Amateur theatre is on the rise after Covid setback
Rated as strong as anywhere in Australia, Adelaide’s amateur theatre scene is thriving after the setbacks of the past year.
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Whether it’s the cultural significance of Arthur Miller and Eve Esner, the symbolism of Tennessee Williams, the mischief of Oscar Wilde or simply a Shakespeare classic, chances are it’s coming to a theatre near you.
While the top end of town is well catered for with annual events such as the Fringe, Adelaide Festival and this month’s Cabaret Festival, local theatre continues tirelessly with productions that give audiences an intimate experience within metres of performers they may or may not know personally.
The plays can be groundbreaking modern pieces or entrenched masterworks, the sets are resourcefully acquired, the actors are better than most of us imagined and the night out regularly includes a wine at intermission and the chance to mingle after the show with members of the cast and crew.
Many South Australians don’t realise the extent and accessibility of local theatre. It’s a secret the amateur production companies are keen to reveal, in the hope that people will turn off the TV some nights and get out to watch a local show.
Local is the operative word. Just by name alone, the Stirling, Blackwood, Tea Tree Gully and Whyalla Players groups and the Northern Light, Noarlunga and Adelaide Repertory Theatre companies give a fair indication that theatres are putting on productions in all parts of the state. The Independent Theatre Company, Therry Dramatic Society, University of Adelaide Theatre Guild, Marie Clark Musical Theatre, Galleon Theatre Group, Metropolitan Musical Theatre Company and St Jude’s are among the many other companies bringing theatre to city and country areas.
When we do turn off the telly and head to a local production, most of us would have no idea of the hard work that’s gone into getting it to the stage and the commitment of all involved. In an average production, there’s anything up to 10 weeks rehearsal for people who have day jobs, family responsibilities and don’t make one dollar performing. After finding the right play, getting a production together involves weeks of auditions, the read through, several rehearsals with the script, “books down” rehearsals and then full dress rehearsals. For a major venue at venues such as the Arts Theatre in the CBD, this could occur without access to the stage until five days before opening night.
All this happens while those who don’t get seen on stage are building sets and sourcing costumes and props which often need to represent another era – like a 1920s kettle or a 1960s phone – from family members, second-hand stores or anywhere else the can find them.
Having made a successful transition from prolific stage actor to director in recent years, Nick Fagan is certain the standard of local actors and stage workers makes his job much easier. Fagan, who works in human resources with the Federal Government in the city, believes Adelaide theatre more than matches it with Sydney and Melbourne despite having only a quarter of the population of those cities.
“I think there’s often a fine line between professional and unfunded theatre and it’s even finer here,” he says. “The quality of actors and directors we have in Adelaide is fantastic. I can put something on with local unpaid actors and know the standard will often be that of professional productions. The talent in Adelaide is extraordinary. There’s a misconception that amateur theatre is something very average, with mum and dad reading scripts and trying too hard to make people laugh. I’ve never known it to be like that in Adelaide.
“In addition to the personnel, we also have some of the best theatres you could ever imagine for putting on anything from a major drama to light comedy. Larger venues like the Arts Theatre aside, we have great space like the Bakehouse and Holden Street and then there’s the Little Theatre at Adelaide University, which is just a remarkable place to watch put on a show and maybe even better for audiences to watch one.”
Fagan received strong reviews for his part in the two-man play A Steady Rain in 2016 but that didn’t stop him making the move to directing. He has just come off directing Jerusalem and Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, with both playing in the intimate University theatre he loves so much.
“We got great reviews but also, the audience reaction was remarkable,” he says. “I think the ability to get that sort of reaction s one of the big drivers. It’s particularly moving non-theatre people – and I have a lot of friends like that – tell you after a show that they never expected that level of enjoyment and entertainment.”
Georgia Stockham has maintained her involvement in local theatre since childhood, despite the responsibilities that come with being a mother to four children under eight, including triplets, and a teaching career. One of Adelaide’s pre-eminent actors, she started in school as a member of the Hills Youth Theatre, studying with accomplished actor and drama teacher Joan Leslie before graduating to her first show, Woman in a Dressing Gown, with the Stirling Players in 1996. That led to a major role in the Wilde comedy Lady Windermere’s Fan and it’s just rolled on from there.
