In the last months of 1967 and the first of 1968 Syron toured the Southern states of America playing in Atlanta, Georgia; Roenoke, Virginia; Nashville, Tennessee and Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina and from these tours he was to say
Syron returned to Perth, Western Australia following the 1967 Referendum which finally allowed him to freely move through his country without having to have a Permission to Leave Pass to let him go about his business. In Perth he directed at Arnie Neeme's The Playhouse, Perth. He had hardly time to settle in to Perth before he was invited to return to Sydney and direct Fortune and Men's Eyes
at his old alma mater The Ensemble Theatre, Kirribilli for which he received the Inaugural Drama Critics Award for Best Production and his leading man Max Phipps
received Best Actor for his role of "Queenie".
On his return from the United States in late 1970 Syron was invited to join the Old Tote Theatre by Professor Robert Quentin, Head of Drama at the University of New South Wales and Robin Lovejoy, Artistic Director of the Old Tote Theatre, Kensington, Sydney. He was the first Indigenous Australia to work as a director in the mainstream Australian theatre industry and in 1972 was appointed Theatre Consultant for the Aboriginal Arts Board of the inaugural Australia Council for the Arts which Board was headed for the first time by an indigenous person, Wanjuk Marika.
The following year, 1973, Syron co-founded the Australian National Playwrights Conference with Katharine Brisbane
. Lloyd Richards
, Head of Acting at Yale University
and Artistic Director of the American National Playwrights Conference wrote to the Aboriginal Unit of Australia Council
in September 1993
Syron returned to the theatre again in 1976 with his direction of Dimboola
(written by Jack Hibberd
) in Newcastle, New South Wales
as well as at Bonapartes Theatre Restaurant, Kings Cross, Sydney where his stage production ran continuously for the next two years and four months with many cast changes during that time. He followed "Dimboola" with a production of the American play Falling Apart at the New Theatre
, Newtown, Sydney and in 1978 he played the role of "The Actor" in Livieu Cieleu's production of Maxim Gorky
's The Lower Depths
which ran for six weeks at the Sydney Opera House. In this same year he opened The New Group Theatre at the All Nations Club, Kings Cross, Sydney where he directed among other productions A Tribute to Tennessee Williams before the ongoing costs of keeping an independent theatre going forced Syron to close after 12 months.
Syron co-founded the Aboriginal Theatre Company (ATC) in 1981 with Robert Merritt
, scriptwriter/playwright/director and, in conjunction with the Aboriginal Educational Unit of TAFE, was founder of the Eora Arts Centre, Redfern, Sydney. The first production of the ATC was Merritt's play The Cake Man which toured under Syron's direction, to the 1982 World Theatre Festival in Denver, Colorado where the play received a tremendous audience response. Following this success the play then toured various colleges around the United States. Returning to Australia, Syron directed a season of The Cake Man at the Universal Theatre in Fitzroy, Melbourne
after which it was funded by Australian federal government's Ministry for Aboriginal Affairs to play at the 1983 Warana - Commonwealth Arts Festival, Brisbane in Queensland.
in January 1987 Syron founded the National Black Playwrights Conference which was held at the Australian National University
, Canberra. In an interview with Angela Bennie, Australia's leading Indigenous actress Justine Saunders
commented :
During the National Black Playwrights Conference (NBPC) the delegates awarded Syron the 1987 Inaugural Harold Blair Award for his Lifetime Achievements in the Performing Arts which brought with it the additional honor of the title "Elder". As a result of the first NBPC Syron proposed and co-founded the Aboriginal National Theatre Trust (ANTT) with headquarters in King Street, Newtown under Administrator, scriptwriter Vivian Walker (son of poet Oodgeroo Noonucall and brother of actor Dennis Walker), Chair, actor Lydia Miller and directors Justine Saunders
, Rhoda Roberts, Lillian Crombie and Syron. ANTT closed in 1991 following the very early death of Vivian Walker.
At the second NBPC held in 1988 Syron directed a video of Jimmy Chi's stage musical Bran Nue Dae produced by Chi who travelled from Broome
in Western Australia to Macquarie University at North Ryde, Sydney to take part in the event.
Syron carried out a two-week workshop, a stage reading plus a production in 1991 at the Belvoir Street Theatre
, Redfern, Sydney of Mudrooroo Narogin's"courageous and brave new play""The Aboriginal Demonstrators Confront the Declaration of the Australian Republic on 26 January 2001 with the Production of Der Auftrag by Heiner Muller" and starring Justine Saunders, Michael Watson
, David Kennedy, Pamela Young, Ray Kelly and Graham Cooper. The play and the production are also the subject of Mudrooroo Narogin's book The Mudrooroo/Muller Project - A Theatrical Casebook, with a chapter by Syron and edited by Gerhard Fischer
in collaboration with leading indigenous academic Paul Behrendt and Syron.
Australia - 1960s
1970s
1990s
Theatre Credits - Acting
U.S.A. - 1960s
Australia - 1970s
In 1969 Syron taught the first group of urban Aboriginal actors to every study Stanislavsky or acting from an Indigenous perspective. The classes were held at the Foundation of Aboriginal Affairs, George Street (near Central Railway station), Sydney CBD and the actors included political and cultural historian / actor Dennis Walker (son of leading Australian poet Oodroonoo Nunuccal) and actor / director / historian Gary Foley
. The situation was still so bad that at the end of each evening the actors had to be ferried back by taxi to their homes in Redfern about 10 minutes walk away to avoid arrest by the police.
He followed this in the early 1972 with workshops and acting classes held at the Black Theatre Arts & Cultural Centre (aka Black Theatre
), Cope Street, Redfern where, as Artistic Director, he taught such future Indigenous luminaries as Jack Davis
, Hyllus Maris, Lester Bostock, Maureen Watson and Gerry Bostock.
In 1973 as a foundation member of the Peter Summerton Foundation Syron organised with his mentor Stella Adler to travel to Australia and conduct a series of Master Classes for people from all areas of the Australian entertainment industries. This was the only time Ms Adler travelled to Australia. As a result of these classes Syron instigated The Artists' Group Theatre with first workshops being held in the sculpture studio of Ron Robertson Swann before moving to The Stables
, Kings Cross. During this year he was invited to teach drama to The Resurgent Society inmates of Parramatta Gaol. He accepted the offer and was involved with the Society for the next 12 months. His group included playwrights Jim McNeil
and Robin Thurston and Syron is believed to be the first drama teacher to work in the prison system of New South Wales
At the end of 1974 Syron returned to Los Angeles to take up a Stella Adler's invitation to wok at the Stella Adler Los Angeles Acting Studio on Hollywood Boulevard with such students as John Barrymore Jr., John Saxon
, Susan Clark
and Peter Brown
.
