Scott Rankin


Scott Rankin is an Australian theatre director, writer and co-founder and Creative Director of the arts and social change company Big hART
. He works in and with isolated communities and diverse cultural settings, as well as in commercial performance.

Background

Rankin grew up in Sydney. His parents owned an early learning specialist toyshop, and the family lived cheaply on a Chinese junk moored on Sydney Harbour for 21 years, cleverly evading the authorities. He enrolled in an Arts degree, but did not complete it, instead working in a retirement village and offering music workshops to homeless youth. Rankin has two older sisters and is married to visual artist Rebecca Lavis. They have three children. Since 1981, he has mainly lived and worked from the far north-west coast of Tasmania, with periods in Sydney.

Work

As creative director of Big hART and as playwright and director, Scott Rankin has created or collaborated on many large-scale Australian stage productions: Namatjira for the Namatjira family;Ngapartji Ngapartji for Trevor Jamieson, Box the pony for Leah Purcell,; RiverlanD for Wesley Enoch; StickybrickS for the Northcott Public Housing community in Surrey Hills, Sydney; Junk Theory for the Sutherland Shire, as well as internationally touring works such as Certified Male. Rankin's work has made a significant long-term contribution to contemporary Australian theatre, as well as under the umbrella of Big hART, providing new ideas for community cultural development practice in disadvantaged communities.

Recognition

Scott Rankin and his theatre works have received many awards:
His works have been included in many arts festivals in i.e. Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane, Sydney, Edinburgh and the Tasmanian Ten Days on the Island Festival and toured to Sweden, Iceland, Ireland, Scotland, England, South Africa, New Zealand, Germany and the Netherlands.

List of Works

List of Rankin's works :