Theatre director, arts aficionado and cultural leader David Berthold is in the middle of an incredibly successful, flourishing career.
David is not short in experience: he has directed for most of Australia's major theatre companies, including Sydney Theatre Company, Griffin Theatre Company, Queensland Theatre Company, and La Boite Theatre Company.
After a fruitful run in his soon-to-conclude tenure as Artistic Director of Brisbane Festival, David is looking to the future as he wraps his fifth and final year.
“The growth has been explosive,” David says, reflecting on his time as AD.
“We broke our box office records in 2017, then last year as early as day seven of the 22-day festival we broke that record again, which was pretty astounding. This year we broke it before the festival even began.
“We've sold more tickets than ever before, but by a very, very long way. Who knows where we'll end up!”
David is incredibly proud of the sheer breadth of accessible work throughout the festival. There are in excess of 400 performances of 83 shows, involving more than 900 artists from around the world.
The 2019 programme has been arranged into three themes: Revels, Revelations and Romances. David believes the power of a festival lies in its ability to introduce audiences to a range of ideas and productions from either end of a very large spectrum.
“[Festivals are] meant to be bringing the best of new things from around the world and also a lot of the small work, things like Theatre Republic, particularly the queer work is in no way commercial and in no way mainstream. That's one of the invigorating things about seeing it in a festival.
Brisbane Festival
“Most of the big shows are at the leading edge of stuff you would never say is mainstream, or commercial either.”
While Brisbane Festival brings the city to life for a vibrant, explosive few weeks each year and draws more than a million visitors time after time, David still believes there's room for improvement in the local arts realm.
“I think one of the things that needs work [in Brisbane] is the grass roots and the middle part of the arts and cultural scene here. It's a very top-heavy culture, there are a lot of the major, state organisations, which all do tremendous work and are all very strong, but underneath them, there's a lot of structural weakness, so I think that's something that needs to be addressed.”
Reflecting on his life's adventures to date, David is satisfied with the mark he's left, and is keen for the next chapter.
“I think I've made a difference in the organisations that I've led. I put Brisbane Festival in that but I think also during my leadership time at La Boite and at Griffin Theatre Company, for example, and before that at the Australian Theatre For Young People.
“I was able to make a genuine difference to the health and reach of those organisations and so I'm very pleased about that and very pleased to be leaving Brisbane Festival in such a fine shape in terms of the quality of the work, the reach of the work, and how it connects with the audience, and with the international audience as well.”
“I've spent my life in organisations so maybe there'll be an organisation that will pop up at some point, but for the moment I'm quite content to do a bit of travelling and recharge my batteries a bit. I'm heading to Israel directly after the festival, which I'm looking forward to.”
