John Tasker (theatre director)


John Tasker was an Australian theatre director.
He was born in Newcastle, New South Wales and educated at Newcastle Boys’ High School. Travelling to Europe at age 18, he studied at the Central School of Speech Training and Dramatic Art and teaching at the University of London.
He was at one time the lover of the English author, journalist, and broadcaster Colin Spencer. They met in Brighton in 1957, when both were 24 years old. Their off-and-on two-year relationship dramatically changed when Spencer married archaeologist Gillian Chapman in October 1959. Returning to Australia, Tasker became a theatre director, and died of cancer in 1988. Tasker had arranged for his letters to be returned to Spencer. Upon re-reading them, Spencer published his book Which of Us Two as a form of atonement.
Patrick White chose Tasker to produce the play The Ham Funeral for the . White's life partner Manoly Lascaris acknowledged Tasker as the 'virus' that re-infected White with the excitement of theatre., The Sydney Theatre Critics' Circle named their annual award for best freelance director after him.

Theatre productions

:

1961 - The Break

1961 - The Ham Funeral, by Patrick White

1962 - The Good Woman of Setzuan, by Bertolt Brecht

1962 - The Season at Sarsaparilla, by Patrick White

1963 - Oedipus Rex, by Sophocles

1964 - Night on Bald Mountain, by Patrick White

1965 - The Representative, by Rolf Hochhuth

1965 - Inadmissible Evidence, by

1968 - America Hurrah, by Van Itallie

1968 - The Boys in the Band, by Mart Crowley

1969 - Candy Stripe Balloon, revue starring Grahame Bond

1977 - Don't Piddle against the Wind, Mate, by Kenneth Ross

1978 - The Cassidy Album.

1979 - Rusty Bugles, by Sumner Locke Elliott

1981 - The Workroom, by Tom Kempinski

1982 - The Samseng and The Chettiars’ Daughter

1982 - Duet for One, by Tom Kempinski

1983 - Caravan, by Donald Macdonald

1986 - Absurd Person Singular, by Alan Ayckbourn

1987 - As Is, by William Hoffman

Opera productions

1974 The Excursions of Mr Broucek Adelaide Festival Theatre - New Opera
1976 - The Consul

1979 - La Belle Hélène