Wal Cherry

Who was Wal Cherry?

Wal Cherry was an Australian theatre director, and academic.

As the founder and director of the Emerald Hill Theatre Company in Melbourne, Victoria, Cherry gained a reputation in the early 1960s for innovative programming and bold productions, particularly of Australian plays. Along with George Whaley, he experimented with different acting forms and approaches to theatre. He was also a champion of Bertolt Brecht, both his plays and his contributions to theatre theory.

When Flinders University was set up in Adelaide, South Australia in 1967, Cherry was appointed to the Foundation Chair of Drama, the first such appointment at an Australian university. In its first year, the fledgling Drama Department at Flinders had a staff of only two, but Cherry's energy and high profile drove significant expansion, and by the mid-1970s, the department had over a dozen staff, teaching Drama as both an academic discipline, and as training for professional careers in theatre and film, a unique approach at the time.

When Flinders established its first on-campus student accommodation, the "Hall of Residence", Cherry was appointed Dean, and lived in the Hall.