community
Next Bay Players Show : Children of the Black Skirt By Heather Powell
Vol 16 September 15th 2017 28 April December 7th, 2017 Vol 48 27th 2018
I know the next Bay Theatre produc8on, Children of the Black Skirt, does not open un8l the end of the third week in September, and 8ckets are not yet on sale to the public. However, it is a different dynamic for a charity group availing of the theatre’s offer to the community to raise funds for their par8cular cause. The Friends of Maranatha Lodge have selected the Saturday ma8nee of the first weekend the show opens – Saturday 18th. In order to raise funds the group has to personally sell as many 8ckets as they personally can before 8cket sales go on line for the public to purchase their own , and this won’t be all that long now. So it would be greatly appreciated if The Beagle could inform those in the community who might wish to contribute to this cause, that it is important to contact Heather Powell (me) as soon as possible and purchase, or at least book, a seat for the ma8nee. Not only will the audience be financially contribu8ng for items that help enhance the personal quality of life for the residence to enjoy, especially for those with no family nearby to provide personal items, they will be having an opportunity of seeing how a thirteen and sixteen year old girl master roles, usually played by young adults who play the role of the teenage children. I a:ended a rehearsal. The Queensland playwright, Angela Bezien, handles the theme of an orphanage from a really imagina8ve perspec8ve, and I was staggered to see that the two children are on stage throughout. This is a huge ask of ones so young, and the enormous amount of work that will go into this show, with Lyn Sterling direc8ng, certainly deserves full houses as a reward. Being curious as to who originally came up with this idea of offering the public a chance to fund -raise, I spoke to Barbara Gellatly, a BTP Life Member, and without whom I very much doubt the Bay would have its own community theatre. Anyway, knowing Barb, I was not surprised to learn it was she who had come up with this idea – ages ago. It was a ploy to lure in audiences to see the show in the first week of its run, as so oHen locals missed out simply because the second and third weeks were booked out while the first week’s shows were half empty. Full houses for the opening shows spread the word in fine style as well as benefi8ng the group who personally sold as many 8ckets as they possibly could. Apparently the first group to avail of this fundraising scheme, decades back, was Bob Wiles and the Aussie Rules mob.
beagle weekly : Vol 215 July 9th 2021
18
