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Lee Lewis
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Lee Lewis OAM (born 1970) is an Australian theatre director. She has been artistic director of the Griffin Theatre Company in Sydney and the Queensland Theatre Company in Brisbane, and is the winner of a Helpmann Award.
Key Information
Early life and education
[edit]Lee Lewis was born in 1970 in Chicago, Illinois, United States, of an English father and Zimbabwean mother. Her family emigrated to Australia in 1977, after spending six years in Zimbabwe.[1]
Lewis moved to New York to work in theatre,[1] and trained as an actor at Columbia University[2] while working for a brokerage firm.[1]
Returning to Australia, she completed a Masters of Directing at the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney in 2005.[3][4]
Career
[edit]In 2006 Lewis directed a play by New Zealand writer Matthew J. Saville about the Boer War entitled Kikia te Poa, which was performed at the Old Fitzroy Theatre in Sydney.[5][6]
She was appointed artistic director of Sydney's Griffin Theatre Company in 2012.[7]
Lewis was appointed artistic director of the Queensland Theatre Company in 2019, succeeding Sam Strong who was her predecessor at Griffin as well.[8] She resigned from Queensland Theatre in March 2024.[9]
In July 2025, Creative Australia announced funding from the new Creative Futures Fund for the production of Suzie Miller's new play Strong Is the New Pretty, to be delivered by Brisbane Festival in partnership with Sydney Theatre Company and Trish Wadley Productions, directed by Lewis.[10][11]
Awards
[edit]- 2016: Helpmann Award for Best Direction of a Play for Griffin's production of The Bleeding Tree[12]
- 2024: Honorary Medal of the Order of Australia in the 2024 King's Birthday Honours, for service to the performing arts as a theatre director.[13]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c Dow, Steve (19 October 2012). "Fire in the belly". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 9 June 2024.
- ^ "Theatre director Lee Lewis uses Top 100 influential women title to tackle domestic violence on stage". ABC News. 29 September 2015. Retrieved 12 August 2016.
- ^ "Sunday Brunch with Lee Lewis". ABC Sydney. 17 October 2015. Retrieved 12 August 2016.
- ^ All alumni – 2005, National Institute of Dramatic Art
- ^ Dodds, Troy (7 January 2010). "Belvoir kicks off 2010 season - News". AussieTheatre.com. Retrieved 11 August 2022.
- ^ Dunne, Stephen (18 September 2006). "Kikia Te Poa". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 11 August 2022.
- ^ Fulton, Adam. "Diversity a key issue for Griffin's new artistic director". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 12 August 2016.
- ^ "Lee Lewis is Queensland Theatre’s new artistic director" by Phil Brown, The Courier-Mail, 20 September 2019 (subscription required)
- ^ Brown, Phil (18 March 2024). "Shock resignation: Lee Lewis quits as artistic director of Queensland Theatre". InReview. Retrieved 10 June 2024.[permanent dead link]
- ^ "Bold and unexpected: Creative Futures Fund invests in new projects shaping our creative future". IFACCA. 10 July 2025. Retrieved 22 July 2025.
- ^ "Creative Futures Fund 2025". Creative Australia. 11 July 2025. Retrieved 22 July 2025.
- ^ Rugendyke, Louise (25 July 2016). "Helpmann Awards 2016: Matilda the Musical sweeps the board with 13 wins". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 12 August 2016.
- ^ "Ms Lee Lewis [H]". Australian Honours Search Facility. Australian Government. Retrieved 9 June 2024.
External links
[edit]- Lee Lewis at the Internet Off-Broadway Database (archived)
- Lee Lewis at Playbill Vault