Dr Margaret Leask

You Never Know Where Stories Will Take You: the joys of research, discovery, connections and insight, and the constant question of ‘why are there never enough hours in the day?’!

Dr Margaret Leask is an oral historian specialising in the performing arts. Her great grandfather was the map publisher HEC Robinson, a long-time friend of actress Nellie Stewart, and whose son and daughter were actors in Australia and America. After studying Drama at UNSW, Margaret worked in arts administration in London and Sydney. Since 2004, Margaret has recorded oral history interviews for NIDA, the Sydney Theatre Company, NFSA, City of Sydney, the National Library of Australia and State Library of NSW and many other organisations and individuals.

She is the author of Lena Ashwell: actress, patriot, pioneer (University of Hertfordshire Press/Society for Theatre Research, 2012), which was shortlisted for the Theatre Book Prize in London in 2013. She has written entries for the Australian Dictionary of Biography, obituaries for the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age and Sydney theatre reviews for Plays International. She has had papers published in Theatre Notebook and the Oral History Association of Australia’s OHAA Journal. She holds a PhD in English from the University of Sydney. In 2021 the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust published Warwick Ross: Making Music and the Role of the AETT in the Musical Life of Australia for more than 50 years. This is based on an extended oral history interview researched, recorded, edited and annotated by Margaret. She has been an avid researcher for as long as she can remember and has been a member of Theatre Heritage for quite a while!

All are welcome. Entry is free, however bookings are required.

Theatre Heritage Australia in partnership with Seaborn, Broughton & Walford Foundation presents

Dr. Margaret Leask

2.30pm, Sunday 16 July 2023

Seaborn, Broughton & Walford Foundation | Suite 10, 20 Young Street Neutral Bay NSW

Bookings: (02) 9955 5444