From a desert of information in November to a veritable ocean of words this month. There's just so much happening right now and we are BESIDE ourselves.
We have cast news! We have final building updates! We have an actual PRODUCTION on! Such a relief!*
Even just getting back to Front of House for our fundraising matinee felt like being back to normal, and from the cheers and applause that could be heard from behind closed doors as the performance started, the audience heartily agreed.
One final reminder that from next month the newsletter will be hitting your mailbox on the 25th of the month and not the 15th!!
Your editor,
Melanie
*I am still to find out where the sherry has gone but don't worry, I'm on the case!
The Importance of Being Earnest
In the immortal words of Oscar Wilde, “nothing annoys people so much as not receiving invitations”.
So, consider this your formal invitation to attend a top-notch revival of Mr Wilde’s endlessly entertaining comedy The Importance of Being Earnest. Ellis Ebell will direct WLT’s handsome production of this timeless world classic—an unmissable opportunity to see what the London Telegraph calls “the most perfect comedy in the English language.”
The Importance of Being Earnest will run from February 9 - 26, 2022. Subscriber tickets are available now and general tickets will be released to the public in early January. Keep an eye on our website and Facebook page closer to the time. We expect they will be snapped up quickly.
The cast brings together some familiar faces and some new arrivals and features Margie Bainbridge (Lady Bracknell), Casey Bohan (Cecily Cardew), Barbara Hughes (Miss Prism), Keith Hutton (Rev. Dr Chasuble), Jonny Kinnear (John “Jack” Worthing), James Madsen-Smith (Algernon Moncrieff), Elle Sejean-Allen (Hon. Gwendolen Fairfax), and Andrew Wild (Lane/Merriman).
We thought we’d take this opportunity to share some little known and quirky details about the cast. They have all been asked to contribute. But, in fairness, we didn’t give them too much time. So, some of these facts may have been invented.
Margie Bainbridge – Lady Bracknell – last graced our stage back in 2016 in our production of Sitting Pretty. This is not Margie’s first time playing Lady Bracknell. Back in the 1980’s, as a fresh-faced 22 year old, Margie played the iconic character. She reckons this time she might not need to draw the wrinkles on quite so heavily.
Casey Bohan – Cecily Cardew – We are delighted to have Casey return to the WLT stage. Her last appearance was back in 2013 in our famous production of A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum. Since then, Casey has performed in multiple productions across Melbourne and further afield. She has shown an uncanny knack for being cast as characters called Viola and is relishing playing someone called Cecily this time.
Barbara Hughes – Miss Prism – is no stranger to any of us. Having been part of the WLT family for more years than she can remember, Barbara is delighted to be back on the stage -having worn her director’s hat for the last decade or so. Since directing A Man of No Importance, Barbara was cast in the 10th Anniversary tour of Billy Elliott, and whilst the tour was cut short due to COVID lockdowns, she did find herself alone in her dressing room in Sydney when Mr Elton John popped in to say hello.
Keith Hutton – Rev Dr Chasuble – has recently wowed audiences with his comic turns in our end of year revue. Keith directed our last production – The Last Romance – and was one of the doomed sailors in our 2013 production of Morning Departure. He once sang solo to an audience of 2,600 people (not at WLT) and suffers from Dermatographism. Ask him to show you what that is.
Jonny Kinnear – Jack Worthington – this will be Jonny’s first production at WLT but he has appeared in numerous productions both here in Melbourne and internationally. Jonny grew up in County Fermanagh in Northern Ireland where he attended the Portora Royal School. The school has a long history of notable alumni and, apart from Jonny, can also lay claim to educating Oscar Wilde himself.
James Madsen-Smith –Algernon Moncreiff – is making his third appearance on the Williamstown stage. Subscribers and members will recall James who debuted at WLT in his highly acclaimed role in A Man of No Importance (2019) and his wonderful cameo in the only production of 2020 – The Last Romance. When James isn’t on stage or at his studies, you can find him surrounded by boxes of fruit and vegetables somewhere in Melbourne.
Elle Sejean-Allen - Hon. Gwendolen Fairfax – is also making her debut on the WLT stage. Elle has worked in musical theatre for some years and is an accomplished vocalist and a hard-working (and much sought after) vocal coach. As a young theatre kid in the early years of the 21st century, Elle decided her MSN messenger name should be Gwendolen Fairfax and so it was.
Andrew Wild - Lane/Merriman – taking on two roles and being the production’s Stage Manager, Andrew will be very busy. No stranger to our WLT audiences, Andrew has been found back-stage in more recent years but, like Keith and Barbara, has most recently been seen starring in our end of year Revue. In a production of Les Miserables, Andrew fell from the top of the barricade and was knocked out and dragged off stage unconscious. In his next production with the same company, his exuberance saw him falling into the orchestra pit. This time however, he climbed out and finished his song.
Back row L-R: Jonny Kinnear,Ellis Ebell (director), James Madsden-Smith, Keith Hutton, Andrew Wild
Front row L-R: Casey Bohan, Barbara Hughes, Margie Bainbridge, Elle Sejean-Allen
Are we there yet? YES . WE. ARE !!
