Pam Dunn OAM
Actress and teacher's final curtain
ONE of the leading ladies of Illawarra theatre has taken her final bow.
Award-winning actress and well-known drama teacher Parn Dunn died on Thursday.
Mrs Dunn was a child when she realised her love of acting, which came from looking up to her mother, who sang and ran a drama school.
She was one of the earliest members of the region's longest-running amateur theatre company, Wollongong Workshop Theatre, with which she had a 13-year association.
Her performance in Death of a Salesman earned her the Arts Council District Award, and with Wollongong Actor's Studio she received accolades for performances in Orpheus Descending, Long Day's Journey into Night, and Rain.
Mrs Dunn then worked in theatre restaurants, proving equally at home in comedy.
It was her dream to be an actress and a mother, and she was much loved by children Desley, Kingsley, Anthony and Bradley, three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
She opened the region's first drama school, where she took great pride in seeing shy children blossom on stage.
The Pam Dunn Young People's Theatre began in 1969, and each Saturday morning for 31 years as many as 50 children were welcomed into her Fisher St home, converted into a miniature theatre with a stage, costumes, lighting and music.
Son Anthony said that since its first production, Little Women - the theatre had produced nine drama recitals and 12 productions. "Her aim was to offer experience and opportunity to Wollongong youngsters-interested in all aspects of theatre," he said.
Mrs Dunn closed the school in 2000 and a year later received the Order of Australia.
Her students were now scattered all over the world, but still cared enough to write.
Mrs Dunn's funeral will be at Hansen and Cole, Kembla Grange, on Monday at 12.30pm.
Email received from Prudence McGuire (London)
It is with great sadness I write to you. You are now probably aware of the passing of my dear lovely lifelong friend Pam Dunn.
It is totally unreal to me that she is gone. If only your generation had had the pleasure of knowing her in her heyday. She was one of the most beautiful women I have ever been privileged to know. She had the most exquisite taste in fashion, even back then and was always stunningly turned out.
Her acting was world class. Her role of Linda Loman in 'Death of a Salesman' has never been matched anywhere.
I was fortunate to have directed her in eight plays, starting with 'Baby Doll', then her award winning best actress role as Sadie Thompson in 'Rain'. This production was followed by Lady in Tennessee Williams' 'Orpheus Descending' and then Dolly Levi in 'The Matchmaker' all for Workshop Theatre.
The rest of her performances were for my theatre group Wollongong Actors Studio starting with 'Suddenly Last Summer' and 'Something Unspoken'(Garden District), 'Long Days Journey Into Night' and finally 'A Moon for the Misbegotten'.
She also played Maggie in 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof' for Workshop.
She had her own fabulous stage school for children and several of her students went on to greater things, notably the director Russell Mulcahy who has directed films including 'Razorback' 'Highlander 1 &2', 'Green Ice' with Michael Caine and more recently the remake of 'On the Beach' with Rachel Ward,Bryan Brown and Armand Assante.
In her later years Pam wrote and published two books of exceptional poetry and directed several plays including 'Bus Stop', 'Death on the Nile', 'Summer of the Seventeenth Doll' and an English farce, name of which escapes me at the present moment.
As you know Oz in it's wisdom bestowed on her an OAM for her work. Wollongong has lost a theatrical icon, the like of which it will never see again.
My brother Lawrence attended her funeral earlier this week and I believe it was beautifully presented affair.
Pam made an outstanding contribution to the world of theatre in Wollongong over a fifty year period. It is totally unreal to me that she is gone.