Visionary arts leader John Clark, who led the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) for 35 years and shaped it into the powerhouse institution it is today, has died aged 93.
Born in Hobart on October 30, 1932, Clark was educated at the University of Tasmania, where, an obituary on the NIDA website recounts, he became involved with the Old Nick Theatre, eventually going on to study at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in the UK.
John Clark in 2003 with a history of NIDA, the year before he retired. Jane Dyson There, he designed sets for the initial production of Harold Pinter’s first play, The Room. He also met his future wife, Henrietta Hartley, who would go on to become a TV producer, working on ABC Television’s Play School.
Clark returned to Hobart with Henrietta in 1959 and directed a Hobart Repertory Theatre Society production of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman – a job that would change their lives.
The play made such a splash that the ABC, Melbourne Theatre Company and NIDA – which was founded in 1958 and began enrolling students the following year – all attempted to recruit him. Clark accepted an offer from Robert Quentin, one of the founders of the new institu
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