This event will now be a Zoom event as we will be in lockdown again. As a Zoom event it will be free-of-charge and those who have already bought tickets will be refunded. My profound apologies to those who were looking forward to coming back to the Drill Hall for an event – I do hope we can meet in person again soon but its not to be this time. We will email the Zoom link to those attending 24 hours prior to the event.

We are delighted that Dr Cheryl Threadgold will be presenting a lecture based on her award-winning history, In the Name of Theatre. The History, Culture and Voices of Amateur Theatre in Victoria, to kick off our lecture series in 2021. The lecture will start at 6pm and we will be serving drinks prior to that from 5:30pm.

Hannie Rayson wrote, “Her sumptuous book, In the Name of Theatre, is a kind of encyclopaedia of the Victorian stage. From the early colonial settlement when entertainment included the viewing of executions or dissections of bodies of the executed, amateur theatre has come a long way.

In the Name of Theatre documents amateur companies from across the state. The Dunolly Theatre Company is here, along with the Colac Players, Ferntree Gully’s 1812 Theatre, the Frankston Theatre Group, and 147 other groups. All of them created by the sweat and passion of their members. The Mildura group, for example, was formed in 1946 by local teachers to present touring performances by Melbourne’s Little Theatre. The founding group worked so hard that the company soon had the skills and the passion to stage productions of its own.

The book entertains us with a cavalcade of writers, directors, performers, designers, set builders, technicians, judges, critics and musos. It is a generous celebration of the ways in which theatre has been the making of so many of us—giving us the courage, confidence and sometimes the spirit of defiance to be ourselves. You’ll meet some inspiring theatre-makers along the way, like the amateur playwright Cenarth Fox, whose plays have been performed in 43 countries. And the veteran performer, writer and director Eileen Nelson—an astonishingly generous theatre-maker.

This book is a celebration of and for theatre lovers across Victoria. It is lit by an inner passion which all of us share.”

The citation for this book which won the 2020 Collaborative Community History Award states, “In his introduction to this book, Frank Van Straten, doyen of Melbourne’s theatre history, writes that amateur theatre with its infectious enthusiasm and ‘homely, intimate venues’ creates a ‘special form of magic’. It’s this magic that Cheryl Threadgold captures in her book. The colourful cover invites the reader to explore successive periods of amateur theatre in Victoria and reflect on the many people involved in a single production. Numerous famous players, such as Zoe Caldwell, have started careers in amateur theatre.

The great strength of this book is the second part, which features representatives of about 150 musical and non-musical amateur companies across Victoria. These theatre enthusiasts, from Bairnsdale, Castlemaine, Dunolly, Maffra, and Swan Hill to the many suburbs of Melbourne, discuss their companies’ history and a cavalcade of productions. Cheryl Threadgold, herself a longtime participant in aspects of amateur theatre, conveys a rich community theatrical culture, usually overshadowed by sport, in this wonderful collaborative project.”