For Georgia, who has had to deal with several medical issues for her triplet girls, stage acting has been a labour of love. Theatre is something she fits in between work and family, often while paying an hourly babysitter rate just so she can attend rehearsals.
“Before I had the kids, I was head of mathematics at a Catholic secondary school and was also the VET and careers co-ordinator,” she says. “I had to be concerned about Covid with the girls’ health issues so I quit last year and now do online teaching, zoom meetings with teenagers and kids that have become disengaged.
“When I was younger, I could memorise my lines immediately. When you get more things happening in your life, it’s not always as easy. Since I’ve had kids and come back to the theatre, and my mind is split thinking about a dozen different things.
“I’ve had to work a bit harder to get my lines down perfectly. But there are ways. I had a friend come over recently to read through with me because I was wrapping up my day’s work, trying to cook dinner and handle four kids while learning my lines.”
Georgia has no doubt the effort and cost of acting on stage is worth it. It’s a love she’s cultivated since early childhood and it hasn’t diminished.
“When I was in Year 2, I wanted to get the lead role in our play and I didn’t get it,” she recalls. “I got to play the smaller role of the witch. I went home to mum disappointed and said I want to be the lead next time so I got into drama lessons. It was the perfect start because my drama teacher was just amazing and so supportive of children with different needs and abilities. One of the things I’ve learned from way back then is that drama is so inclusive of everybody.
“I’ve done a couple of short films but I much prefer the stage. For me, it’s the process and the camaraderie that appeals. If you’re doing a lot of short takes, you don’t get the emotional build that comes with theatre. So when we get through a season, there’s a little bit of thank goodness that went well but there’s also the sadness it’s over. That’s what drives us.
“Local theatre has given me the opportunity to perform in some wonderful theatres around Adelaide and the Hills as well as some outdoor settings and even at Old Parliament House.
“I have a couple of friends who act professionally and I’ve found talking to them that the advantage we have is that we don’t need to take a job for our wage. A friend acting in the US has had his work left on the cutting room floor while he works in a bar. That wasn’t the life I wanted. I wanted to have kids, a house and settle down and act when I wanted to act.”
Since she landed her first role in an adult production as a teenager, she’s acted in about a hundred plays, many of them running for up to four weeks. She has just completed Crimes of the Heart and now it’s straight into learning her lines for a Moliere play opening in September.
Steve Marvanek was in his late 30s when he caught the acting bug. A spatial analyst who specialises in environmental assessment work with CSIRO at the Waite Institute, he had no idea that signing on for what he expected to be a very minor role in an Adelaide Hills production would make him a regular on the local theatre circuit a decade later.
“I got cajoled by my friend Vicki, who had finally fulfilled a lifelong ambition of getting into theatre,” he explains. “As a friend trying to show support, I went to see her in a few of her early shows and it was after one of these at Stirling, that she encouraged me to audition. Vicki said they were having real trouble getting men in my age group. She had seen me involved in a few ‘how to host a murder’ dinner parties so she assumed I’d have no trouble in theatre going into a character.
“I didn’t really want to do it at first but I said begrudgingly that I’d show up to the audition. At first I thought I was going for a very minor, barely-speaking role but I was the only male under 50 and the pivotal role of the son was aged 36 and they began trying to talk me into doing it. I was intimidated at the thought of playing a minor character with a couple of lines so I resisted the bigger part but the director kept trying to convince me I’d have no trouble playing the part.”
A few weeks later, Steve was rehearsing for the major role of the son in It’s My Party and I’ll Die If I Want To. When he took to the stage in the Stirling Theatre for the opening scene of the black comedy, it would become the first of a long run of plays, comedy and drama, with which he’s been involved since.
“Once I got involved, I was hooked,” he recalls. “I lost the self-consciousness I had leading into the first play. I had so much fun going to rehearsals, working with people who were so supportive. I think that sense of camaraderie and fun is what’s kept me involved.
