Betty Burstall AM

Betty Burstall AM (1926–2013) played a vital role in the development of theatre in Australia. Born in Queensland and raised in Melbourne, she commenced an Arts degree at the University of Melbourne in the 1940s, but was expelled on becoming pregnant to her boyfriend, Tim Burstall, later to become an influential filmmaker. They married in 1946 and shortly afterwards moved to Eltham, north-east of Melbourne where Betty worked at the local high school as a French and English teacher. In 1967, she founded La Mama in Carlton, an independent theatre modeled on the original off-Broadway theatre in New York, where she lived in the mid-1960s. Local actors, writers, directors, poets and musicians were encouraged to use the space for innovative, small-scale productions, thus providing an outlet for groundbreaking Australian theatre and fostering writers like David Williamson, Jack Hibberd and Tes Lyssiotis. Current artistic director Liz Jones took over in the 1970s and La Mama still exists today. Following Burstall's death aged eighty-seven in June 2013, a group of Australian writers donated funds toward the establishment of the Betty Burstall Commission, which was awarded to emerging playwright Michele Lee.