Community Theatre

You’ll Exit Laughing at Rockdale

The Guild Theatre launches its 2016 season with a riotous comedy that unites both the old and the new. Veterans of the group work together with aspiring young actors in this fun play, to provide an evening of laughs and a little sentiment.

Exit Laughing by Paul Elliott is a comedy about starting afresh and living life to the fullest.

Writer’s Block: Javeenbah Theatre Premieres Local Play

Opening Javeenbah Theatre’s 2016 season is the world premiere of Writer’s Block, a quirky tale of frustration and hallucination from local Gold Coast writer and director, Kellie Eatock.

Hitting the Javeenbah stage from the 29th of January – 13th February, is the first full production of Writer’s Block.

Keeping Opera Alive in the Suburbs

Opera is a very expensive art form, if it is to be done properly.

Most operas require authentic and often elaborate period costumes, which don’t come cheaply. They also have very specific orchestra requirements, such as harpsichord for a Mozart opera. Lastly, the sets need to reflect the era and can be difficult to acquire and probably one of the biggest expenses in an opera budget.

Mystery Thriller Keeps ’em Guessing at Melville

MURDER, diamonds, bluffs and double-bluffs – all the ingredients for Inside Job, at Melville Theatre (WA) in February 2016.

Written by Brian Clemens OBE and directed by Joan Scafe, the play is set in Spain where a professional safe-cracker enjoys a hedonistic life until the stunning Suzy sweeps into his world for a secret rendezvous.

But what starts out as an assignation rapidly spirals into an intrigue of diamonds, plots, counter-plots and an intricate web of deceit and deception.

Angel of Death Musical to Premiere in Adelaide

What do you get when you combine the creative talent and amazing imagination of Adelaide’s Matthew Briggs and Josh Heaysman? You get a musical that almost defies description and is a must-see, that’s what. Lesley Reed reports on the World Premiere of The Angel of Death.

The hooded and scythe-wielding herald of death known as the Grim Reaper is a mythical figure known to us all. The dark entity has surely never been depicted quite as Matthew Briggs and Josh Heaysman imagine him though, one with beginnings intertwined with Elizabeth 1 and the Spanish Armada!

Packemin Youth Takes Chatswood Back to the 80’s

Following the success of their inaugural sell-out production, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Packemin Youth Productions returns in 2016 with the musical Back to the 80’s, featuring over 60 talented young Sydney performers and special guest star Mark Simpson(Hairspray, The Rocky Horror Show) as Mr Cocker.

2015 Gold Coast Area Theatre Awards

The Gold Coast celebrated their Night of Nights with a glitzy presentation of their Theatre Awards, The Palmies, at Arts Centre, Gold Coast, on Tuesday December 15.

Roger McKenzie reports.

The Top Accolade –The Platinum Palm for outstanding service to the Theatrical Community was presented to Jock and Beverly McIlwain. These two “angels” have been strong advocates and supporters of the Arts on the Gold Coast for many years. We are indeed fortunate to have Jock and Beverley in our Theatre Family. The Awards were hosted by TV personality Val Lehman.

Oh What a Night

Coral Drouyn sums up the Music Theatre Guild of Victoria’s 2015 Bruce Awards Ceremony in Geelong.

Ahoy! Treasure Island at Heidelberg

Young Jill Hawkins lives a quiet life by the sea, dreaming of the day she can escape to the world beyond.

The opportunity comes a little sooner than she anticipates when the dying pirate, Billy Bones gives her a map - the only clue to a forgotten island where the treasure of a hundred ships lies waiting.

No Names, No Pack Drill for Old Mill

LOYALTY, honour and love are explored in Perth's Old Mill Theatre’s December 2015 offering, the Australian play No Names, No Pack Drill.

Written by Bob Herbert and directed by Kristen Twynam-Perkins, it’s been described as a romantic drama based, in part, on an incident involving Herbert’s sister and an American soldier at Kings Cross.

No Names, No Pack Drill is set inthe Sydney summer of 1942 and looks at the effect of the so-called “Yankee invasion” during World War II.

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