“I remember being so relieved at the curtain call for the last night but the next day I got the post-show blues that everyone gets. I felt quite sad that the party was over so that inspired me to do another play.”
Steve went from playing a comic role on debut to a minor walk-on part at his next play, followed by an Agatha Christie thriller and the black comedy Man of the Moment in just over a year. Within another two years, the late arrival to stage acting had added major roles in the Adelaide Theatre Guide award winners A View from the Bridge and The Pillowman to his resume as well as Female of the Species back at the Stirling Theatre where it all began.
Like most performers and members of local theatre, Steve learned from the outset that rolling the sleeves up and getting involved in a range of duties was vital to the success of a production – whether it was front-of-house greetings, working the bar when there is one, lighting, sound or assisting the stage manager in a variety of roles.
One of Adelaide’s busiest young actors, Robert Bell, caught the acting bug at school in the Barossa. Growing up at Lyndoch, he learned his craft treading the boards in one of the largest and best theatres in the state – the Barossa Arts Centre at Tanunda’s Faith Lutheran school. It gave him a headstart when he left school and wanted to expand his repertoire.
“I auditioned for The Pillowman in the hope of getting a small part but ended up getting one of the major roles,” he recalls. “That was the start of it for me. I was acting in this revered Irish play directed by Megan Dansie, who everyone wants to work with, and it was an incredible experience.
“From there, it was a domino effect, landing a role straight away in Butterflies Are Free. I’ll do comedies and dramas with equal enthusiasm but I guess I lean towards absurdist theatre. Caligula and Elephant Man were examples of that, in the latter playing a character with severe deformity without any prosthetics, purely through your body, which means you have to make the audience believe you are that person.”
An IT professional working in the city, Robert says being involved in theatre is the perfect escape after being at a computer all week. Until a couple of years ago, he worked at Victor Harbor and would drive more than an hour each way to rehearse and perform, an exercise repeated three or four times a week during a season.
“These are the things you do to be involved in local theatre,” he says. “I used to dream of being a professional actor but I found my love of acting this way. With local theatre, I get to play four different types of role in a given year. It never gets old because it’s not a job. Whether it’s a musical, a drama or comedy, there’s nothing like a live performance.
“I just did some work in an independent feature film and I felt out of place. It’s a totally different style of acting on film, where you don’t get three months of rehearsals or the immediate response of an audience.
“You hear of famous Hollywood actors that do their passion projects as an escape from the formula of some of the movies they’re making but, in local theatre every play is a passion project.”
THE NEXT GENERATION
While it’s obvious the Adelaide region has plenty of accomplished unfunded actors, directors and other contributors, Joe and Mandy Russell are ensuring a new generation of talent is coming through all the time.
The husband and wife team have been involved in local theatre and training young people in the stage arts since arriving from Sussex, England in 2012, and they now put on three productions a year at venues such as the Shedley Theatre at Elizabeth to the Barossa Performing Arts Centre.
Mandy instructs children and teenagers in dance and is involved in the choreography of the plays, while Joe teaches acting and takes on the directing role for productions. Together, they run SA Performing Arts and Now Productions, which is dedicated to promoting amateur youth theatre.
“We chose the northern suburbs because it was a region that we thought was forgotten when it came to the performing arts,” Joe says. “We knew if we could encourage young people to learn drama, music and dance, it was going to have a long-term positive effect on the region.
“Theatre is a lifelong passion for Mandy and me. I was doing a performing arts diploma in England when I met Mandy and ended up taking dance lessons with her. We always wanted to give something back and when we came to Australia, it all fell into place. After being here for a year, I threw myself into doing musicals and before long, we had our school in place.”
Joe and Mandy finished a highly-successful season of Annie earlier this year before staging Les Miserables which included older actors in its cast of 41. Annie provided opportunities for 46 young performers.
“The nature of Les Miserables made it the perfect vehicle for older actors as well as the young. It gave us a great opportunity to run one show a year for performers of all ages.”
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