USQ join up with Lifeline and Steph Tisdell to put on alternative stage show

Comedian Steph Tisdell is coming to Toowoomba for Lifeline Darling Downs Gambling Help Team's Wanna Bet! A free theatre show about gambling.

WANNA BET: Comedian Steph Tisdell is coming to Toowoomba for Lifeline Darling Downs Gambling Help Team's Wanna Bet!, a theatre production to engage the public about the subject of problem gambling. Picture: Contributed

What do you get when a group of Toowoomba university students, the Lifeline’s Darling Downs’ Gambling Help Team and one of Australia’s brightest comedy stars, Steph Tisdell come together for a night of alternative theatre?

Lifeline Darling Downs’ Gambling Help Team in collaboration with the University of Southern Queensland and their Bachelor of Theatre and Bachelor of Creative Arts and Wellbeing students are presenting Wanna Bet! an alternative theatre production designed to engage the public about a subject almost taboo in the community, problem gambling.

The event is being held during Responsible Gambling Awareness Week, an annual event encouraging gamblers to stay within their limits and highlights the support available to people who feel gambling may have become a problem for them or someone they know.

USQ students will act out three different scenes of families dealing with gambling with the audience being given the opportunity if they chose, to interact in live scenes to play out different possibilities, to shape the story.

Emceed by the Brisbane based, and very talented comedian, Steph Tisdell will take the audience through an interactive experience from laughter to tears.

Themes include why people gamble, signs of gambling problems, impact of gambling problems on children, what you can do to help, how you can stop gambling and what to say if you think a family member or friends has a gambling problem.

The aim of the production is to create genuine engagement with the audience and to create a

greater understanding of gambling and its implication for individuals, families and communities

Members of the community are invited to attend this free production at 10am this Friday at USQ’s arts theatre (A Block).
Morning tea will also be provided.

Bookings are essential but hurry ticket sales close today at 4pm.

To book please follow this link.

Lifeline Darling Downs provide a local Gambling Help program which is a free confidential counselling service for anyone affected by problem gambling.

The Gambling Help service also offers free training and education to schools, community organisations, and other services raising awareness of problem gambling.

For more information, call 1300 991 443.