Leading Indigenous academic and Harvard University, USA graduate, Dr Roberta Sykes set up Black Women's Action Group in 1985 with Syron as the (anonymous) Honorary Secretary and foundation member joining other Indigenous and non Indigenous Australians in the support of the educational advancement of Indigenous women in their pursuit of academic success at leading international universities.
Over the period 1986–1987 Syron became the first Indigenous Australian to lecture at the Australian Film TV & Radio School (AFTRS) when he gave a series of Master Classes covering "The Textual Analysis and Techniques of Acting" for Final Year AFTRS students in the Directors Course.
In Australia's Bi-Centennial Year, 1988, Syron as representative of actors and the Aboriginal National Theatre Trust was invited back to AFTRS as a Guest Lecturer for the "Writing '88" Course along with Fay Nelson (Lecturer in Storytelling / Aboriginal Arts Board), Tjungkarta "Nosepeg" Tjupurrula (Pintubi Storyteller) and Harper Morris Tyungerrayi (Anmatjuo Storyteller).
play The Cake Man (1977). Almost immediately after this production Syron was cast as Ray in "Ray's Story" a one hour episode of Pig in a Poke (1977) a 5 × 1 hour series screened on ABC-TV starring Justine Saunders
, Athol Compton, Gary Foley
and Paul Coe
and described as the first modern urban Aboriginal drama screened on Australian television. Syron then played the leading role of "The Wife Abuser" in director Stephen Wallace's telemovie Women Who Kill (1983) which screened on ATN Channel 9.
In 1987 Syron was executive producer of the documentary-drama film production Karbara: First Born (1987), directed and produced by Richard Guthrie, during and following the 1987 Australian National Playwrights Conference. The film featured Lydia Miller and Ernie Dingo
and screened at the Sydney Film Festival in 1987 and on ABC-TV.
Syron and Justine Saunders were co-presenters of the ABC-TV Aboriginal entertainment series The First Australians (1988–1990). This series of 18 × 1 hour programs featured leading Aboriginals in the fields of performance, music and art and presented Indigenous Australian political and commercial leaders in discussions on various topics important to Indigenous Australians. In September 1988 Syron became the first Aboriginal producer at ABC-TV when he was appointed to the position of Producer - Aboriginal Programs Unit.
Television
Production
Acting
directed by Peter Bogdanovich
. Syron's next film project was the short film Jeremy and Teapot (1976) starring Patrick Thompson
as Jeremy and Syron as Teapot with the Narrator Jack Thompson
, shot on location at Thompson's property at Upper Bo Bo, via Ulong, northern New South Wales. The film went on to win Best Film, 1982 Women's International Film / Video Festival, Tucson, Arizona, U.S.A..
Syron was employed on director Peter Weir
's feature film The Last Wave
(1977) as Consultant and Aboriginal Liaison with international actor Gulpilil and Nandijiwarra Amagula, Walter Amagula, Roy Bara, Cedric Latara, Morris Latara and Athol Compton.
The Australian Film Commission awarded Syron a grant in 1980 for his script Australian Aboriginal Achievers (1980) a biographical documentary recounting the achievements of seven leading Aboriginal achievers: actor / historian Gary Foley
, potter Thancoupie, artist Jean Jimmi, bureaucrat Charles Perkins, academic Miriam Rose Ungunmeer-Bauman and artists Jimmy Bienderry and Stumpy Martin Jempijimpa. The script never received production funding and was later used as the base for the Clare Dunn book People Under the Skin - An Irish Immigrant's Experience of Aboriginal Australia.
In 1981 Syron played a small role of "The Neighbour" in The City's Edge (1983) (aka Running Man Edge of the City)", co-written by Robert Merritt the first Australian Indigenous scriptwriter of a feature film and the Nightclub Manager in Coolangatta Gold (1983) on location in Surfers Paradise Queensland.
Backlash (1986) directed and produced by Bill Bennett featured Lydia Miller with Syron in the role of The Executioner or Kadachi Man. Syron and the lead actors were the co-writers of this production although they were uncredited by Bennett. The script improvisation by the actors is confirmed by Encore
Syron and Rosalie Kunoth Monks (aka Ngarla Kunoth the star of Jedda
(1956)) were employed as Co-Aboriginal Consultants on the television production Naked Under Capricorn (1989) directed by Rob Stewart, produced by Syron's brother-in-law Ray Alchin and starring Nigel Havers.
From 1990 to 1992 Syron directed the first feature film by an Indigenous Australia Jindalee Lady (1992) and is recognised as being the first First Nations director of a feature film. Dr Lowitja O'Donoghue
, Chair of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission
wrote saying
In August 1992 Jindalee Lady was invited to screen at the 1992 Inaugural Brisbane International Film Festival as part of the first Charles Chauvel Tribute which was followed by a debate between Indigenous filmmaker Syron and three non Indigenous filmmakers concerning the invisibility of Indigenous above-the-line personnel. In September 1992 Jindalee Lady' was invited to "Dreamspeakers" International Film & Arts Festival, Edmonton, Canada where it was the only and the first feature film to be directed by a First Nations person and was awarded Best Feature Film at the Festival. Following this screening Jindalee Lady was accepted and nominated for the East West Award - Best Film at the 1992 Hawaii International Film Festival (HIFF), Hawaii where Syron gave a paper The Making of an Indigenous Feature Film at the opening of the Festival and the screening of Jindalee Lady. Syron was joined by leading lady Lydia Miller and Musical Director / Composer Bart Willoughby at the HIFF.
Briann Kearney and Syron applied in a joint application for a Literary Fellowship from Australia Council
the federal Arts organisation and were awarded $20,000 to co-write "Kicking Down the Doors - a History of Indigenous Filmmaking from 1968 - 1993 including non Indigenous films for and about Indigenous people" based on research collected by Syron for his submission to the 1992 HREOC submission.
Filmography
Production
Acting
Life
He was born on 19 November 1934 in EoraEora
The Eora are the Aboriginal people of the Sydney area, south to the Georges River, north to the Hawkesbury River, and west to Parramatta. The indigenous people used this word to describe where they came from to the British. "Eora" was then used by the British to refer to those Aboriginal people...
country in the inner city suburb of Balmain
Balmain, New South Wales
Balmain is a suburb in the inner-west of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Balmain is located slightly west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the Municipality of Leichhardt....
, Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, New South Wales, but, as he wrote in various papers and books:
When I was born our people had already experienced a holocaust beyond imagining. There were no Eora living a lifestyle of any kind on the banks of Tuhbowgule (Sydney Harbour), Kamay (Botany BayBotany BayBotany Bay is a bay in Sydney, New South Wales, a few kilometres south of the Sydney central business district. The Cooks River and the Georges River are the two major tributaries that flow into the bay...
