Cherished Newcastle actor, director and musician Rod Ansell sadly passed away on June 26 at the age of 70.
Theatre practitioner and Tantrum Youth Arts founder Barney Langford described him as a "theatrical force of nature".
Ansell and his wife, Jackie, ran Flying Teapot Theatre throughout the 1990s and into the mid-2000s. They produced a large number of local productions, as well as significant theatre work across Newcastle and regional Australia.
Ansell was a major contributor to Newcastle's arts scene and was loved by the people who worked with him. He appeared in major films, advertisements and local productions.
He was also a singer, played the saxophone and harmonica, and performed in many rock, blues and roots bands.
According to his stepson, Louis Thorn, Ansell kept his music pursuits alive up until recently. Thorn, his sister Brigette, and Ansell's niece Tara will speak at his memorial at the Civic Playhouse at 2pm on Sunday, August 16. Other speakers will include Langford, playwright and director Carl Caulfield, actor Claire Williams, and theatre and music collaborator Derek Dowding.
Australian playwright David Williamson worked with Ansell, too, and he regarded him as "a driving force in theatre in the Hunter Valley, performing many memorable roles".
Caulfield met Ansell in 1994 at the Mission Theatre on Newcastle's King Street, which is now Bartholomew's.
"I was putting a play on at the Mission; it was the first play I'd produced in Newcastle," Caulfield says.
"I was looking for actors, and I got some of my cast together and people were saying 'The guy you've got to get is Rod Ansell'. He was almost like a mythical character; if you could get Rod Ansell you were in a very strong position.
"He came to a reading of my play and, luckily for me, he really loved the play and ended up being a big supporter of my work."
When Caulfield first met Ansell he reminded him of Australia's version of Rik Mayall. He had "terrific physicality".
"Rod had all the gifts; he had this wonderful, classical look," Caulfield says.
"He had a wonderful voice for theatre, very clear, he could do the classics and contemporary Aussie, he had a wide range of characters."
He recalls Ansell playing various instruments in different plays, always jumping on an opportunity to incorporate music.
Langford met Ansell in the early 1970s. When he thinks of Ansell he thinks of determination and commitment.
"He never did things in half measures, he always committed to things," Langford says.
He remembers how Ansell was enthused by the work of playwright Jim McNeil, who was sentenced to 17 years in Parramatta Gaol. McNeil, through a prison program, discovered drama and theatre and wrote a number of plays.
"Rod's commitment was that, having seen them in Sydney, it was absolutely essential that he put on a production in Newcastle. Newcastle demanded to see these plays," Langford says.
"That was the kind of commitment he had to his work and his art. If something was worth doing, it wasn't just worth doing well, it was worth doing the f---ng best you could do."
Langford referenced the absurdist tragicomedy Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard. The play touches on how an exit from our lives by someone is an entrance into another performance somewhere else.
"Rod and I had exits and entrances into each other's lives over the 50-odd years that we knew each other, and Rod was a great supporter," he says.
Caulfield said he and Ansell had "a great period of time working together" but sadly lost touch.
"I sort of regret that now," he says.
"Of course it hit me like a hammer when I heard that he was gone, and then you become aware of the legacy. Newcastle theatre is doing quite well now, it's quite strong. He was around when there were leaner times; I see him as a pioneer."
Caulfield's play The Whisper is currently on at Civic Playhouse, and he says he has no doubt that Ansell will be with them during the performances.
