Person - Jock Levy

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ABRAHAM JEROME LEVY (1916 - 2016)

Jock's first NTL show was Till the Day I Die after its ban was lifted in 1941 (he was in the 1936 audience at the Savoy Theatre the night it was raided by police). He was chair of the production committee for years and directed or was otherwise involved in at least 32 plays. Although untrained, Jock was constantly working in theatre. The standard of acting was variable at NT and as the better actors got professional work he was constantly training new people. Jock said that he made no money from his involvement in NT but the theatre was bigger than the individual ego and the New was his life’s work. He was a Life Member by 1966.

Born in January 1916, Jerome became best known as Jock but was usually listed by his formal name in programs. He came to the NTL from Yiddish theatre when there were a lot of first and second generation Jews in Sydney many of whom wanted to continue their traditions. In 1937 he was reviewed as "remarkable" in the huge part of the idealist in the Jewish Youth Theatre's The Melting Pot staged at the Railway and Tramway Institute. With the threat of Nazism Jock’s group had a strong Jewish following but folded when it lost its premises. Jock then decided to join the wider anti-fascist movement.

Jock enlisted in the AIF in 1942 but was rejected on medical grounds. In 1942 he married Jeanette Shaw, cousin of David (“Buzzy”) Hyman, a NT member. Their son Gregg Levy directed Here Comes Kisch! in 1984.



NLA interview tape year 1995.