AN ill-judged April Foolâs email has sent shock waves around the local musical theatre community.
An email sent to 60 members of a Canberra theatrical interest group earlier this morning (April 1) said that from 2022 The Q, the Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre, would no longer allow amateur companies to perform there. That, the email said, would include Queanbeyan Players and Free-Rain Theatre, and the Players would move back to the Bicentennial Hall.
Such a move by The Q appeared credible, given that a similar change in direction at The Street Theatre some years ago had seen amateur companies out in the cold.
Lydia Milosavljevic as Maria, surrounded by the Von Trapp children. Photo: Helen Musa.
Musical theatre / “The Sound of Music”, co-directed by Anthony Swadling and Alison Newhouse. At The Q, Queanbeyan, until March 21. Reviewed by
BILL STEPHENS
FROM the moment Willum Hollier-Smith took the stage to welcome the audience and announce that he wouldn’t be playing Kurt at this performance (he was on crutches and did manage to sing beautifully as the Altar Boy later in the show) the audience sensed that this production was going to be special. And indeed it was
.
Based on a memoir by Maria Von Trapp, “The Sound of Music” has been an audience magnet since its first Broadway performance in 1959. The combination of a love story involving worldly nuns, cute kids who sing like angels at the drop of a hat, nasty Nazis and one of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s best scores continues to prove as irresistible as ever, but especially as presented in this production where everyone on stage
Lydia Milosavljevic as Maria with some of the Von Trapp children.
YOU could just tell what fun members of Queanbeyan Players were having when singing some of their favourite things from âThe Sound of Musicâ, coming up at The Q later this week.
Alison Newhouse, the current president of the players and co-director of the show with Anthony Swadling, introduced Lydia Milosavljevic as a very animated Maria in the famous scene, âDo Re Miâ. She was accompanied by eight equally lively youngsters playing some of the Von Trapp children, dancing to choreography by Jodi Hammond in front of a picturesque set by Thompson Quong Wing.
Jeremy Spencer Broom
A FORMER member of Canberra Youth Theatre is to be honoured through a legacy that will support the companyâs emerging artists program over the next five years.
The late Jeremy Spencer Broom, whose zest for theatre was evident in the CYT and ANU shows in which he took part, died on August 9, 2019.
He has previously worked for five years in schools, including Daramalan College, where through games and drama, he supported children with special needs, helping many back of them into mainstreaming schooling and teaching them how to communicate and socialise with others.
As a boy, firstly at St Edmunds College, Jeremy was a member of the school band, playing the trombone and winning many eisteddfods as a part of school choirs. In Year 11, by then at Lake Tuggeranong College, he was an active member of the Tuggeranong Players.
Obituary / Norma Roach, OAM CM, September 25, 1930 – February 1, 2021. By Bill Stephens.
WITH the death of Norma Roach in the Queanbeyan District Hospital on February 1 at age 90, the Queanbeyan and Canberra theatre community lost one of the region’s most energetic, passionate and dynamic theatre pioneers.
Possessing an enormous capacity for friendship, Norma has been described as a matriarch, trail-blazer, joyful, creative, kind, capable, a caring spirit with a great sense of humour.
Born in the industrial city of Sunderland, England, Norma and her two sisters enjoyed an idyllic childhood in the seaside area of Roker. Her family attended the local Methodist church and were very involved in the busy, lively community. Norma sang in the church choir with her parents, Ralph and May Parnaby, where she learned to read music by “watching the dots go up and down”, and performed in many church concerts.