) or Deerubin (Hawkesbury RiverHawkesbury RiverThe Hawkesbury River, also known as Deerubbun, is one of the major rivers of the coastal region of New South Wales, Australia. The Hawkesbury River and its tributaries virtually encircle the metropolitan region of Sydney.-Geography:-Course:...
). My birthplace had experienced a massacre from 1790 to 1802 and my people were our country's first resistance fighters
Syron also lived an indigenous life with his paternal grandmother in his ancestral Birrippi lands at Minimbah, New South Wales, seven miles (11 km) up the Coolongolook River from Forster
Forster, New South Wales
Forster is a large coastal town in the Mid North Coast region of New South Wales, Australia, in the Great Lakes Council LGA, about north-north-east of Sydney. It is immediately adjacent to its twin, Tuncurry, which is the smaller of the two towns...
and 200 miles (321.9 km) north of Balmain. Minimbah means in Birripi language "Home of the Teacher" and his traditional country encompassed Taree
Taree, New South Wales
Taree is a city on the Mid North Coast, New South Wales, Australia. Taree and nearby Cundletown were settled in 1831 by William Wynter. Since then Taree has grown to a population of around 20,000 people and is the centre of a significant agricultural district. It is 16 km from the sea coast,...
, Forster and the Great Lakes area of the Wang Wauk and Coolonglook rivers on the North Coast. He was a child of a bicultural marriage with his mother coming from the coal fields of Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
, England. His paternal dreaming was the Eagle, although he described himself as a Magpie - half black, half white. He was also exposed to Aboriginal mission life at Purfleet
Purfleet
Purfleet is a place in the Thurrock unitary authority in Essex, England. It is situated south of the A13 road on the River Thames and within the easterly bounds of the M25 motorway but just outside the Greater London boundary. It was within the traditional Church of England parish of West Thurrock...
and Forster through the 1930s and early 1940s and spent time as a 14 and 15-year old in Grafton Correctional Centre
Grafton Correctional Centre
Grafton Correctional Centre is a medium security prison for both men and women in Grafton, New South Wales, Australia. As well as housing sentenced offenders, the Centre serves as a reception prison for northern NSW....
. Even with this background Syron told the Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission (HREOC) on 15 November 1992:
I have no mortgage on being dispossessed or having a tough life. We've all had it. Every Aboriginal person I know of in my generation has had one hell of a time. Nobody has a mortgage on that. We've all been through it. Our obligation, our mandate, as artists is to communicate with our people first.{Syron, HREOC, 15.11.92}
Brian Syron died of leukemia on 14 October 1993 in his Eora country birthplace.
Theatrical career
Syron began his artistic career in 1960 at the Ensemble TheatreEnsemble Theatre
The Ensemble Theatre is an Australian theatre company, situated in Kirribilli, New South Wales. It is promoted as Australia's longest continuously running professional theatre group, established in 1958.- References :...
, Kirribilli
Kirribilli, New South Wales
Kirribilli is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located three kilometres north of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area administered by North Sydney Council...
, Sydney under the guidance of New York trained American actor/director and esteemed teacher of the Strasberg Method
Lee Strasberg
Lee Strasberg was an American actor, director and acting teacher. He cofounded, with directors Harold Clurman and Cheryl Crawford, the Group Theatre in 1931, which was hailed as "America's first true theatrical collective"...
, the late Hayes Gordon
Hayes Gordon
Hayes Gordon AO OBE was an American actor, stage director and acting teacher with a considerable career in Australia....
. His fellow students included Jack Thompson
Jack Thompson (actor)
Jack Thompson, AM is an Australian actor and one of the major figures of Australian cinema. He was educated at University of Queensland, before embarking on his acting career. In 2002, he was made an honorary member of the Australian Cinematographers Society...
, Clarissa Kaye Mason, Reg Livermore
Reg Livermore
Reginald Dawson Livermore AO is an Australian actor, singer, theatrical performer and television presenter.-Childhood:From a young age, Livermore demonstrated an interest in the performing arts...
and John Ewing
John Ewing
John Ewing may refer to:* John Ewing , professional baseball player* John Ewing , U.S. Representative from Indiana* John Ewing , U.S. Minister to Honduras, 1913–1918...
. Syron always believed that it was Gordon who gave him the dream to be part of the theatre by allowing him to experiment, expand and create.
Wishing to travel overseas, Syron was forced to deny that he was Indigenous in order to obtain an Australian passport. This was because Indigenous Australians were not allowed to have passports and were designated in government publications as fauna. Syron left Australia in 1961 to work in Europe as a male model with Dior
Dior
Dior can mean:* Christian Dior SA, a French clothing retailer* In J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional Middle-earth legendarium:**Dior Eluchíl, a Half-elven of the First Age**Dior , a Steward of GondorDior is a surname, and may refer to:...
, Cardin
Pierre Cardin
Pierre Cardin Cardin was known for his avant-garde style and his Space Age designs. He prefers geometric shapes and motifs, often ignoring the female form. He advanced into unisex fashions, sometimes experimental, and not always practical...
and Balenciaga
Balenciaga
Balenciaga is a fashion house founded by Cristóbal Balenciaga, a Basque designer, born in the Basque Country, Spain. He had a reputation as a couturier of uncompromising standards and was referred to as "the master of us all" by Christian Dior. His bubble skirts and odd, feminine, yet ultra-modern...
. In the Fall of 1961 he moved to New York living initially on Fifth Avenue with one of Australia's first supermodels, Pauline Kiernan, and later in a small walk up when he became an acting student again. In September 1961 he was accepted as a student with the Stella Adler Studio where he studied for the next 18 months with fellow students Robert De Niro
Robert De Niro
Robert De Niro, Jr. is an American actor, director and producer. His first major film roles were in Bang the Drum Slowly and Mean Streets, both in 1973...
, Gloria Graham
Gloria Graham
Gloria Graham is an American artist based in New Mexico. Her work includes sculpture, painting, and photography.-Background:...
, Pamela Tiffen, Warren Beatty
Warren Beatty
Warren Beatty born March 30, 1937) is an American actor, producer, screenwriter and director. He has received a total of fourteen Academy Award nominations, winning one for Best Director in 1982. He has also won four Golden Globe Awards including the Cecil B. DeMille Award.-Early life and...
and Peter Bogdanovich
Peter Bogdanovich
Peter Bogdanovich is an American film historian, director, writer, actor, producer, and critic. He was part of the wave of "New Hollywood" directors, which included William Friedkin, Brian De Palma, George Lucas, Martin Scorsese, Michael Cimino, and Francis Ford Coppola...
. Then followed two years of study under various teachers including Olympia Dukakis
Olympia Dukakis
Olympia Dukakis is an American actress. In 1987, she won an Academy Award, BAFTA, and a Golden Globe for her performance in Moonstruck...
