Russell Fewster

Lecturer in Performing Arts, University of South Australia
Russell Fewster has directed, written and taught theatre for near 40 years with his work best known in the independent, youth arts and tertiary sectors. He is interested in the healing nature of theatre that addresses societal and health issues. He trained at Ecole Jacques Lecoq and emphasis on physical performance is notable in his work. His stage aesthetic combines projected imagery with live action. He is currently writing, directing and producing an original work based on Christopher Orchard’s paintings for the 2024 Adelaide Fringe, entitled Two of Them.

In 2023 he edited the translation of exiled Iranian Playwright Mammad Aidani ‘s work 'What I said to the Bird' for the 2023 season at La Mamma theatre in Melbourne. His own latest work, 'The Minister for UnAuthorised Arrival's, received a professional playreading in Sydney in early 2023.

Since 2019 and together with colleague Brad West, Russell runs Self@arts a performing arts program delivered to Australian Defence Force personnel undergoing rehabilitation for physical and psychological injuries, in both Darwin and Adelaide. This a short workshop-based program that exposes participants to a variety of theatre based creative expressions and facilitates participants to produce and perform their own original creative work. The aim of program is to broaden and strengthen participants’ self-expression and communication skills, and in doing so enhance mental and emotional well-being. See https://www.unisa.edu.au/unisanews/2019/july/story11/

Other theatre highlights include his adaptation of 'The Glass Rabbit' by Toshiko Takagi – a true story of a survivor of the wartime bombing of Tokyo premiered at the Come Out Festival and toured to Japan (1999). 'Perish The Thought' by Susan Harris Holden Street Theatre a moving stage portrayal of the effects of dementia on family life. (2012). In 2014 he wrote a promenade adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula: 'Nosferatu' which premiered in the Adelaide Cabaret Fringe. In 2015 he directed the opera 'Six Swans' in collaboration with Tutti Arts. In 2018 he wrote and directed 'Earshot' a ballad opera that dramatised the healing nature of WW1 battlefield pilgrimage.

He blends practice with research and has widely published in this area. He lectures in Performing Arts at the University of South Australia.