John Tasker (theatre director)
Encyclopedia
John Tasker 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. Tasker went to Australia where he 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 University of Adelaide Theatre Guild (premiere in Union Hall in 1961). 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.
1961 - The Break
1961 - The Ham Funeral, by Patrick White (Union Hall)
1962 - The Good Woman of Setzuan, by Bertolt Brecht (Union Hall)
1962 - The Season at Sarsaparilla, by Patrick White (Union Hall)
1963 - Oedipus Rex, by Sophocles (Union Hall)
1964 - Night on Bald Mountain, by Patrick White (Union Hall)
1965 - The Representative
, by Rolf Hochhuth
(Union Hall)
1965 - Inadmissible Evidence, by
1968 - America Hurrah!, by Van Itallie (New Theatre)
1968 - The Boys in the Band, by Mart Crowley (the Playbox)
1969 - Candy Stripe Balloon, revue starring Grahame Bond (Phillip Theatre)
1977 - Don't Piddle against the Wind, Mate, by Kenneth Ross (Jane Street Theater
)
1978 - The Cassidy Album. (York Theatre)
1979 - Rusty Bugles, by Sumner Locke Elliott (New Theatre)
1981 - The Workroom, by Tom Kempinski (New Theatre)
1982 - The Samseng and The Chettiars’ Daughter (Singapore)
1982 - Duet for One, by Tom Kempinski (Marian Street)
1983 - Caravan, by Donald Macdonald (Marian Street)
1986 - Absurd Person Singular, by Alan Ayckbourn (Northside)
1987 - As Is, by William Hoffman (Seymour Downstairs)
Colin Spencer
Colin Spencer is an English writer and artist who has produced a prolific body of work in a wide variety of mediums since his first published short stories and drawings appeared in The London Magazine and Encounter when he was 22...
. They met in Brighton
Brighton
Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...
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. Tasker went to Australia where he 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
Patrick White
Patrick Victor Martindale White , an Australian author, is widely regarded as an important English-language novelist of the 20th century. From 1935 until his death, he published 12 novels, two short-story collections and eight plays.White's fiction employs humour, florid prose, shifting narrative...
chose Tasker to produce the play The Ham Funeral for the University of Adelaide Theatre Guild (premiere in Union Hall in 1961). White's life partner
Life partner
A life partner is a romantic or otherwise very close friend for life. The partners can be of the same or opposite sexes, married or unmarried, and monogamous or polyamorous....
Manoly Lascaris
Manoly Lascaris
Emmanuel George "Manoly" Lascaris was the life partner of the Australian novelist and dramatist Patrick White. Lascaris was born in Cairo in 1912, the son of an American woman and her wealthy Greek-Egyptian husband. Lascaris met White while they both were servicemen in the Second World War...
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
(incomplete list):1961 - The Break
1961 - The Ham Funeral, by Patrick White (Union Hall)
1962 - The Good Woman of Setzuan, by Bertolt Brecht (Union Hall)
1962 - The Season at Sarsaparilla, by Patrick White (Union Hall)
1963 - Oedipus Rex, by Sophocles (Union Hall)
1964 - Night on Bald Mountain, by Patrick White (Union Hall)
1965 - The Representative
The Deputy
The Deputy, a Christian tragedy , also known as The Representative, is a controversial 1963 play by Rolf Hochhuth which indicts Pope Pius XII for his failure to take action or speak out against The Holocaust. It has been translated into more than twenty languages...
, by Rolf Hochhuth
Rolf Hochhuth
Rolf Hochhuth is a German author and playwright. He is best known for his 1963 drama The Deputy and remains a controversial figure for his plays and other public comments, such as his insinuation of Pope Pius XII's sympathies for Hitler's extermination of the Jews in the 1963 play The Deputy and...
(Union Hall)
1965 - Inadmissible Evidence, by
1968 - America Hurrah!, by Van Itallie (New Theatre)
1968 - The Boys in the Band, by Mart Crowley (the Playbox)
1969 - Candy Stripe Balloon, revue starring Grahame Bond (Phillip Theatre)
1977 - Don't Piddle against the Wind, Mate, by Kenneth Ross (Jane Street Theater
Jane Street Theater
The Jane is a boutique hotel located at 505-507 West Street, with its main entrance at 113 Jane Street in the West Village section of the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City....
)
1978 - The Cassidy Album. (York Theatre)
1979 - Rusty Bugles, by Sumner Locke Elliott (New Theatre)
1981 - The Workroom, by Tom Kempinski (New Theatre)
1982 - The Samseng and The Chettiars’ Daughter (Singapore)
1982 - Duet for One, by Tom Kempinski (Marian Street)
1983 - Caravan, by Donald Macdonald (Marian Street)
1986 - Absurd Person Singular, by Alan Ayckbourn (Northside)
1987 - As Is, by William Hoffman (Seymour Downstairs)