Stephen Pike, former director of the Q Theatre. Photo: File
A gentle, cheerful man who passionately loved the theatre, Stephen Pike, has died at the age of 69.
In later years, best known for his work developing the Queanbeyan Arts Centre into an energetic and sustainable regional theatre, Stephen had a lengthy career on and off stage as an actor, director, producer and even restauranteur.
Arriving in Canberra as a child, he was educated at Curtin South Primary, Deakin and Woden Valley High Schools. In addition to the theatre, he loved animals, running the Kooinda Boarding Kennels and Cattery at Hall for a decade in the 1970s.
Stephen died on Saturday (29 June) following complications from heart surgery, after a lengthy run of ill health that beset his later career.
Stephen’s commitment to developing local talent and opportunities in the theatre was central to his work, and he loved the drama and excitement of musical theatre.
A tenor, he performed leading roles, including Jean Valjean in the Canberra Philharmonic production of Les Miserables, but he appeared in everything from Calamity Jane to Godspell.
The roles exemplified much about his work. He had a fine sense of what would pack a theatre and was an astute judge of how to walk the line between popular content and high quality.
It was a skill that produced award-winning theatre and made him an outstanding choice at the helm of the Q Theatre, which regularly sold out to Canberra, local and regional crowds during his 13-year tenure.
In 2012, he revived Hair, once the most shocking show on an Australian stage. It was with both pleasure and a little amusement that he accepted the subsequent Canberra Critics Circle Award for his “confident and imaginative direction” at the Q.
I have vivid memories of his mischievous delight in bringing the American “tribal love rock musical” to plain-spoken Queanbeyan and a radio interview in which we debated how he was planning to present the show’s famous nudity.
His nose for viable content also prompted his engagement with that now almost forgotten but once extremely popular Australian concept, the theatre restaurant.
Stephen ran The Bellows as a venue for cabaret and comedy during the mid-80s, Hippo’s Restaurant, and in 1990 opened Tarzan’s Theatre Restaurant, where he took to the stage himself, producing, directing and performing in works that won local critical acclaim. Tarzan’s won Best Theatre Restaurant in the Canberra Area Theatre Awards in 1994, 1995 and 1996.
He was also an accomplished event producer. He directed closing events for the now long-gone Canberra festival and was the artistic director for the 2000 National Christmas Tree and Carols at Parliament House.
Stephen was the business manager for Canberra Rep for six years and enjoyed fostering local talent as it rose to prominence. His successor at the Q, Jordan Best, paid tribute to his commitment to staging her plays and suggesting national and international avenues for her work.
Her work, Playhouse Creatures, went to Monaco and was on a national tour thanks to Stephen’s prompting.
He programmed Canberra playwright Duncan Ley’s The Burning, In Cold Light, and When in Rome for the Q at a relatively early stage in Ley’s career.
Ley was a co-founder of the successful – and significant – Everyman Theatre. Stephen championed their work from inception. The Burning went on to be included in the ACT college curriculum in 2014, while In Cold Light was made into a feature film.
In the theatre, there’s a longstanding Australian way to offer support and wish someone good luck. Many in the Canberra arts community and Australia’s wider theatre world would join in saying “Chookas” to Stephen Pike.
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