History of Valley Artists
Scene 1. Late 1997.
A bunch of creative louts sprawled around a table on someone's verandah, drinking wine, smoking. Topic of conversation: ‘Damned shame our creative people have to leave the valley to find work.'
Solution: ‘Let's start our own theatre company.' Good idea. ‘Everyone throw in a hundred bucks and let's do it.'
Done.
Scene 2. March, 1998.
Naivety is a wondrous thing. First production in rehearsal. ‘Come to Pieces'. Scripts written by local writers under tutelage by Australian playwright Timothy Daly. Venue organised. Everyone does everything. Big success.
Scene 3. After the show.
Get serious guys. What do we want to achieve?
OK.
- To produce quality theatre.
- To offer training in performance and production to our community, especially to our youth.
- To offer scholarships at the end of production to some cast and crew to pursue their goals out of the valley.
Scene 4. July, 1998
Next show. ‘Funny Business' Very funny stand-up, improvisation and sketches, featuring theatre sports wiz Simon Rogers from Melbourne, directed by local guy and professional comedian Alan Glover. What a guy.
Scene 5. Somewhere in here. 1998.
Get more serious. Need to raise money to continue. ‘Hey, let's do a sponsor's dinner thing.' OK. Do that. Huge, silly, fun, mad night. Sponsor's loved it. Must do every year.
Scene 6. December 1998.
Xmas show. Need to involve the kids. Do ‘The Singing Tiger' written by local Peter McDonough. ‘Let's have singing in this one.' OK. ‘A Tasmanian tiger singing Col Porter songs sounds good.' Done. Big success.
Scene 7. Early 1999.
Time for some drama. Extend those actors. Enter David Williamson with ‘The Removalists'. That knocked a few socks off. Thanks to seriously good director Bob Philippe.
Scene 8. Winter 1999.
Start teaching. Workshops in basic acting technique, voice, and in preparation for end of year show: ‘Getting the hang of Shakespeare'
Scene 9. December 1999.
‘The Dream' an adaptation of ‘A Midsummer Night's Dream. Huge cast, huge show, hugely talented director Wayne Van Keren. The media came, everyone came. Thank God us louts had a dream.
Scene 10. It goes on and on.
More verandahs, more wine, more cigarettes, more ‘Hey, why don't we do....?!' ‘And then we can do.....! OK. ‘Let's do it!'
SO WE DID - read on.
Febuary, 2000, ‘Wollombi Workers Club', Annual Sponsors Dinner
March, 2000, ‘Come to Bits', written by local writers.
September, 2000, ‘Radio Wollombi', written by local writers, Alan Glover & Bob Philippe.
December, 2000, ‘Reedy River'. Australian classic. Director Wayne Van Keren.
March, 2001, ‘Hotel Sorrento', written by Hannie Rayson. Director Bob Philippe.
May, 2001, ‘Wollombi Weekly World Discovery Tour'. Annual Sponsors Dinner. Director, set designer - Janine Oliver.
Winter 2001, more Workshops.
September, 2001, ‘A Bloke in the Cupboard', written by local writer, Erin Heffernan.
December, 2001, ‘Aladdin' written by local writers & directed by Bob Philippe.
April, 2002, Shakespeare's ‘Richard III'. Directed by Wayne Van Keren - a contemporary adaptation. Wayne believes that a classic is defined by its relevance, not by its age. Wayne also played Richard.
May, 2002, Finished, RIII is gone. A work of art, it survived its season and will live in the memories of those that created the vision and those that saw it for a long time to come. I cannot help but be proud of the company's achievement in this production.- Janine Oliver, President.
May, 2002, ‘Wollombi's Wild Night of the Gypsy'. Annual Sponsor's Dinner. An un-staged blackout in the valley did not phase the evenings entertainment at all. Quick work by stage crew and a generator meant that our venue had the only food and entertainment in the valley. And the band played on.......Director & Set design - Janine Oliver.
Winter 2002, Workshops in Dramatic Make-up for Theatre by tutor Suskia Donkers and Acting workshop by Wayne Van Keren.
September, 2002, ‘The Exchange Hotel', performed at the Wollombi Festival.
December, 2002, ‘The Commedia' directed by Wayne Van Keren.
Review: by Fifi La Boom
I walked into another world the other day. What had been a portion of the garden of the Wollombi tavern was now an altered state of weird and wonderful scenery and strange looking people (even stranger looking than the usual tavern crowd). I had entered the realm of "Commedia del' arte", Valley Artists' summer production. I had entered Wayne's World. Wayne Van Keren (Richard III, Reedy River and The Dream - I should never have started a list because I'm bound to miss something and then I'll look silly...) directed this "comedy of professional artists". Sure, I expected to be entertained, but I was surprised just how entertaining this form of largely improvisational theatre was, with amusements in the form of illusion, acrobatics, mime and a humorous play, all performed with masks.
