Community Theatre

Chase Me, Comrade! is the November production for Wyong Drama Group, on the NSW Central Coast.  The Ray Cooney farce, inspired by the true story of Rudolph Nureyev’s defection to the West in the 1960s, was first performed at The Theatre Royal, Windsor, in 1964 with Cooney playing the lead role of Gerry Buss. During its three-year London run it is alleged that Nureyev himself saw the play several times and laughed as much as the rest of the audience.

Dural Musical Society’s second show for 2011 is whodunit musical Curtainsby John Kander, Fred Ebb and Rupert Holmes. 

When RENT opened in 1996, AIDS was very much in the public eye. Fifteen years later, RENT’s legacy includes 5,124 performances at Broadway’s Nederlander Theatre (1996-2008); four Tony awards; a Pulitzer Prize for composer Jonathan Larson; and even a dedicated fan base known as Rent-heads. 

But can the phenomenon continue? Can RENT mean something in 2011, when issues like gay marriage have taken over the headlines and AIDS, though still not cured, no longer dominates public conversation?

It’s time to find out.

The classic pantomime returns to Bankstown (NSW) this October, with a magical retelling of the classic tale Aladdin by Bankstown Theatre Company (BTC).

It’s been several years since the local community theatre group produced a pantomime and writer and director Arthur Pickering said the time was right for it return to the local stage.