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Eilis at the start of the Federation Parade
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In 1978 I was a Stage Manager at the Q Theatre in Penrith. I well remember the then 15-year-old Eilis O’Beirne who came to the Q with a resolute desire to commence a career in theatre. She participated in the acting workshops ran by the Q and the following year appeared in the rock musical “Paradise Regained”. While at the Q Eilis also set about learning the mechanics of theatre including lighting, sound, staging, design and stage management all under the eye of Arthur Dicks, the former head of design at NIDA.
Eilis left the Q in the early eighties and trained in costume and design at the Nimrod Theatre, Sydney Theatre Co and Randwick Technical College. After several years of working in specialised costuming for film, theatre and television Eilis chose to pursue a career in theatre making and went on to become a graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts, Drama School in Theatre Directing.
Eilis' theatre experience includes the Irish and Australian Tour of Dancing at Lughnasa with the Abbey Theatre Company of Ireland. Various productions and education programs with the Melbourne Theatre Company, the World Conference on Television and Children for the Australian Children's Television Foundation and she toured six countries with Circus OZ.
For over two and a half years she was the Director of the St Kilda Festival for the City of Port Phillip, also responsible many major arts projects and seven major community and traders festivals including the St Kilda Film Festival.
Eilis moved back to Sydney to work for Lehman and Associates on corporate events and the NSW Seniors Week program.
Two years ago Eilis was appointed to be the Creative Manager for The Federation Parade. This role involved developing the concepts of the parade into a cohesive story.
Prior to the Federation Parade I asked Eilis for the high points of her Parade experience, she pointed to her writing experiences, the research she undertook in preparing for the parade and working with such creative and fabulous designers.
As part of her research for the Federation Parade, Eilis went to Trinidad to work on Carnival with Peter Minshall. Minshall designed the Opening Ceremony of the Barcelona Olympics and was Artistic Director of the Opening and closing ceremonies at Atlanta.
Carnival is a festivity that spans four days which Eilis described as “wilder than Rio; where everyone takes off their clothes and paints their bodies blue and then dances around. They work in mass – blocks of colour.”
On the day of the Parade I caught up with Eilis as she prepared for it to set off. I was impressed by the way she moved through the participants, saying hello to as many as she could. Her attention to detail was acute, as one would expect from someone in that position. But what stuck me most was the rapport she had with the performers, designers and crew, whether she had been working with them for months or had just met them.
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