How Geelong’s Palais Theatre will celebrate its reopening

A beloved Geelong theatre has been home to thousands of events during its rich history, but the first event of the restored venue’s reopening will be one out of the box.

Geelong’s beloved Palais Theatre has been home to thousands of events during its rich history, but its transformation into a temporary wrestling ring in January will be a new first.

The Moorabool street venue has hosted dances, live music and bingo for decades and has been painstakingly restored by the Tripolino family.

The Palais will also host live pro wrestling when Malice at the Palais arrives on January 22.

But, the GSODA Junior Players will perform at the building’s official reopening on December 2, to perform their Aladdin and High School Musical 2 productions.

Palais theatre reopening

Junior Players president Debbie Fraser said the past two years had been very challenging, with musical theatre and the arts suffering immensely.

“But this year with new strategies and a change of dates, we have managed to successfully bring back this amazing youth theatre company, with not one,  but two quite different

musical theatre experiences,” she said.

Ms Fraser said the move to split the Junior Players into two casts was based on rehearsal ability if and when further restrictions were introduced.

Plans have been released for the redevelopment of the Geelong Palais.

“This proved a worthwhile strategy and although our young people have missed the “full’ company atmosphere for the majority of rehearsals, they have worked together on all the ensemble vocals for each show,” she said

Ms Fraser said when lockdowns cancelled the original show dates in September the group had to find a new venue as the previous venue was no longer available.

“The wonderful team at The Palais Geelong have provided a fantastic performance space and the GSODA Junior Players couldn’t be more excited to be the very first show to be staged at the newly renovated space,” she said.

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Originally published as How Geelong’s Palais Theatre will celebrate its reopening