Walter John Cherry was an Australian theatre director, producer, and manager.
18 Facts About Wal Cherry
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Wal Cherry was Foundation Chair of Drama at Flinders University in Adelaide from 1967 until around 1980, and held other positions at the university.
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Walter John Cherry was born on 10 May 1932 in Ballarat, Victoria to Victorian parents Walter Joseph Cherry, a commercial artist, and Vera White.
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Wal Cherry attended St Patricks College in Ballarat, and Geelong High School.
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Wal Cherry started studying at the University of Melbourne in 1951, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in 1954.
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Wal Cherry was active in student theatre at the university.
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In 1956 Cherry became director of the Union Theatre Repertory Company, where he showcased plays by Bertolt Brecht as well as contemporary British and American playwrights.
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Wal Cherry adapted Dorothy Blewett's play The First Joanna for ABC Television, which featured Norman Kaye in the lead role and aired in 1961.
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In 1967, Wal Cherry was appointed to the Foundation Chair of Drama at the recently-created Flinders University in Adelaide, South Australia.
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Wal Cherry chaired the school of language and literature from 1968 to 1970, and the theatre management committee in from 1968 until 1978, and was dean of University Hall in from 1970 to 1974.
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Wal Cherry was a key member of the board of the nascent South Australian Theatre Company.
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Wal Cherry continued to direct for various companies, including a notable production of Jean-Paul Sartre's Kean for the SATC in 1970.
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In 1980, Wal Cherry took up an appointment as chairman of the Theater Department and Professor of Theater at Temple University, Philadelphia.
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Wal Cherry directed at least 86 performances of various types; wrote a novel and two plays; collaborated on film scripts; published articles and delivered papers in Australia and the United States; and served on over 30 committees.
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Wal Cherry won the 1958 and 1961 Erik Awards in Melbourne and the 1959 Western Australian General Motors Holden award for best production.
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Wal Cherry travelled to the US on Fulbright fellowships in 1972 and 1976, and to Japan on a fellowship from the Cultural and Social Centre for the Asia-Pacific Region in 1973.
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Wal Cherry married Marcelle Lynette Mathieson, a schoolteacher, in 1956 in Geelong.
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Wal Cherry died in Boston, Massachusetts in March 1986, aged 53, of ischemic heart disease.