Sally Richardson is determined to showcase Australian performances to as wide an audience as possible.
SALLY Richardson has made a career out of telling other people’s stories but it took the opportunity of a lifetime to make her realise how deeply rooted her own story was in Australian culture.
As general manager of Australia’s largest indigenous theatre company, Yirra Yaakin, Ms Richardson has just overseen the sell-out season of ‘Waltzing the Wilarra’ in Perth.
Ms Richardson was the dramaturg for the production, which was written and composed by David Milroy, a role she describes as akin to a script editor for a film.
The success of this musical set in a jazz club in segregated 1940s Perth has led to it being picked up by national production company Performing Lines, which will produce the show for audiences in Brisbane, Sydney and Adelaide.
It’s a major coup for Yirra Yaakin to have produced such a large-scale work, and an experience Ms Richardson said pushed the entire company to a new level.
“For a small- to medium-sized company like Yirra Yaakin this was the largest work ever undertaken,” Ms Richardson says.
“Everyone learned new skills and has a much more expanded palate from marketing to education ... everybody grows.’’
Ms Richardson joined Yirra Yaakin in late 2009, however her association with the company – through her business Steamworks Arts Productions – stretches back more than 15 years.
Steamworks was born of her frustration at the lack of opportunities for female directors in Australia and a way Ms Richardson says she could “write her own opportunities.”
Established in 2001, this collective of artists from across the disciplines has produced a number of highly acclaimed and original works, including Ms Richardson’s ‘The Drovers Wives’, which travelled to China.
Steamworks is emblematic of the tenacity that has underpinned Ms Richardson’s career and her commitment to the arts.
The journey has not been without its sacrifices and Ms Richardson admitted there were some lean years, especially when she was combining a career with raising a family of four boys.
But it was the opportunity to pursue her dream job that put Ms Richardson’s connection with Australian culture in sharp focus.
Ms Richardson had long harboured dreams of working for Cirque du Soleil and she jumped at the opportunity to join this internationally renowned group when she had the chance.
In one of the final interviews, one of the Cirque du Soleil staff asked her if she would miss making original Australian works and it hit her “right between the eyes.”
“And when they made the offer I turned it down,” Ms Richardson says.
“I realised I had spent 20 years of my life being part of creating our culture. I thought that was what I wanted to do and actually it may be harder to do what I am doing and it may not make as much money, but it matters.
“And I see that with my children who have grown up in and around theatres ... and I have seen how it has impacted on them.
“I have boys and they are really creative, expressive and independent.”
This deep connection and belief in the transformative power of culture and creativity has been at the heart of everything that Ms Richardson has done with her career.
While many of her contemporaries pursued white-collar professions and steady incomes, Ms Richardson remained true to her passion for the arts.
Her career has traversed almost every sector of the performing arts, and given her the opportunity to nurture new talent as well as new audiences around the country and the world.
It’s the determination she has brought to everything she has done, including forging strong bonds with the business community.
‘Waltzing the Wilarra’ required considerable corporate support from Perth’s business community, which Ms Richardson says has become increasingly engaged with the arts.
“I think the arts and business have a lot to offer each other, they both respect innovation and creativity,” Ms Richardson told WA Business News.
“It’s been really exciting to see over the last few years a real shift in the relationship between the business sector and the arts.
“I feel like there is a real excitement and willingness to negotiate new ways of being partners ... it’s not just about signing cheques.”
Steamworks partnered with Woodside for Live @ Woodside in 2010, a showcase for emerging artists from across the creative spectrum, including performing arts, design, lighting, management and production.
Ms Richardson says it was a good opportunity to connect new audiences with new performers in the Woodside Building foyers and plaza as well as demonstrate how city spaces could be energised by performance.
Similarly, she says the level of interest from the corporate sector in indigenous culture revealed the power of the arts to connect and enrich communities.
Despite the success of ‘Waltzing the Wilarra’, Yirra Yaakin faces an uncertain future in the city, with the lease on its Murray Street premises running out at the end of this year.
Ms Richardson says the company has been working with the Department of Culture and the Arts to find a new home but it is hard work to secure the right space at the right price.
At just 44, Ms Richardson has a long career in front of her as well as the energy to share those untold Australian stories.
“For me it’s about making meaningful work, for me it needs to matter, which is why I am very driven to make new work and Australian work, it’s about who we are and what we want to be and where we are going.”