On Friday 3 December four of the A Team went onsite and moved two fridges across the courtyard. Although the kitchen and Front of House service area were finished and power connected a few weeks before, this transfer couldn’t happen till the courtyard was concreted. With all the rain around then, the fridges would have sunk without a trace in the quagmire and lake! So 3 December heralded the beginning of the end.
It was a marathon.
Think moving house and then magnify that to infinity. Or so it seemed.
WLT is indeed fortunate in its dedicated members who pitch in and help get things done. There were happy reunions and so much work done. Mountains were moved.
The weekend was long and heavy going. Stuff had to be moved from one spot so other stuff could go there. Rotation and timing was key. Finishing off the external painting was done before the criss-crossing of the courtyard with tubs and boxes and just armfuls of stuff. There was clearing and moving . . . there was looking for stuff . . . then there was set up.
The now former Store Room was emptied of Front of House and bathroom supplies which were relocated in the new space. In the kitchen/kiosk it was 'where to put this or that'?
We tried to walk through pre show and interval Front of House to see how the work flow could work (or even if it would flow) and store things like mugs, wine glasses and flutes accordingly. Stuff that filled two drawers now fitted into one, shelves filled and stuff was culled. Dressing room ‘kitchenette’ area was set up. Both jobs involved up and down stepladders till the knees began to scream!
Furniture came out of hiding and was relocated. The stage was slowly being emptied of tubs of wires and cables as they were moved to their new storage spaces.
And all this work continued through into the week.
The electricians had to keep working to finish all the wiring and switches so during the week we were moving around their work, which had priority.
Finally we got to hanging stuff on foyer walls, practicing the new dishwasher, learning to use the Square for cashless purchases at the counter, only to find that Square HQ had not yet finalised the connection and it couldn't be used! All those small details!
Way too much to list but suffice it to say the driving force was the opening date of the Revue: 10 December, the day we could at last welcome you to the theatre again!
A huge thank-you to all the people who came and helped: yer blood’s worth bottlin' for sure!
Thanks to you we can say; yes, we are certainly there!
Thank you to Bevan and Travis Uren, head contractors of BCT Construction Group, for their endless patience, endeavour and persistence with such a long job and its many setbacks.
Shirley Sydenham
Season’s Greetings!
I hope you all had an opportunity to see our Revue and were possibly lucky enough to win one of the nightly raffles. However, it’s not too late to both see the show and win our big prize as there are still two nights left of Something Old Somewhere New.
Thank you to all those who have attended and supported us. The Basin Theatre advertised our Revue and is one of many theatre companies that have provided us with encouragement and personnel during the preparation for the revue.
Our theatre is now officially open thanks to the efforts of a number of hard-working people. They have been thanked and acknowledged but cannot be thanked enough. The care and thoroughness of the preparation for the revue fundraiser and our opening event is truly appreciated by all.
And so to our Season 2022 - I had a lovely surprise during the week when my tickets popped up in my email. I’m now all set for next year and looking forward to starting the year in the theatre with The Importance of Being Earnest.
Ellis Ebell, the director of our first full production in our refurbished space, has announced the cast. It is a delightful blend of new friends and returning favourites! Congratulations to all!
We are all looking forward to seeing the lovely costumes and set designed by Tony Tartaro. These will be created by the sewers and set builders who have all been champing at the bit to use their creative talents to bring a show to our subscribers and friends.
Another great achievement of the group under difficult circumstances with auditions and rehearsals needing to be off site for some time due to . . . you’ve got it, the renovations! But we can put that all behind us and look forward to a comfortable new season in our new foyer, easily accessible toilets and new dressing room.
Getting our Little Theatre back to being the finely tuned machine that it has been is a gradual process and we will again be able to have our summer working bees on Tuesdays in January, commencing at 5pm at the theatre. Great opportunity to not only help us get things organised in costumes and props and around the theatre but also a chance to catch up when we sit down and admire our hard work.
Wishing you all the best for the festive season and looking forward to getting back into theatre in the New Year.
Cheers,
Celia
The Making of a Revue
When the WLT Committee made the very difficult decision to postpone our final season of 2021, we knew that there was a glimmer of hope that we might still be able to stage something in December. The question was - what?
At that time, Melbourne was in a very different mindset. There were still big restrictions on movement and even bigger restrictions on gatherings. And there was no clear end in sight. We knew that anything we bought together would have to be done on the full understanding that it could be cancelled at any moment with little warning.
We also knew that WLT needed revenue. We hadn’t had an income stream for close to two years and, with the refurbishment of the foyer and courtyard still in full swing, money was going out the doors at an alarming rate. So we knew that whatever we put on it would have to have no real costs (no set, no costumes, no elaborate props) and would have to be unashamedly pitched as a fundraiser.
Barbara Hughes and I arranged a meeting in the Williamstown Botanic Gardens for an initial chat about what this might look like. We talked about the types of acts that might lend themselves to this style of show and agreed that it should move from looking back at the gloominess of the past 19 months and look toward to a cheerier future.
