I graduated Riverview in 1999. I was the inaugural Captain of Drama at the school and Captain of AFL. I acted in a number of plays/musicals including Julius Caesar (playing Casca) in year 9; The Ancient Mariner (playing the Ancient Mariner) in year 12 (our production went on to play at the Maritime Museum); Pericles (playing Pericles) in year 12; South Pacific (year 11 I think); The Sound of Music at Ravenswood (playing Rolf) in year 10. I'm sure there were others. Just can't remember. I studied drama for the HSC under Pauline Cain. And while at Riverview fell in love with the idea of directing. 

I was encouraged to get into drama by my year 8 Geography teacher after I performed an assignment rather than just doing a written report I'd always wanted to be in and around the theatre. While at Riverview I asked my Mum what people who invented things were called and she said "an engineer". So I did all my school work experience at engineering firms in Sydney. At the Blue and White Ball the father of a friend of mine asked me what I planned to do with my life and I said engineering. When pressed I realised I wanted to work in theatre - I just didn't think there was any work in it. And he encouraged me to change my course and pursue it in order to find out. My mother wanted to be an actress but her father never let her so she encouraged me. I think my father thought it was a phase. But I've never looked back.

I received the inaugural Roger Leach scholarship from Riverview which enabled me some money to put towards my arts eduction. The scholarship sadly I think has been subsumed by the music department. Though a number of amazing theatre people received it before it did. And Roger was an extraordinary old boy who went on to form a career in acting in London. 

I studied Communications Theatre Media at Charles Sturt University in Bathurst - and did my second year of the three year course on exchange in the USA (doing 6 months at Oregon State University and another 6 months at SUNY Oswego - majoring in theatre, psychology and art history). After graduating I was accepted to the prestigious VCA directors course in Melbourne. And then I went on to study an MFA at Middlesex University in London. This course travelled and so I was able to study internationally at places like GITIS in Moscow and ISI in Bali. It was a course built on the concept of learning about the traditions of theatre in the places where they were developed.

In the meantime I worked to earn money by building sets at The Ensemble Theatre in Kirribilli. And then as an assistant director at the STC. 

In London I was offered the job of resident director on Billy Elliot: The Musical as it rolled out around the world. I came back to Australia and worked on the show for two years before becoming an associate director of all the productions in North America. That included remounting and maintaining the show on Broadway and for two North American tours. It was the moment I really understood theatre as a job. But it also introduced me to Stephen Daldry - the Academy Award nominated director (Billy Elliot/The Hours/The Reader) - who became my friend and mentor. 

After 2 years on Billy on Broadway I just couldn't wait to get back to London. I found in London a home. A place where I could develop as an artist. And a human being. And that has been my home ever since. I've been lucky enough to work at some of the top theatres and with some of the top film and TV companies in London. I'm currently directing a play at the National Theatre in London which is such a wild notion for a boy born in Newcastle who grew up in Lindfield on Sydney's North Shore. 

Highlights of my career have been many but: I loved directing Jodie Comer in Prima Facie. Realising that play with fellow Australian Suzie Miller and then having my parents see it at the NT live performance at the Cremorne Orpheum. 

Another was watching Australian gogglebox review a series I directed called The Lovers for Sky/AMC/and Sundance. They seemed to like it. Working on the Netflix Series The Crown was also formative. It was my first real experience at scale behind a camera. Also, I still remember my father seeing Billy Elliot: The Musical in Australia and crying. I think he realised it wasn't a phase and I was going to make a career out of this mad business. And I couldn't have done it without him. Finally, I always have an out of body experience working on Broadway. And it happened again recently with Stranger Things: The First Shadow. My goal as a kid was to direct at Belvoir - it still is - so anything else has been beyond my wildest dreams. 

I loved theatre at Riverview. The school gave me the space and the facilities to really get involved and try it out. Drama teachers are the backbone of any career in the arts and I was truly blessed to have been championed and encouraged by a number of extraordinary mentors including Pauline Cain and Melvyn Morrow. They took theatre seriously. Gave us the opportunities to make it and watch it. Invited us into the process of coming up with ideas as well as performing in them. Drama and AFL really became my sanity and escape to the pressure of high school and the HSC. In my final year the idea of having a drama captain who represented our artform was finally realised and I think that was a turning point for me in seeing theatre as a vocation and not just a hobby. 

There is so much talent at the school. In singing, acting, design, musicianship, movement and dance. But it needs to be championed and nurtured. And it felt in my time there that it was finally being recognised. I owe my career to the opportunities Riverview gave me. But also to a select few people who found creative ways to use what the school offered to champion us. Riverview has a long history of theatre. But the encouragement of students to see it as a potential career still needs work. Because it is possible. And the notion of having a "back up plan" is driven by fear. But if someone really wants it and fights with everything, then a career in the arts is possible. Or at least formative towards other career trajectories. Theatre people are creative problem solvers. They are people managers. They are some of the most wonderful, hard working, insightful people I've been lucky enough to spend my life with. My school friend - an artist who went to Monty - has worked at the highest creative levels at the New York Times and TED and all stemming from a theatre degree. We are not a back up plan. The arts is "the plan" for those who want to throw themselves into it. 

 Anyway, enough from me. Come and see the play I'm directing at the National Theatre. It'll be on NT Live in Australia soon. It's called Inter Alia and it's also written by my dear friend and fellow Australian wunderkind Suzie Miller. 

 Congratulations to Justin from the OIU on your career achievements. For further reading about Justin's career please see his biography here https://www.justinjmartin.com/