John Clark, who has died aged 93, reshaped the landscape of Australian performing arts through a 35-year tenure as director of the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA), transforming a modest, struggling school into one of the world’s leading conservatoires.

When Clark assumed the directorship in 1969, NIDA was housed in a cluster of dilapidated former racecourse buildings in Kensington: stifling in summer, freezing in winter and occasionally plagued by bird lice. Training was limited to two-year acting and production courses, and the very notion of professional theatre education in Australia was still contested.

By the time he retired in 2004, the institute boasted multiple theatres, rehearsal rooms, a film and television studio, extensive workshops and a major library, alongside a suite of courses that had helped produce generations of actors, directors, designers and technicians of international standing.

Clark’s achievement lay not only in infrastructure but in vision. He took charge at a moment of profound cultural change. As Australia moved away from inherited British models and towards its own artistic identity, Clark positioned NIDA at the centre of that shift. His leadership helped fuel the ‘New Wave’...