Stephen Henry Wallace A.M. (born 23 December 1943) is an Australian film and television director, screenwriter, producer, published author and acting coach.
A founding signatory, Wallace was President of the Australian Directors Guild between 1991 and 2000 and remains on the Board today as Treasurer.
Wallace had just made the critically acclaimed one-hour drama The Love Letters from Teralba Road and was asked if he had any new projects.
[9] Of the experience, Wallace recalls: "Bob Jewson said one thing - and I think this is what we tried to make the theme of the film, although it was very hidden - that riots don't happen out of the blue.
Wallace was hired because the financiers who had invested in his movie Blood Oath loved his work and saw him as a good choice.
The low budget film, The Body in the Yard (later changed to A Suburban Love Story) , was set to begin shooting on 28 August 2014, with an all-Australian cast.
[17] Stephen Wallace has directed various TV series and nine telemovies, four of which were made for the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC).
[17] Between 1985 and 1998, Wallace directed episodes of Women of the Sun, The Flying Doctors, Australians, Seven Deadly Sins, Twisted Tales and Water Rats, among others[1].
From the onset of his career, Wallace has been widely known to have a passion for working with actors, both as a professional coach, in theatre, and to get the most out of his cast.
Many now established actors can attribute their first feature film, or on-screen debut to working with Wallace; from the likes of Bryan Brown to Russell Crowe, Naomi Watts and many others.
Wallace has also worked with critically acclaimed actors Sam Neill, Hugo Weaving and Greta Scacchi.
[18] Through Impulse Theatre, Wallace produced several productions of Oedipus,[19] Lysistrata, Cosi, Romeo and Juliet, As You Like It, Shoehorn Sonata, Away and more.
On Oedipus the King (Impulse Theatre Company, 2003), The Sydney Morning Herald wrote, "This version, directed by Stephen Wallace, is billed as a "Grotowski workshop", in regards to the late Polish director's style.
Much guff has been opined about the revered Jerzy Grotowski but his key concerns were about simplicity (stripping away everything non-essential), the centrality of the actor to the creation of meaning, and ritualistic, essentialist physicality.
The Grotowski influence also shows in its careful but subtle physicality, an economy of character-identifying gesture and simple but affecting grouping of performers.
During his career, Stephen Wallace has played an instrumental role in advocating for directorial rights, both in Australia and abroad, beginning as early as 1982.
After 40 years, the ADG now represents the interests of over 1,000 Screen Director members working across film, television, streaming and digital media.
Subsequently, ASDA regularly participated in the annual International Directors' Guild Forum, an event which it hosted in Sydney in 1998.
In recent years they have distributed over half a million dollars annually to their 800 director members in Australia and New Zealand.