, Sanford Meisner
Sanford Meisner
Sanford Meisner , also known as Sandy, was an American actor and acting teacher who developed a form of Method acting that is now known as the Meisner technique....
, William Bell
William Bell
-Musicians:* William Bell * William Bell * William Henry Bell , composer -Politicians:* Dr. William Bell , founder of Manitou Springs, Colorado...
and Rose Ingram while continuing study with Adler. As a result of this 3½ years of training Syron became the first Australian, indigenous or non- indigenous, to study with Stella Adler
Stella Adler
Stella Adler was an American actress and an acclaimed acting teacher, who founded the Stella Adler Studio of Acting in New York City and the The Stella Adler Academy of Acting in Los Angeles with long-time protege Joanne Linville, who continues to teach and furthers Adler's legacy...
and one of the few Australians to have learnt the Stanislavsky drama technique from so close to the source – "the source was almost pure - only one place removed." {Syron}
Completing his American training he spent 12 months in Britain studying with Cecily Berry as well as Doreen Cannon
Doreen Cannon
Doreen Cannon was born and raised in NYC. She trained as an actress at the HB Studio in Manhattan for over 10 years with the famous Uta Hagen and Herbert Berghof. Her contemporaries and fellow students were Peter Falk, Geraldine Page, Sandy Dennis, Maureen Stapleton, Anne Meara and Jerry Stiller...
, head of acting, at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art is a drama school located in London, United Kingdom. It is generally regarded as one of the most renowned drama schools in the world, and is one of the oldest drama schools in the United Kingdom, having been founded in 1904.RADA is an affiliate school of the...
before returning to New York. There he co-founded a theatre company based around the Cafe Lena in Saratoga Springs, Upstate New York while touring as a director with the Boston/Herald Travellers Shakespeare Company with such actors as Spalding Gray
Spalding Gray
Spalding Rockwell Gray was an American actor, playwright, screenwriter, performance artist and monologuist...
and Clara Duff-McCormack and doing stints as a teacher for Adler's studio. In 1965 Mrs. Hollister Rexford Shause donated the Cafe Lena theatre company 27 acres (109,265.2 m²) on the Mohawk River near Schnecteddy to build a theatre complex. Following this donation Syron returned to New York where he worked as an actor on various American Shakespeares festivals, toured through the Appalachian Mountains and worked with the Louisville Shakespeare Festival, Cincinnati In the Park as well as productions in Ohio, New Jersey and Paducah, Kentucky.
As well as touring he worked as an actor with the Establishment Theatre Company for producers Sybill Burton Christopher, Joseph E. Levine
Joseph E. Levine
Joseph E. Levine was an American film producer.He was born in Boston, Massachusetts. His Embassy Pictures Corporation was an independent studio and distributor responsible for such films as Hercules , The Carpetbaggers, Harlow, The Graduate, A Bridge Too Far and The Lion in Winter.Levine is famous...
, Ivor David Balding, Peter Cook
Peter Cook
Peter Edward Cook was an English satirist, writer and comedian. An extremely influential figure in modern British comedy, he is regarded as the leading light of the British satire boom of the 1960s. He has been described by Stephen Fry as "the funniest man who ever drew breath," although Cook's...
and Dudley Moore
Dudley Moore
Dudley Stuart John Moore, CBE was an English actor, comedian, composer and musician.Moore first came to prominence as one of the four writer-performers in the ground-breaking comedy revue Beyond the Fringe in the early 1960s, and then became famous as half of the highly popular television...
. He worked for The New Theatre on 53rd and 3rd and various productions including The Mad Show Review for Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Joshua Sondheim is an American composer and lyricist for stage and film. He is the winner of an Academy Award, multiple Tony Awards including the Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre, multiple Grammy Awards, a Pulitzer Prize and the Laurence Olivier Award...
and Mary Rogers
Mary Rogers
Mary Cecilia Rogers , also known as the "Beautiful Cigar Girl", was a 19th-century murder victim whose story became a national sensation in the United States...
.
In the last months of 1967 and the first of 1968 Syron toured the Southern states of America playing in Atlanta, Georgia; Roenoke, Virginia; Nashville, Tennessee and Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina and from these tours he was to say
"came the finalisation of my black politicisation. No black person travelling through these States during this period of peace marches, race riots and assassination could have remained untouched and I had to go home." { Kicking Down the Doors Syron }
Syron returned to Perth, Western Australia following the 1967 Referendum which finally allowed him to freely move through his country without having to have a Permission to Leave Pass to let him go about his business. In Perth he directed at Arnie Neeme's The Playhouse, Perth. He had hardly time to settle in to Perth before he was invited to return to Sydney and direct Fortune and Men's Eyes
Fortune and Men's Eyes
Fortune and Men's Eyes is a 1967 play and 1971 film by John Herbert about a young man's experience in prison, exploring themes of homosexuality and sexual slavery. The title comes from William Shakespeare's Sonnet 29 which begins with the line "When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes". It has...
at his old alma mater The Ensemble Theatre, Kirribilli for which he received the Inaugural Drama Critics Award for Best Production and his leading man Max Phipps
Max Phipps
Max Phipps was an Australian actor, known for a number of roles in theatre, films and television during the 1960s until the end of the 1990s....
received Best Actor for his role of "Queenie".
On his return from the United States in late 1970 Syron was invited to join the Old Tote Theatre by Professor Robert Quentin, Head of Drama at the University of New South Wales and Robin Lovejoy, Artistic Director of the Old Tote Theatre, Kensington, Sydney. He was the first Indigenous Australia to work as a director in the mainstream Australian theatre industry and in 1972 was appointed Theatre Consultant for the Aboriginal Arts Board of the inaugural Australia Council for the Arts which Board was headed for the first time by an indigenous person, Wanjuk Marika.
The following year, 1973, Syron co-founded the Australian National Playwrights Conference with Katharine Brisbane
Katharine Brisbane
Katharine Brisbane was born on 7 January 1932 in Singapore. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Western Australia, where she was active in student theatre...
. Lloyd Richards
Lloyd Richards
Lloyd George Richards was a Canadian-American theatre director, actor, and dean of the Yale School of Drama from 1979 to 1991, and Yale University professor emeritus.- Biography :...