February, 2003, Workshops in Randai. A year long project for the company begins now. A series of two 10 week workshops Teir 1 starting now & Teir 2 in June. All towards our December 2003 production 'Quest Perilous - the Tale of the Fair Unknown'.
March, 2003, ‘Hearts of the Valley', our Annual Sponsors Dinner.
Would you be intrigued if you were invited to be an extra on a movie set where the only props were glasses of wine and platters of hors d'oeuvres? At this Sponsors Dinner the meal came between massive set changes then after dessert we served up 'Rushes' a seven minute video cleverly edited on site during the 'shoot.' The stunned audience had no idea they were actually in a second film to be shown, complete, that night. Many thanks to the cast & crew of 62 who made this into a memorable event. It was as gratifying for all that worked on the show to see the end result as it was for our sponsors. Become a Valley Artist sponsor and be surprised annually by what this company can dish up.
April, 2003, 'Honour'. A superb production in contemporary Australian drama. Writer Joanna Murray-Smith, under director Bob Philippe's expertise, took us on a roller-coaster ride of emotions. This provocative drama challenged our notion of honour, our sense of decency and our belief that love would prevail. The dilemma was real and relevant. Bob Philippe and his cast delivered a moving and thoroughly modern piece of theatre.
September, 2003, 'Wollombi Short Film Festival Performance'. A small production to show the community the style of theatre that had evolved from the workshops throughout the year and a taste of what they will see in December 2003.
December, 2003, 'Quest Perilous - the Tale of the Fair Unknown'. Valley Artists Inc. recieved a grant in late 2002 from the Commonwealth Regional Arts Fund for Randai exponent Indija Mahjoeddin to mentor director Wayne Van Keren in a form of West Sumatran martial arts - RANDAI. Van Keren then blended this form of martial arts with his own adaptation of Alfred Lord Tennyson's ''The Tale of the Fair Unknown'. Performed in the round, it was an unusual blend of cultures resulting in great acting and some pretty exiting sword play. As Art Reach magazine put it - 'A West Sumatran King Arthur in Wollombi'.
May, 2004, 'The Anniversary' a black comedy written by Bill MacIlwraithe and directed by Fiona Burless.
May & June 2004, Workshops in Basic Acting & Stagecraft, Tutor Wayne Van Keren
Later June 2004, Workshops in Circus Skills with Tutor John Campbell, experienced in voice & circus skills from Newcastle.
September, 2004, 'Wollombi Valley Short Film Festival' at Horse Heaven Working Gallery.
November, 2004, Sponsors dinner. Alan Glover creates and directs the 'Wollombi High School Re-Union'. You have never seen so many big kids in your life!
December, 2004, Jackie Hickmott directs a traditional pantomine, 'Snow White', involving many of the valleys children.
May 2005, 'The Circus of Life'. An undertaking by Valley Artists to include the writers in the valley. A collage of many different stories. A kaliedescope of colour and movement. Directors, Neville Newman, Claude Aliotti and Julie Simpson.
September, 2005, Wollombi Valley Short Film Festival at Laguna Hall.
October, 2005, 'The Other Winemakers Dinner Party' our Annual Sponsors Dinner, written by Jonathan Poynter and Alan Glover, directed by Janine Oliver.
December, 2005, 'The Finnys' written by Peter McDonough and directed by Janine Oliver.
April, 2006, 'The Importance of Being Earnest' written by Oscar Wilde, directed by Bob Philippe and starring Alan Glover as Lady Bracknell.
May 2006, Annual Sponsors Dinner where sponsors were invited to join the 'New Australian Government' in launching its new Arts & Culture Policy. A success as usual!
July & August, 2006, Workshops in Voice & Movement for our upcoming production of 'The Wind in the Willows' in November, 2006. Tutor John Compbell.
November 2006 - 'Wind in the Willows' 42 actors play 62 roles, with approximately 60 crew to make this production our biggest outdoor adventure yet! The drought tried to break with wild electrical storms and more wind than any willow or wattle could stand. Congratulations to the crew for continually re-erecting the set, lights and sound.
May 2007 - 'Summer of the Seventeenth Doll' by Ray Lawler. Directed by Bob Philippe. ‘The Doll" (1955) is regarded as the most historically significant play in Australian theatre history yet its themes remain relevant to this day. Featuring Valley Artists veterans Alan Glover, Clare Di Natale, and Karen Butler Hues, with Kenneth Barnett and Siobhan Turrell and introducing Carmen Buchanan and Stephen Pembroke.