John Bell is best known for his contributions to the development of Australian theatre as an actor and director. Born in the Hunter Valley of NSW on November 1, 1940, he was educated at the University of Sydney and acted with the Sydney University Dramatic Society. He made his professional debut as an actor with the Old Tote Theatre Company in Sydney and then travelled to England where he trained and acted with the Royal Shakespeare Company (then headed by Peter Hall), Lincoln Repertory Theatre and Bristol Old Vic between 1964- 69. He returned to Sydney in 1970 at a time when local theatre was booming and began working as a tutor at the National Institute of Dramatic Art. During the same year he co-founded the Nimrod Theatre with Ken Horler and a group of theatre practitioners and over the next fifteen years he served as artistic director at the Nimrod directing and premiering many exciting and experimental Australian plays. Although the Nimrod theatre closed in 1987, Bell has continued to perform and direct a variety of productions with a number of major theatre companies. In 1978, he was awarded an OBE for his service to the arts in Australia and in 1987 he was made a Member of the Order of Australia. He founded the highly acclaimed Bell Shakespeare Company in 1990 and performs and directs Shakespearean productions and other works that the company presents and tours nationally and internationally.
The first major production Bell directed in Australia was called The Legend of King O'Malley (1970). The content, energy and revue style of this production resonated deeply with the sympathies of many who were striving to develop a uniquely Australian theatre. Bell shared this view with many other young theatre makers and when he established the Nimrod with some colleagues in 1970, the work they premiered and produced focused on presenting a mixture of new and classic works that were relevant to Australian culture. The work developed while Bell was at the Nimrod is now viewed as a significant part of the New Wave of Australian theatre. During this time, Bell directed a number of colourful, energetic and provocative presentations. These included Shakespearean plays such as Macbeth (1971) and Much Ado About Nothing (1975) as well as new Australian dramas like David Williamson's The Removalists (1971) and Jim McNeil's How Does Your Garden Grow (1974). While he also acted in productions at the Nimrod, he has accumulated a long and impressive list of other acting credits with major theatre companies that include the title roles in Sydney Theatre Company's Cyrano de Bergerac (1980) and Macbeth (1982), a singing role in Big River at Her Majesty's Theatre in Sydney (1989) and Prospero in Belvoir Street Theatre's The Tempest (1990).
The Bell Shakespeare Company is Bell's most recent contribution to Australian theatre and the work it produces reflects his belief that the plays of Shakespeare are relevant and important dramatic forms for Australian audiences. He has said: “I couldn't exist in a theatre without the classics…A theatre without classics is like a man without a memory.” (as cited in Blundell, 219). Insisting that Shakespeare's plays inform and inspire his work as an actor and director, he refuses to accept that performances of Shakespeare merely simulate foreign traditions or cultures. Instead, he argues that these classical texts offer performers a way of expressing important human concerns in a language that he feels stretches the capacities of actors and can be used to highlight and articulate local considerations. The major aim of the company is to stimulate greater understanding of Shakespeare's work and its flexibility as well as an appreciation of a variety of theatrical forms. In keeping with this objective, Bell's Company run programs for schools and business corporations and tours major productions nationally and internationally. The Company also has a policy of employing innovative and accomplished Australian theatre artists and Bell continues to encourage the development of new and dynamic approaches to classical and contemporary texts.