One thing that became very apparent during that discussion was that WLT is a bit spoilt when it comes to available talent. We were able to name at least 50 people who would be great to have on board. But we knew that the restrictions that were in place at the time dictated that we could only safely fit a cast of 10 backstage, along with two Stage Managers. We knew that the show would have to be made up of performers with a ‘party trick’ or two up their sleeve that would require very little rehearsal. We also knew that any songs would have to be done to backing tracks rather than trying to fit musicians into our people-per-square-metre quotas.
A proposal was drawn up for Committee consideration. They embraced the idea of an end-of-year fundraiser revue. They also reminded us that there were a couple of important things to take into account: that 2021 marks WLT’s 75th anniversary, that it would be great if the show could promote our 2022 season, and that it would be a great opportunity to show off our refurbished premises. We hoped that restrictions might ease enough to allow a 50% capacity in the audience.
Barbara and Janet Provan did an amazing job of selecting songs that would lend themselves to the spirit of the show. The initial rehearsals were all conducted over Zoom – which is not an easy thing to do! For a while we operated in two distinct groups with Barb and Janet coordinating those that were involved in the musical side of things (including Adrienne Williamson, Bernadette Wheatley, Bob Harsley, Andrew Wilde and Ellis Ebell). Keith Hutton and Brian Christopher embarked on researching appropriate non-musical pieces, ably assisted by Cat Jardine.
The idea for the title of the revue – Something Old Something Somewhere New was suggested by Andrew Wild. It seemed to fit perfectly with what we were trying to achieve. Janine Evans weaved her usual magic in designing the poster for the show and Brian Christopher and Bob Harsley put their minds to setting up the ticketing system for the show. It was the first time we’ve ever used the ‘print-at-home’ function!
The cast first came together in November once the restrictions on gatherings eased to allow ten people to be in the same space at the same time. It was our first chance to have a look at the whole-of-cast pieces and start to get our heads around all the acts we had been dobbed in to be part of. The whole cast only came together four times before we moved into the theatre!
They had created a show which contained:
4 songs from shows we’ve done in the past
3 ridiculous skits
2 rehearsed readings from shows we’ve done in the past
5 songs from the repertoire of various cast members
A rather silly introduction to our 2022 season
One rewritten song to finish the night off
The inclusion of Maria Haughey’s amazing poem ‘Once Upon a Pandemic’ at the beginning of Act 2 was a no-brainer. It helped the show turn the corner from looking back at what we’ve been through as a community to what we’ve got to look forward to. It’s a beautiful ode to resilience and the importance of the arts in people’s lives. And Maria’s on-stage role in the revue grew considerably over the late rehearsal period!
While all that was going on, the Stage Management team of Emma Hunt and Alex Begg commenced the process of mapping out how it would all work from a backstage perspective. Rob Edwards was recruited in to help out for the final two shows.
During one of the early whole-of-cast gatherings, I mentioned that we were planning a nightly raffle to add fundraiser feel of the show and to add to the coffers. A couple of days later I had a note from Frank Page letting me know that he and Ellis had spoken to their good friend Mitch Duncan from the Farmer’s Arms Hotel in Daylesford and that he had agreed to provide the major prize for the raffle. Our friends at the Prince Albert Hotel also jumped at the opportunity to help us out and members of the company chipped in with contributions of bottles of plonk and Christmas Hampers. Special thanks to WLT’s great friend Helen Ellis for her generous assistance in bringing the hampers together. The amazingly multi-talented Kerry Drumm created some wonderful raffle posters for the foyer.
The first time the cast arrived for a rehearsal at the theatre, we had no lights and no sound. The building works had not permitted work on the stage electrical systems at all. So, for the next week, the remarkable Roger Forsey, Neil Williamson and Craig Pearcey worked miracles to ensure that we had lights and sound for opening night.
Tech rehearsal and dress rehearsal were fairly fraught. It certainly felt under-teched and under-rehearsed! But we knew it had a flow and a certain rustic charm. It wasn’t until we had our first audience that we knew the show would work.
So there you go. That’s the (rather long-winded) story of how Something Old Something Somewhere New came about. It was the result of a lot of people using their unique talents and expertise to bring together an unlikely night of theatre. Huge thanks to all who have been involved. It has turned out to be an ideal way to welcome people back to WLT and to remind them what a great place it is to be.
In the January edition of C&N we’ll bring you the post-show report along with some photos from the season.
Peter Newling, Director
Brothers - Adelaide Fringe Festival
I’m so excited to be able to announce that my very first theatre production will be part of next year's Adelaide Fringe. We’re loving being back rehearsals and looking forward to being back in live theatre.
Brothers written by Kerry Drumm, is a roller coaster heart-wrenching, laugh out loud world premiere starring Daniel O'Kane and Liam O'Kane (yes, they are brothers), directed by Peter Newling and produced by Emma Hunt, Little Red Fox Productions.
We hope to see you there!
Emma Hunt
Mon 14 - Sat 19 Mar 2022 | 7:30pm Bakehouse Theatre
