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Emeritus Professor of Drama, Victor Emeljanow (Born December 7, 1938. Died April 4, 2018) was a founding academic and an ‘elder’ of the discipline of Drama in Australian universities, a highly respected researcher and theatre director, and a generous teacher to several generations of theatre practitioners and scholars working both in Australia and internationally. Son of an Estonian father and a Welsh mother who fled to New Zealand from war-torn Europe.

After completing his PhD in Classics at Stanford University in California (supported by a Fulbright Scholarship), Victor’s career as a Drama academic commenced in 1965 when he was appointed to Australia’s first-ever Department of Drama at University of NSW. During his tenure there (1965-1986) he held positions as the artistic director of the Bondi Pavilion Theatre (1974-78) and theatre critic for the National Times (1979-80), while also commencing an international career in academic publishing, which signalled his intention from the very beginning of his career to integrate professional theatre practice with scholarship in the developing field of drama and theatre studies, and to build links between the academy and the professional theatre. Victor was an unheralded pioneer in the area of practice-led research, which was not recognised within the academy till many years later.

He continued to mix artistic practice and scholarship after his appointment to the Chair of Drama at the University of Newcastle in 1986: he served as the vice-president of the Producers and Directors Guild of Australia (1987-95), worked consistently as a theatre director within the University, for the Hunter Valley Theatre Company, and for numerous others, winning four City of Newcastle (CONDA) Awards for Professional Excellence in theatre direction, introduced his students to theatre professionals via working relationships in many of these productions, and served in an advisory capacity to a number of local theatre companies, occasionally as a Board member. At the same time he maintained an international scholarly reputation, particularly as an expert in 19th century British melodrama, and late 19th century European modernist theatre, and through award-winning research, with Professor Jim Davis, on 19th century theatre audiences.

Victor’s enjoyment of collaborative work, evident in his theatrical practice, and enthusiasm for encouraging the work of others, were both manifest in his close involvement with international research groups through organisations like the American Society for Theatre Research and the International Federation for Theatre Research (whose working group on popular entertainments he established and convened from 2006 to 2015). These ventures led to edited publications, which were important in establishing the international reputation of the e-journal Popular Entertainment Studies of which he was founder and general editor.

Victor was know for have a profound base voice and intellectual capacity.

He had also represented New Zealand as an Olympic fencer.