Robyn Archer (born Robyn Smith), AO, CdOAL born in 1948 in Prospect South Australia is an Australian singer, writer, stage director, artistic director, and public advocate of the arts, in Australia and internationally. She began singing at the age of four years and singing professionally from the age of 12 years, everything from folk and pop and graduating to blues, rock, jazz and cabaret. She graduated from Adelaide University and immediately took up a full-time singing career. Archer has a Bachelor of Arts (Honours English) and Diploma of Education from Adelaide University. She was first heard on record singing lead vocals on Headband's 1971 single ''Waltzing Matilda / You Scratch My Back And I'll Scratch Yours''.
In 1974 Archer sang Annie I in the Australian premiere of Brecht/Weill's The Seven Deadly Sins to open The Space of the Adelaide Festival Centre. She subsequently played Jenny in Kurt Weill's Threepenny Opera for New Opera South Australia where she met English translator and editor John Willett. Since then her name has been linked particularly with the German cabaret songs of Weill, Eisler, and Paul Dessau and others from the Weimar Republic, a repertoire which Willett guided her to.
She signed with Larrikin Records and released two albums,' Take Your Partners For... The Ladies Choice' and 'The Wild Girl In The Heart'. Her one-woman cabaret A Star is Torn (1979) covering various female singers including Billie Holiday and her 1981 show The Pack of Women both became successful books and recordings, the latter also being produced for television in 1986. She played A Star is Torn throughout Australia from 1979 to 1983, and for a year at Wyndham's Theatre in London's West End. Archer has continued to sing a wide-ranging repertoire and in 2008/2009 gave a series of concerts including iprotest! (with Paul Grabowsky) and separate German and French concerts with Michael Morley. All were sell-outs and critically acclaimed.
Robyn has written and devised many works for the stage from The Conquest of Carmen Miranda to Songs From Sideshow Alley and Cafe Fledermaus (directed by Barrie Kosky to open the Merlyn Theatre at the Malthouse in Melbourne). In 1989 she was commissioned to write a new opera, Mambo, for the Nexus Opera, London. In 2008 her play Architektin premiered in Adelaide and in 2009 she devised the Tough Nut Cabaret for a production in Pittsburgh, USA.
Robyn Archer is also a director of arts festivals in Australia and overseas. Her career took this turn accidentally, with an invitation while she was performing her show Le Chat Noir in Canberra to direct the National Festival of Australian Theatre which was hosted by the national capital. She directed the 1993, 1994 and 1995 editions and this began a string of Artistic Director positions at the Adelaide Festival of Arts (1998 and 2000), the Melbourne International Arts Festival (2002–2004). She created Ten Days on the Island, an international arts festival for Tasmania, spent two years as Artistic Director of the European Capital of Culture, and advised on the start-up of Luminato in Toronto. In 2007 she created The Light in Winter for Federation Square in Melbourne and in July 2009 was appointed Creative Director of the Centenary of Canberra 2013.
She is in frequent demand as a speaker and public advocate of the arts all over the world, and her Wal Cherry and Manning Clark Memorial Lectures in 2008/2009 have increased that status. She was a commentator at the inaugural broadcast Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras for the ABC, Australia. She has been a television guest on The Michael Parkinson Show, Clive James at Home, Good News Week (ABC); Adelaide Festival 1998 (ABC National three-part series), the David Frost New Year Special, The Midday Show, Tonight Live, Review, Dateline, Denton, and Express. On 1 April 2016 Robyn Archer AO was inducted into the South Australian Music Hall of Fame.
Robyn has written and devised many works for the stage from The Conquest of Carmen Miranda to Songs From Sideshow Alley and Cafe Fledermaus (directed by Barrie Kosky to open the Merlyn Theatre at the Malthouse in Melbourne). In 1989 she was commissioned to write a new opera, Mambo, for the Nexus Opera, London. In 2008 her play Architektin premiered in Adelaide and in 2009 she devised the Tough Nut Cabaret for a production in Pittsburgh, USA.
Robyn Archer is also a director of arts festivals in Australia and overseas. Her career took this turn accidentally, with an invitation while she was performing her show Le Chat Noir in Canberra to direct the National Festival of Australian Theatre which was hosted by the national capital. She directed the 1993, 1994 and 1995 editions and this began a string of Artistic Director positions at the Adelaide Festival of Arts (1998 and 2000), the Melbourne International Arts Festival (2002–2004). She created Ten Days on the Island, an international arts festival for Tasmania, spent two years as Artistic Director of the European Capital of Culture, and advised on the start-up of Luminato in Toronto. In 2007 she created The Light in Winter for Federation Square in Melbourne and in July 2009 was appointed Creative Director of the Centenary of Canberra 2013.
She is in frequent demand as a speaker and public advocate of the arts all over the world, and her Wal Cherry and Manning Clark Memorial Lectures in 2008/2009 have increased that status. She was a commentator at the inaugural broadcast Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras for the ABC, Australia. She has been a television guest on The Michael Parkinson Show, Clive James at Home, Good News Week (ABC); Adelaide Festival 1998 (ABC National three-part series), the David Frost New Year Special, The Midday Show, Tonight Live, Review, Dateline, Denton, and Express. On 1 April 2016 Robyn Archer AO was inducted into the South Australian Music Hall of Fame.
SINGLES
''Waltzing Matilda / You Scratch My Back And I'll Scratch Yours'' [with Headband] 1971 Pepper
''Things Are So Slow / Outback'' 1977 Larrikin
''Sweet Solitary Blues'' 1986 ABC
''Eating On The Plane / Mrs Bottle's (Absolutely Blurtingly Beautiful World Beating) Burp'' 1990 ABC
''Waltzing Matilda / You Scratch My Back And I'll Scratch Yours'' [with Headband] 1971 Pepper
''Things Are So Slow / Outback'' 1977 Larrikin
''Sweet Solitary Blues'' 1986 ABC
''Eating On The Plane / Mrs Bottle's (Absolutely Blurtingly Beautiful World Beating) Burp'' 1990 ABC
EPs
'Excerpts From A Star Is Torn' 1982 Cube'Take Your Partners For... The Ladies Choice' 1977 Larrikin
'The Wild Girl In The Heart' 1978 Larrikin
'A Star Is Torn' 1980 Trafalgar Records
'Tonight: Lola Blau' 1980 Trafalgar
'Robyn Archer Sings Brecht' 1981 EMI
'Rough As Guts' 1981 Armada Records
'Robyn Archer Sings Brecht Volume Two' 1984 EMI
'Mrs. Bottle's (Absolutely Blurtingly Beautiful World-Beating) Burp' 1990 ABC
'Ancient Wonders' 1993 Larrikin
'Keep Up Your Standards!' 1997 Larrikin
'Classic Cabaret Rarities' 2019 Rouseabout Records
References
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robyn_Archer
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