Elaine Crombie

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Elaine Crombie
Born
South Australia
NationalityAustralian
OccupationActress, singer, writer
Years active1999–present
Children2
Parent(s)Lillian Crombie and Sam Backo

Elaine Crombie is an Aboriginal Australian actress, known for her work on stage and television. She is also a singer, songwriter, comedian, writer and producer.[1]

Early life and education[]

Crombie is a Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara woman from South Australia.[2] She and her brother were brought up by her mother's foster parents in Port Pirie, the Turners, after being given up at the age of six weeks by her mother, Lillian Crombie, who went to Sydney "to follow her dreams" in the performing arts. Lillian, along with her brother, had been one of the Stolen Generations.[3]

During her teens Elaine (in her own words) "fell off the rails", and she left high school at the age of 16 to go to Adelaide University to attend the Centre for Aboriginal Studies in Music. She lived in Adelaide for two years before going to Brisbane, where she was met by her father, rugby league great Sam Backo, for the first time.[3]

In Brisbane Crombie studied at the Aboriginal Centre for the Performing Arts for 18 months.[3]

Career[]

Crombie's first break was when she auditioned successfully for Wesley Enoch's The Sunshine Club with the Queensland Theatre Company. The play toured regional Queensland, including Cairns, and did a season at the Playhouse in Brisbane in November 1999 followed by a run at the Sydney Opera House[3] in January 2000. In 2003 she joined the tour to England to perform in the first Aboriginal written play be Kevin Wilbert The Cherry Pickers with the Sydney Theatre Company. t[4]

After spending a few years performing in Sydney and Brisbane, Crombie met and fell in love with the man who would be father to her two sons. After the birth of her second child she found herself feeling very depressed, and soon afterwards the couple split up during a family holiday, and Crombie returned to South Australia with her boys. They lived there for some years but spent periods in Sydney for performances. As of 2016 they had been living in the Wollongong area for two years.[3]

One of Crombie's earliest roles on television was in 8MMM Aboriginal Radio, a comedy series about an Aboriginal radio station located in Alice Springs which screened on ABC Television in 2015.[5][6] She played Kitty in Nakkiah Lui's 2017 comedy television series, Kiki and Kitty, made for iview[7] and also screened on ABC Comedy.[8] She also appeared in many episodes of Black Comedy and played Bev in the drama series Top of the Lake.[9][1]

She appeared in the feature film Top End Wedding (released in 2019).[1]

In 2019, Crombie premiered her own show, Janet’s Vagrant Love in the Spiegeltent at Adelaide Cabaret Festival, and two years later brought a pared-back version of the show to the Adelaide Fringe. A combination of personal songs and stories, she described the show as "Love, loss, childhood trauma & raising blak men"

She co-hosted the National Indigenous Music Awards 2020 in Darwin.[10]

Crombie stars in a touring production of Wesley Enoch's The 7 Stages of Grieving, directed by Shari Sebbens for the Sydney Theatre Company. The staging was originally scheduled for 2020,[11] but, interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia, was postponed until mid-2021.[12] It is being staged in Sydney, Adelaide and Canberra,[13] with a new epilogue that introduces a note of activism, with Crombie, Sebbens and assistant director Ian Michael calling for the audience to engage in "seven actions of healing".[14]

Awards[]

Crombie won the Helpmann Award for Best Female Actor in a Supporting Role in a Musical in 2019 for her role in Barbara and the Camp Dogs,[15] in a reprise of the role at the Belvoir St Theatre that she had also undertaken in 2017.[1]

Other roles[]

Crombie is a First Nations Organiser for the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA).[1]

She is a member of the South Australian Film Corporation's First Nations Advisory Committee, launched in November 2020 as part of their First Nations Screen Strategy 2020-2025,[16] in partnership with Channel 44.[17]

Documentary[]

A 2019 short documentary film in a series called Deadly Family Portraits, called Crombie Crew, focused on Elaine and her mother Lillian.[2] As of 2021 the film is available on ABC iview.[18]

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e "Elaine Crombie". Belvoir St Theatre. Retrieved 26 June 2021.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b "First Nations Advisory Committee - Elaine Crombie". SAFC. 23 October 2020. Retrieved 26 June 2021.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e Crombie, Elaine (9 December 2016). "I am living proof of the stolen generation. Trust me, the trauma is real". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 June 2021.
  4. ^ "The Sunshine Club". AusStage. Retrieved 28 June 2021.
  5. ^ "8MMM Aboriginal Radio (ABC TV Mini Series)". Amy Bastow. 17 August 2017. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
  6. ^ "8MMM Aboriginal Radio (2014)". The Screen Guide. Screen Australia. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
  7. ^ Knox, David (16 March 2017). "ABC filming absurdist iview comedy, Kiki & Kitty". TV Tonight. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
  8. ^ "Kiki And Kitty". ABC iview. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
  9. ^ Elaine Crombie at IMDb
  10. ^ "National Indigenous Music Awards 2020: Baker Boy wins second artist of the year title". The Guardian. 8 August 2020. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
  11. ^ "The 7 Stages of Grieving". AusStage. 25 June 2020. Retrieved 24 June 2021.
  12. ^ "The 7 Stages of Grieving by Wesley Enoch & Deborah Mailman". State Theatre Company South Australia. Retrieved 26 June 2021.
  13. ^ Bremer, Rudi (5 June 2021). "As The 7 Stages of Grieving is re-staged, Shari Sebbens and Elaine Crombie ask how much has changed in 26 years". ABC News (Australia). ABC Arts. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 24 June 2021.
  14. ^ Dow, Steve (26 May 2021). "The 7 Stages of Grieving review – Elaine Crombie gives a singular performance in show that swings to outright activism". the Guardian. Retrieved 27 June 2021.
  15. ^ "2019 Nominees and Winners". Helpmann Awards. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
  16. ^ "First Nations Screen Strategy 2020-2025". SAFC. Retrieved 26 June 2021.
  17. ^ "SAFC launches new First Nations Screen Strategy and Channel 44 partnership". SAFC. 13 November 2020. Retrieved 26 June 2021.
  18. ^ "Deadly Family Portraits: Crombie Crew". ABC iview. 6 March 2018. Retrieved 26 June 2021.

External links[]

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