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ARTLOOK #7 | December / January 2004/2005
Photo 'Pling
Profile: Julie McElhone Hayes
Christa de Jager talks to the recently appointed manager of the Canberra Repertory Theatre and finds her enthusiasm contagious
JULIE MCELHONE HAYES HAS recently taken on the mighty task of managing the Canberra Repertory Theatre. When Stephen Pike handed in his resignation earlier this year; McElhone Hayes was undoubtedly a strong contender for the job, having a history with Theatre 3. She served as assistant to Evol McLeod, a previous Rep manager from 1986–1993, before moving on to do a spot in the Music Theatre Journey at the Actor's Centre in Sydney as part-time night administrator. This experience stood her in good stead when she applied for the managerial position at, in her words, 'This successful, exciting, historically rich, well-structured community theatre company.'
Her enthusiasm for the job is clear and contagious. This former B.Mus student in classical voice, at the Canberra School of Music, is as adept on stage as off. Audiences will know that she is almost as much part of Rep's The Old Time Music Hall as Russell Brown or Rosemary Hyde. Audiences may also remember her in Rep productions of She Stoops to Conquer (Kate Hardcastle), Under Milk Wood (Polly Garter), The Maids (Solange/director), Sunny South, Black Comedy (twice) and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, for which she won the Best Actor trophy in1990.
McElhone Hayes admits that she can't recall a magical moment at age three when she just knew that theatre was her destiny, but she did audio tape musicals from the TV and then replayed them in her room, miming all the parts. A favourite was West Side Story, in which she ended up performing, in 1993. According to McElhone Hayes it felt like she'd been practicing for it her whole life, and when director Tessa Bremner asked her to improvise a dance routine at the audition, 'I just jumped into the moves I'd developed in my bedroom.'
Rep is one of the few theatres that seems able, amidst a lot of other competing theatre activities, to draw in the audiences. Due to financial constraints, theatres are often forced to overlook plays with big casts or elaborate costumes and sets. McElhone Hayes has always been a big fan of the large ensemble production. She blames it on her Marxist leanings and says it goes against her grain to do a play with a small cast. She is quick to acknowledge the constraints, but she won't give up on finding a way. But it is not just the choice of plays that makes Rep so successful, it is the people. Rep has grown up with Canberra. There are members with memories of their parents leaving the house for an evening at Rep during the fifties (at the Riverside Theatre in Barton).
Rep belongs to Canberra and its theatre goers and we have a strong sense of that ownership. And that, according to McElhone Hayes, is the winning recipe. 'Any company can do it. You just have to have been in the community for 72 years. Rep will always survive when there are people still in love with her (and yes, Rep is a 'her'!)'.
Christa de Jager is artlook’s contributing editor for theatre.
