Scotch College

Scotch in the arts

Coldwell still hot

As a founding member and former artistic director of Circus Oz, Tim Coldwell ('69) has taken the odd tumble. As he recalls: "I was performing a show in Castlemaine and was hand-balancing on a tower of seven chairs on a table. At first, the weather seemed fine, but suddenly there was a gust of wind, and the chairs fell down, including me." Tim dropped about eight metres to the ground, shattering his heel-bone, and took his curtain-call from the back of an ambulance. After drama studies at Flinders University and touring with Ashton's Circus, Circus Royale and New Circus, he helped to create Circus Oz, which recently celebrated its 21st birthday. Tim has no plans to stop performing, provided his heels hold up - even upside down!

Chris Warner

Last seen on a Scotch stage poncing about as a dotty uncle in the 1968 Scotch-St Catherine's play An Italian Straw Hat, Chris Warner ('68) abandoned university studies in pure mathematics to become a graphic artist. In 1979 he teamed with Maureen McCarthy (now his wife) to form Trout Films, which has won international awards in drama and documentary. In Between was the first major multicultural drama production by SBS; the six-hour mini-series The Magistrate starred Franco Nero; and the ABC-TV mini-series Queen Kat, Carmel & St Jude (based on Maureen's bestselling novel of the same name) rated highly with critics and a national audience of over one million. Other Old Boys involved in the film industry are Chris Fitchett ('68), Gordon Glenn ('65), David Taft ('67), Michael Nicholson ('72) and

Mike Rubbo ('56), who contributed a charming study of violin-making in Australia to the ABC's Australian Story series. Mike's brother Mark ('66) runs Readings bookstores in Carlton, Hawthorn and Malvern.

Whistle Down The Wind

From the point of view of a slightly biased audience member, the Scotch-St Catherine's musical Whistle Down the Wind was a triumph. In purely musical terms, this was one of the most ambitious and demanding productions ever attempted by an Australian school, and prolonged applause from three full houses confirmed that the large cast and orchestra (expertly directed by Stephen Ritchie and John Ferguson) were more than up to the challenge. The limitations of the Stonnington Theatre only served to highlight the need for The James Forbes Academy, and whetted the appetite for the even greater heights to which Scotch's actors, musicians and backstage crew will be able to achieve in a few years' time. In the meantime, bravo!

Finally, belated sympathies to Stuart Purves ('62) and family on the sudden loss of Stuart's mother Anne earlier this year. A major and influential figure in the visual arts for more than 40 years, she founded Australian Galleries with her husband in 1956 and devoted her professional life to nurturing and fostering the careers of hundreds of artists, including Nolan, Tucker, Smart, Boyd, Whiteley, Lanceley and Perceval. Among the hundreds of tributes received by Australian Galleries (in which Stuart has been involved for 30 years) was Jeffrey Smart's: "Anne's death heralds the end of an era. She is irreplaceable and ... will be missed by artists of all ages". Her OAM was conferred in the Queen's Birthday honours.

Campbell McComas