, Head of Acting at Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
and Artistic Director of the American National Playwrights Conference wrote to the Aboriginal Unit of Australia Council
Australia Council
The Australia Council, informally known as the Australia Council for the Arts, is the official arts council or arts funding body of the Government of Australia.-Function:...
in September 1993
I have been asked to comment on Brian Syron whom I have not heard of in many years. I am nonetheless not hesitant to do so because his contribution to the theatre and to his people had by the late 70s been so significant that he might have been considered for award by then. The National Playwrights Conference of Australia exists because Brian Syron visited the National Playwrights Conference in Waterford Conn. and recognised it as an important idea for Australia and he went back to champion the possibility. Others visited and the rest is history." {Lloyd G. Richards, 9.5.1993}
Syron returned to the theatre again in 1976 with his direction of Dimboola
Dimboola (play)
Dimboola is a play by the Australian author Jack Hibberd. It premiered in 1969 at La Mama Theatre under the direction of Graeme Blundell. The whole action of the play supposedly takes place at a real wedding at which the actors represent the families of the bride and groom and the audience are...
(written by Jack Hibberd
Jack Hibberd
Dr Jack Hibberd is an Australian playwright.-Biography:Hibberd studied medicine at the University of Melbourne, where he resided at Newman College and practised as a clinical immunologist in Melbourne from 1964 until 1973...
) in Newcastle, New South Wales
Newcastle, New South Wales
The Newcastle metropolitan area is the second most populated area in the Australian state of New South Wales and includes most of the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie Local Government Areas...
as well as at Bonapartes Theatre Restaurant, Kings Cross, Sydney where his stage production ran continuously for the next two years and four months with many cast changes during that time. He followed "Dimboola" with a production of the American play Falling Apart at the New Theatre
New Theatre (Newtown)
The New Theatre is an independent theatre company in the inner western Sydney suburb of Newtown, Australia. Established in October 1932, it is the oldest theatre company in continuous production in New South Wales...
, Newtown, Sydney and in 1978 he played the role of "The Actor" in Livieu Cieleu's production of Maxim Gorky
Maxim Gorky
Alexei Maximovich Peshkov , primarily known as Maxim Gorky , was a Russian and Soviet author, a founder of the Socialist Realism literary method and a political activist.-Early years:...
's The Lower Depths
The Lower Depths
The Lower Depths is perhaps Maxim Gorky's best-known play. It was written during the winter of 1901 and the spring of 1902. Subtitled "Scenes from Russian Life," it depicted a group of impoverished Russians living in a shelter near the Volga. Produced by the Moscow Arts Theatre on December 18,...
which ran for six weeks at the Sydney Opera House. In this same year he opened The New Group Theatre at the All Nations Club, Kings Cross, Sydney where he directed among other productions A Tribute to Tennessee Williams before the ongoing costs of keeping an independent theatre going forced Syron to close after 12 months.
Syron co-founded the Aboriginal Theatre Company (ATC) in 1981 with Robert Merritt
Robert Merritt
Robert Gray Merritt was a Nova Scotia playwright, film critic, and educator.Merritt was born in Yonkers, NY, the son of John Gray and Mildred Merritt...
, scriptwriter/playwright/director and, in conjunction with the Aboriginal Educational Unit of TAFE, was founder of the Eora Arts Centre, Redfern, Sydney. The first production of the ATC was Merritt's play The Cake Man which toured under Syron's direction, to the 1982 World Theatre Festival in Denver, Colorado where the play received a tremendous audience response. Following this success the play then toured various colleges around the United States. Returning to Australia, Syron directed a season of The Cake Man at the Universal Theatre in Fitzroy, Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
after which it was funded by Australian federal government's Ministry for Aboriginal Affairs to play at the 1983 Warana - Commonwealth Arts Festival, Brisbane in Queensland.
in January 1987 Syron founded the National Black Playwrights Conference which was held at the Australian National University
Australian National University
The Australian National University is a teaching and research university located in the Australian capital, Canberra.As of 2009, the ANU employs 3,945 administrative staff who teach approximately 10,000 undergraduates, and 7,500 postgraduate students...
, Canberra. In an interview with Angela Bennie, Australia's leading Indigenous actress Justine Saunders
Justine Saunders
Justine Florence Saunders, OAM was an Australian stage, film and television actress. She was a member of the Woppaburra indigenous people, from the Kanomie clan of Keppel Island in Queensland. She was born next to a railway track. At the age of 11, she was removed from her mother Heather, and...
commented :
It was Brian Syron, in fact, who was the instigator not only of the first National Black Playwrights Conference but the National Playwrights Conference. Syron always said our culture is an oral one, it comes through our painting, through our singing, through our stories that's how we pass down our laws, that's how we have passed down our history for 60,000 years
During the National Black Playwrights Conference (NBPC) the delegates awarded Syron the 1987 Inaugural Harold Blair Award for his Lifetime Achievements in the Performing Arts which brought with it the additional honor of the title "Elder". As a result of the first NBPC Syron proposed and co-founded the Aboriginal National Theatre Trust (ANTT) with headquarters in King Street, Newtown under Administrator, scriptwriter Vivian Walker (son of poet Oodgeroo Noonucall and brother of actor Dennis Walker), Chair, actor Lydia Miller and directors Justine Saunders
Justine Saunders
Justine Florence Saunders, OAM was an Australian stage, film and television actress. She was a member of the Woppaburra indigenous people, from the Kanomie clan of Keppel Island in Queensland. She was born next to a railway track. At the age of 11, she was removed from her mother Heather, and...
, Rhoda Roberts, Lillian Crombie and Syron. ANTT closed in 1991 following the very early death of Vivian Walker.
At the second NBPC held in 1988 Syron directed a video of Jimmy Chi's stage musical Bran Nue Dae produced by Chi who travelled from Broome
Broome, Western Australia
Broome is a pearling and tourist town in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, north of Perth. The year round population is approximately 14,436, growing to more than 45,000 per month during the tourist season...
in Western Australia to Macquarie University at North Ryde, Sydney to take part in the event.
Syron carried out a two-week workshop, a stage reading plus a production in 1991 at the Belvoir Street Theatre
Belvoir St Theatre
Belvoir St Theatre is an Australian theatre venue in Sydney. The venue in Belvoir Street, Surry Hills previously operated as the Nimrod Theatre, and was founded as "Belvoir St" in 1984 by Sue Hill and Chris Westwood...
, Redfern, Sydney of Mudrooroo Narogin's"courageous and brave new play""The Aboriginal Demonstrators Confront the Declaration of the Australian Republic on 26 January 2001 with the Production of Der Auftrag by Heiner Muller" and starring Justine Saunders, Michael Watson
Michael Watson
Michael Watson, MBE is a retired British boxer whose career ended prematurely as a result of near-fatal injury sustained in a WBO super-middleweight title fight defeat by Chris Eubank in September 1991....
, David Kennedy, Pamela Young, Ray Kelly and Graham Cooper. The play and the production are also the subject of Mudrooroo Narogin's book The Mudrooroo/Muller Project - A Theatrical Casebook, with a chapter by Syron and edited by Gerhard Fischer
Gerhard Fischer
Gerhard Fisher contributed to the development and popularity of the hand held metal detector.-Biography:Gerhard Fisher immigrated to the United States from Germany after studying electronics at the University of Dresden. While working as a Research Engineer in Los Angeles, California his work with...
in collaboration with leading indigenous academic Paul Behrendt and Syron.
