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, ‘<