Over a drink or two the other night, I was chatting with a friend and colleague about my brief theatrical career.
All throughout high school, I was always one of the kids chosen to “read aloud” when we studied English.
And of course, with my radio background, there was always a bit of drama here and there.
But it wasn’t until I lived in Renmark that I appeared on stage – properly – for the very first time.
Having met some “theatrical types”, I was encouraged to go along to auditon for the Renmark Theatre Group, a local amateur group.
The first production I was involved in was a pantomime: Jack and the Beanstalk which, I recall, went on for an inordinately long time. As I remember now, I think the production probably went three hours or so.
And of course, I was selected for the role of Jack’s mother. Very camp. Lots of fun.
The only other production I was involved in was a play called “Bananas” which was a political critique about racism, Nazism and all that kind of thing.
I have some very fond memories of my time with the Renmark Theatre Group, and went looking online last night to see if I could find anything about the group, including hopefully something about my time there.
I do, however, have a photograph from the Murray Pioneer in 1990 (I think)…
I showed the photograph to my friend and colleague today at work. She thought it was a hoot, and so do I.
Funnily enough, when we were driving through NSW last week we saw a couple of different posters for local amateur drama things, and were musing about how many young people first performed on stage in country and suburban drama clubs, and thus gained the confidence that took them to the next step in their lives.
I think drama is a great thing for all aspects of life. Even if you never act on stage again, you learn something about yourself, I think.
Oh god, that photo is wayyyyyy too much information! My image of James is shattered!!!! It’s very Magic Circle Club!
Think I might head off to the State Library to see if they have copies of The Murray Pioneer. There’s got to be a better quality image somewhere. Nice boobs though? And yes, very MCC.