Black Swan’s founding artistic director Andrew Ross dies aged 74

Award-winning theatre director Andrew Ross, best known for introducing audiences to much-loved local productions such as Bran Nue Dae and Cloudstreet, has died after a battle with cancer aged 74. Ross was instrumental in bringing stories of Aboriginal people to mainstream theatres in a career spanning more than four decades. The year after successfully staging Jimmy Chi and Kuckles’ Broome-set classic Bran Nue Dae for the 1990 Perth Festival, he founded Black Swan Theatre with chair Janet Holmes a Court, then theatre manager Duncan Ord and arts administrator Will Quekett. During his 12 years as Black Swan’s artistic director, Ross directed many acclaimed home-grown works, including Chi’s follow-up Corrugation Road, adaptations of Randolph Stow’s novels The Merry-Go-Round in the Sea and Tourmaline, as well as Sally Morgan’s Sistergirl and Tim Winton’s Cloudstreet. Ross’ service to WA arts began in 1976, when he was appointed youth director of the National Theatre. He established the Playhouse Theatre in Education Company, which later became Acting Out and Barking Gecko and toured throughout WA — trips that are credited with fostering his deep passion for the State’s stories, landscapes and history. After completing a British Council fellowship in the UK, Ross returned to WA in 1980 and later directed Bran Nue Dae as well as Jack Davis’ seminal works, The Dreamers and No Sugar. His productions have toured around Australia and been to the UK and Canada. After leaving Black Swan in 2003, Ross worked for the Indonesian government and was a board member of the Australia-Indonesia Institute for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade from 2016-19. He also taught and directed at the Victorian College of the Arts and WA Academy of Performing Arts. In 2019, he was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for his contribution to the performing arts industry.

Black Swan’s founding artistic director Andrew Ross dies aged 74

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