Theatre credits - directing
U.S.A. - 1960s- Much Ado About Nothing
- The Man
- Candida
- Orpheus Descending
Australia - 1960s
- Fortune and Men's Eyes
1970s
- A Day in the Death of Joe Egg
- The Merchant of Venice
- This Story of Yours
- The Cake Man
- The Fantastiks
- Dimboola
- Falling Apart
- A Tribute to Tennessee Williams (This Property is Condemned, A Perfect Analysis Given by a Parrott, Portrait of Madonna)
1990s
- The Aboriginal Demonstrators Confront the Declaration of the Australian Republic on 26 January 2001 with the Producerion of De Auftrag - Workshop + Staged Reading + Stage Production
Theatre Credits - Acting
U.S.A. - 1960s
- Much Ado About Nothing - Don Juan / Don Pedro
- Othello - Iago
- Midsummer Night's Dream - Lysander / Oberon
- The Knack
- The Mad Show Review
- Square in the Eye
Australia - 1970s
- The Cake Man - Sweet William
- Lower Depths - The Actor
Teaching career
Following the success of "Fortune" Syron was approached by Sydney drama professionals to set up the Actors Master Class for those interested in studying the Stanislavsky / Adler technique and which Syron had applied to his award winning production. Following on the success of the Master Class Syron was requested to introduce an Intermediate classes and then a Beginners class both of limited numbers. The School was kept open on an ad hoc basis over the next 23 years and moved many times between 1969 and 1992.In 1969 Syron taught the first group of urban Aboriginal actors to every study Stanislavsky or acting from an Indigenous perspective. The classes were held at the Foundation of Aboriginal Affairs, George Street (near Central Railway station), Sydney CBD and the actors included political and cultural historian / actor Dennis Walker (son of leading Australian poet Oodroonoo Nunuccal) and actor / director / historian Gary Foley
Gary Foley
Gary Foley is an Australian Aboriginal Gumbainggir activist, academic, writer and actor . He is best known for his role in establishing the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra in 1972 and for establishing an Aboriginal Legal Service in Redfern in the 1970s...
. The situation was still so bad that at the end of each evening the actors had to be ferried back by taxi to their homes in Redfern about 10 minutes walk away to avoid arrest by the police.
He followed this in the early 1972 with workshops and acting classes held at the Black Theatre Arts & Cultural Centre (aka Black Theatre
Black theatre
Black theatre or black theater may refer to:* Black light theatre* Black Theatre * The African-American theatre community, especially in New York City...
), Cope Street, Redfern where, as Artistic Director, he taught such future Indigenous luminaries as Jack Davis
Jack Davis (playwright)
Jack Davis , was a notable Australian 20th Century playwright and poet, also an Indigenous rights campaigner. He was born in Western Australia, in the small town of Yarloop, and lived in Fremantle towards the end of his life. He was of the Aboriginal Noongar people, and much of his work dealt with...
, Hyllus Maris, Lester Bostock, Maureen Watson and Gerry Bostock.
In 1973 as a foundation member of the Peter Summerton Foundation Syron organised with his mentor Stella Adler to travel to Australia and conduct a series of Master Classes for people from all areas of the Australian entertainment industries. This was the only time Ms Adler travelled to Australia. As a result of these classes Syron instigated The Artists' Group Theatre with first workshops being held in the sculpture studio of Ron Robertson Swann before moving to The Stables
The Stables
The Stables is a music venue situated in Wavendon, a small village on the south-east edge of Milton Keynes....
, Kings Cross. During this year he was invited to teach drama to The Resurgent Society inmates of Parramatta Gaol. He accepted the offer and was involved with the Society for the next 12 months. His group included playwrights Jim McNeil
Jim McNeil
James Thomas "Jim" McNeil was an Australian criminal and an award-winning playwright. While serving a 17 year sentence in Parramatta Correctional Centre for armed robbery and shooting a police officer, McNeill began writing plays. Within a few years he was being hailed as one of Australia's three...
and Robin Thurston and Syron is believed to be the first drama teacher to work in the prison system of New South Wales
At the end of 1974 Syron returned to Los Angeles to take up a Stella Adler's invitation to wok at the Stella Adler Los Angeles Acting Studio on Hollywood Boulevard with such students as John Barrymore Jr., John Saxon
John Saxon (actor)
John Saxon is an American actor who has worked on over 200 projects during the span of sixty years. Saxon is most known for his work in horror films such as A Nightmare on Elm Street and Black Christmas, both of which feature Saxon as a policeman in search of the killer...
, Susan Clark
Susan Clark
Susan Clark is a Canadian actress, possibly best-known for her role as Katherine on the American television sitcom Webster, on which she appeared with her husband, Alex Karras.-Personal life:...
and Peter Brown
Peter Brown (actor)
Peter Brown is an American television actor known for his role as Deputy Johnny McKay opposite John Russell in the 1958 Warner Bros. western series Lawman.-Early life:...
.
Leading Indigenous academic and Harvard University, USA graduate, Dr Roberta Sykes set up Black Women's Action Group in 1985 with Syron as the (anonymous) Honorary Secretary and foundation member joining other Indigenous and non Indigenous Australians in the support of the educational advancement of Indigenous women in their pursuit of academic success at leading international universities.
Over the period 1986–1987 Syron became the first Indigenous Australian to lecture at the Australian Film TV & Radio School (AFTRS) when he gave a series of Master Classes covering "The Textual Analysis and Techniques of Acting" for Final Year AFTRS students in the Directors Course.
In Australia's Bi-Centennial Year, 1988, Syron as representative of actors and the Aboriginal National Theatre Trust was invited back to AFTRS as a Guest Lecturer for the "Writing '88" Course along with Fay Nelson (Lecturer in Storytelling / Aboriginal Arts Board), Tjungkarta "Nosepeg" Tjupurrula (Pintubi Storyteller) and Harper Morris Tyungerrayi (Anmatjuo Storyteller).
Founder / Foundation member
- Black Theatre Arts & Cultural Centre (1972) - Artistic Director / Foundation Member
- Bondi PavilionBondi PavilionThe Bondi Surf Pavilion in Sydney, Australia, constructed in 1928, is a building of historic significance and has been listed by the Heritage Council. According to the National Trust it "has come to represent the Australian culture of beach bathing and outdoors living"...
