Geoffrey Rush will open a foyer in his honour at UQ’s Cement Box Theatre tonight – the place where he spent his student days making racy political statements and performing nude.
The Oscar and Golden Globe winner, who grew up in Toowoomba, has starred in several blockbusters such as Ned Kelly, Finding Nemo, Shine, Pirates of the Caribbean and Shakespeare in Love.
Rush is in Brisbane to receive the Chauvel Award, the major award at the Brisbane International Film Festival and to promote his latest movie, The Life and Death of Peter Sellers.
As a UQ Bachelor of Arts student 30 years ago, Rush said it was an exciting time, opening UQ’s Schonell Theatre when the Brisbane theatrical scene was evolving.
“I’m flat out remembering how I had time to study because I spent a huge section of each year involved in the rehearsing and creating of these pieces,” Rush said.
“The Schonell Theatre was built so that provided a whole new set of physical values that we had to try and match.
“We opened the Schonell with a massive production. I mean it had film projections, something like a 20-piece orchestra in the pit.”
That production, Bacchoi, grabbed front-page headlines for its nudity but Rush would perform nude in 1971, in I Hear What You Say.
The revue was named after a catch phrase from the then Vice Chancellor Sir Zelman Cowan.
“I did one sketch where I used to go on and say: ‘This is a student revue. You’re undoubtedly expecting a nude scene’, and just took my gear off and walked off.
“It was a quite a good black out gag.”
It was this production which impressed Queensland Theatre Company’s founding artistic director Alan Edwards.
“Alan Edwards saw me in that production who then invited me into the Queensland Theatre Company as soon as I finished my exams I went straight into a professional life.
“And I liked to think he thought I had a big future in front of me.”
He believed The Cement Box hosted the first Hamlet on Ice performance and he thanked his lecturer Dr Bob Jordan for his love of drama.
“He just invested a great passion for the history of drama from late 19th Century up until a bit of a boom time really.
“He looked and sounded like George Martin. We felt we were being mentored by somebody who ran The Beatles.”
The Geoffrey Rush Foyer is part of a $6 million facelift of the Schonell Theatre.
Schonell Theatre cinema administrator Eddy Garcia-Grant said the foyer had been revamped with a polished concrete floor, $15,000 of new furniture including lounges and bar tables and repainted walls.
New toilets, a lift and new entrance will also be added to The Cement Box, which is under the Schonell Theatre.
Rush received a UQ honorary doctorate in 1997 and was the Alumnus of the Year in 1998.
He is the guest of honour at the foyer opening, which starts at 5.30pm at The Cement Box.
For more information contact The Schonell Theatre (phone: 3377 2229, email: schonell@uq.edu.au) or Miguel Holland at UQ Communications (phone: 3365 2619, email: m.holland@uq.edu.au)