Theatre (1973) - Co founder / Artistic Director - Peter Summerton Foundation (1969) - Foundation member / Organiser "Stella Adler Master Classes" (1973)
- The Artists' Group Theatre (1973) - Foundation member
- The Australian National Playwrights Conference (1973) - Co-founder
- The New Group Theatre(1978) - Founder
- The Aboriginal Theatre Company (1981) - Co-founder
- Black Women's Action Group (1985) - Foundation Member / Honorary Secretary
- The Australian Black Playwrights Conference (1987) - Founder
- The Aboriginal National Theatre Trust (1987) - co-Founder / co-Director
Television career
Syron was employed as Children's Dialogue Coach on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation ABC-TVs award winning television production Seven Little Australians (1974) a 10 × 30 minute series adapted from the Ethel Turner novel of the same name. In 1976 Syron was cast as Sweet William in the television adaptation of the Robert MerrittRobert Merritt
Robert Gray Merritt was a Nova Scotia playwright, film critic, and educator.Merritt was born in Yonkers, NY, the son of John Gray and Mildred Merritt...
play The Cake Man (1977). Almost immediately after this production Syron was cast as Ray in "Ray's Story" a one hour episode of Pig in a Poke (1977) a 5 × 1 hour series screened on ABC-TV starring Justine Saunders
Justine Saunders
Justine Florence Saunders, OAM was an Australian stage, film and television actress. She was a member of the Woppaburra indigenous people, from the Kanomie clan of Keppel Island in Queensland. She was born next to a railway track. At the age of 11, she was removed from her mother Heather, and...
, Athol Compton, Gary Foley
Gary Foley
Gary Foley is an Australian Aboriginal Gumbainggir activist, academic, writer and actor . He is best known for his role in establishing the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra in 1972 and for establishing an Aboriginal Legal Service in Redfern in the 1970s...
and Paul Coe
Paul Coe
Paul Coe ', a Wiradjuri man, is an Australian Aboriginal activist. He was the son of Leslie Coe, and the grandson of Paul Joseph Coe and Edith Murray and the great grandson of Thomas Coe and Jessie Mary, née Waggerah ....
and described as the first modern urban Aboriginal drama screened on Australian television. Syron then played the leading role of "The Wife Abuser" in director Stephen Wallace's telemovie Women Who Kill (1983) which screened on ATN Channel 9.
In 1987 Syron was executive producer of the documentary-drama film production Karbara: First Born (1987), directed and produced by Richard Guthrie, during and following the 1987 Australian National Playwrights Conference. The film featured Lydia Miller and Ernie Dingo
Ernie Dingo
Ernie Dingo AM is an Indigenous Australian actor and television presenter originating from the Yamatji people of the Murchison region of Western Australia.-Background:...
and screened at the Sydney Film Festival in 1987 and on ABC-TV.
Syron and Justine Saunders were co-presenters of the ABC-TV Aboriginal entertainment series The First Australians (1988–1990). This series of 18 × 1 hour programs featured leading Aboriginals in the fields of performance, music and art and presented Indigenous Australian political and commercial leaders in discussions on various topics important to Indigenous Australians. In September 1988 Syron became the first Aboriginal producer at ABC-TV when he was appointed to the position of Producer - Aboriginal Programs Unit.
"The appointment of Brian Syron by the ABC as producer of its new Aboriginal Programs Unit could very well precipitate further muttering and grumbling...is it just another Bi Centennial cringe and guilt or is there a need and a reason for an Aboriginal; Unit ... the unification of culture is the only way to ensure their survival" (Doug Anderson, SMH, 9.19.1988 : 20)
Television
Production
- Seven Little Australians (1974) - Children's Dialogue Coach
- Karbara : First Born (1986) - Executive Producer
- ABC-TV Aboriginal Programs Unit - Producer
Acting
- The Cake Man (1977) - Sweet William
- Pig in a Poke (1977) - Ray
- Women Who Kill (1983) - The Wife Abuser
- The First Australians (1988–1990) Series Co-presenter with Justine Saunders
Film career
In 1970 Syron left Australia for the USA where he took up a position as Attachment / Assistant on the feature film What's Up Doc?What's Up, Doc? (1972 film)
What's Up, Doc? is a 1972 screwball comedy film released by Warner Bros., directed by Peter Bogdanovich and starring Barbra Streisand, Ryan O'Neal, and Madeline Kahn...
directed by Peter Bogdanovich
Peter Bogdanovich
Peter Bogdanovich is an American film historian, director, writer, actor, producer, and critic. He was part of the wave of "New Hollywood" directors, which included William Friedkin, Brian De Palma, George Lucas, Martin Scorsese, Michael Cimino, and Francis Ford Coppola...
. Syron's next film project was the short film Jeremy and Teapot (1976) starring Patrick Thompson
Patrick Thompson
Hugh Patrick Thompson, known as Patrick Thompson, is a British Conservative Party politician. Educated at Felsted School and Cambridge University...
as Jeremy and Syron as Teapot with the Narrator Jack Thompson
Jack Thompson (actor)
Jack Thompson, AM is an Australian actor and one of the major figures of Australian cinema. He was educated at University of Queensland, before embarking on his acting career. In 2002, he was made an honorary member of the Australian Cinematographers Society...
, shot on location at Thompson's property at Upper Bo Bo, via Ulong, northern New South Wales. The film went on to win Best Film, 1982 Women's International Film / Video Festival, Tucson, Arizona, U.S.A..
Syron was employed on director Peter Weir
Peter Weir
Peter Lindsay Weir, AM is an Australian film director. After playing a leading role in the Australian New Wave cinema with his films such as Picnic at Hanging Rock, The Last Wave and Gallipoli, Weir directed a diverse group of American and international films—many of them major box office...
's feature film The Last Wave
The Last Wave
The Last Wave is a 1977 Australian film directed by Peter Weir. It is about a white Australian lawyer whose seemingly normal life is disrupted after he takes on a murder case for Aborigine defendants...
(1977) as Consultant and Aboriginal Liaison with international actor Gulpilil and Nandijiwarra Amagula, Walter Amagula, Roy Bara, Cedric Latara, Morris Latara and Athol Compton.
The Australian Film Commission awarded Syron a grant in 1980 for his script Australian Aboriginal Achievers (1980) a biographical documentary recounting the achievements of seven leading Aboriginal achievers: actor / historian Gary Foley
Gary Foley
Gary Foley is an Australian Aboriginal Gumbainggir activist, academic, writer and actor . He is best known for his role in establishing the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra in 1972 and for establishing an Aboriginal Legal Service in Redfern in the 1970s...
, potter Thancoupie, artist Jean Jimmi, bureaucrat Charles Perkins, academic Miriam Rose Ungunmeer-Bauman and artists Jimmy Bienderry and Stumpy Martin Jempijimpa. The script never received production funding and was later used as the base for the Clare Dunn book People Under the Skin - An Irish Immigrant's Experience of Aboriginal Australia.
In 1981 Syron played a small role of "The Neighbour" in The City's Edge (1983) (aka Running Man Edge of the City)", co-written by Robert Merritt the first Australian Indigenous scriptwriter of a feature film and the Nightclub Manager in Coolangatta Gold (1983) on location in Surfers Paradise Queensland.
Backlash (1986) directed and produced by Bill Bennett featured Lydia Miller with Syron in the role of The Executioner or Kadachi Man. Syron and the lead actors were the co-writers of this production although they were uncredited by Bennett. The script improvisation by the actors is confirmed by Encore
"Bill Bennett's "Backlash", for instance, is a film for which the principals improvised their dialogue...in this his latest effort he tested this technique to its limit"{Encore, 24 April - 7 May 1986 : 6)
Syron and Rosalie Kunoth Monks (aka Ngarla Kunoth the star of Jedda
Jedda
Jedda was the last movie made by the Australian filmmaker Charles Chauvel. The film is most notable for being the first to star two Aboriginal actors in the leading roles, and also to be the first Australian film shot in colour...
(1956)) were employed as Co-Aboriginal Consultants on the television production Naked Under Capricorn (1989) directed by Rob Stewart, produced by Syron's brother-in-law Ray Alchin and starring Nigel Havers.
From 1990 to 1992 Syron directed the first feature film by an Indigenous Australia Jindalee Lady (1992) and is recognised as being the first First Nations director of a feature film. Dr Lowitja O'Donoghue
Lowitja O'Donoghue
Ms Lowitja "Lois" O'Donoghue, AC, CBE, DSG is an Aboriginal Australian retired public administrator.She was named Australian of the Year in 1984 and 1990, and was inaugural chairperson of the now dissolved Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission .-Personal life:Lowitja O'Donoghue was the...
, Chair of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission was the Australian Government body through which Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders were formally involved in the processes of government affecting their lives...
wrote saying
Mr Syron is held in high esteem by both indigenous and non indigenous Australians for his work as our first indigenous feature film director..He has made a valuable contribution to indigenous art in this country and has been a strong and articulate advocate in the movement to raise and promote the status of indigenous theatre and film as an integral part of Australia's cultural heritage" (O'Donoghue, letter to Russell Mulvey, Edmonton, Canada, 8.12.1992)
In August 1992 Jindalee Lady was invited to screen at the 1992 Inaugural Brisbane International Film Festival as part of the first Charles Chauvel Tribute which was followed by a debate between Indigenous filmmaker Syron and three non Indigenous filmmakers concerning the invisibility of Indigenous above-the-line personnel. In September 1992 Jindalee Lady' was invited to "Dreamspeakers" International Film & Arts Festival, Edmonton, Canada where it was the only and the first feature film to be directed by a First Nations person and was awarded Best Feature Film at the Festival. Following this screening Jindalee Lady was accepted and nominated for the East West Award - Best Film at the 1992 Hawaii International Film Festival (HIFF), Hawaii where Syron gave a paper The Making of an Indigenous Feature Film at the opening of the Festival and the screening of Jindalee Lady. Syron was joined by leading lady Lydia Miller and Musical Director / Composer Bart Willoughby at the HIFF.
Briann Kearney and Syron applied in a joint application for a Literary Fellowship from Australia Council
Australia Council
The Australia Council, informally known as the Australia Council for the Arts, is the official arts council or arts funding body of the Government of Australia.-Function:...
the federal Arts organisation and were awarded $20,000 to co-write "Kicking Down the Doors - a History of Indigenous Filmmaking from 1968 - 1993 including non Indigenous films for and about Indigenous people" based on research collected by Syron for his submission to the 1992 HREOC submission.
Filmography
Production
- What's Up Doc? (1970) - Attachment Assistant (uncredited)
- The Last Wave (1977) - Consultant and Aboriginal Liaison
- Backlash (1986) - Co-scriptwriter (uncredited)
- Bran Nue Dae (1988) - Director (video)
- Naked Under Capricorn (1989) - Co-Aboriginal Consultant
- Jindalee Lady (1992) - Director - co-scriptwriter
Acting
- Jeremy and Teapot (1976) - Teapot
- The City's Edge (1983) - The Neighbour
- Coolangatta Gold (1983) - The Nightclub Manager
- Backlash (1986) - The Executioner
Awards and nominations
- 1969 Inaugural Drama Critics Award - Best Production, "Fortune and Men's Eyes"
- 1970 Polish Government Scholarship to study with Jersey Grotowski, Wraclaw ($10,000)
- 1978 Script Development, Australian Film Commission, "Cape Hawk - A Work in Progress"
- 1978 Department of Aboriginal Affairs, Aboriginal Overseas Study Grant
- 1978 BBC-TV Specials Directors' Course for Emerging Nations
- 1987 Inaugural Harold Blair Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Performing Arts
- 1987 Awarded the title of "Elder" by BNPC Delegates
- 1990 Ikkeman Sacred Feather, International First Nations Film and Art Festival, Canada
- 1992 Best Feature Film and first feature film by a First Nations Director Dreamspeaker International Film and Arts Festival, Edmonton, Canada
- 1992 Nominee - East West Award- Best Feature Film, Hawaii International Film Festival, Hawaii, USA
- 1993 Co-recipient - Literary Fellowship - Australia Council for "Kicking Down the Doors : A History of Australian Indigenous Filmmakers : 1968 to 1993"
Brian Syron papers and books
- "The Population Future of Indigenous Peoples", 1983 United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations, Representative of the Aboriginal Arts Board of Australia Council, Bucharest Romania
- "Colonialism, Loss of Land & Our Legal Rights", 1988 Fifth Festival of Pacific Arts, Representative of the Aboriginal National Theatre Trust, Townsville, North Queensland, Australia
- "Indigenous Feature Filmmaking", 1991 World Festival of Indigenous Motion Pictures, Pincher Creek, Canada
- "Indigenous Fimmaking in Australia". 1991 AFC Film Funding Policy Conference, Institute of Cultural Policy, Griffith University, Brisbane, Qld. Australia.
- 1992 Human Rights & Equal Right Commission submission dealing with Australian Film Commission's denial of Equal opportunity in the Australian feature film industry.
- "The Making of an Indigenous Feature Film", 1992 Hawaii International Film Festival, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
- "Aboriginal Films in Focus", The 1993 Writers Festival, Mitchell Library, Sydney, NSW, Australia
- "History of Indigenous Oppression", 1993 Pacific Islanders in Communication, Honolulu, Hawaii
- "Aboriginal Theatre in the 90s - Still Working from the Fringe", 1993 National Playwrights Conference, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia
- "Kicking Down the Doors - A history of Indigenous filmmakers from 1968 - 1993 including non Indigenous films for and about Indigenous people" Sydney, Australia,1996, ISBN 0-646-26594-6 - Co-Author