Also, congratulations Beryl Sylvestor & Penny Searle

At last Saturday night's Finley Awards presentation evening the ITA also recognised Beryl Sylvestor (Hall of Fame)& Penny Searle (Life Membership to the ITA). Beryl Sylvester was synonymus with Y.A.L.D.A and was responsible for encouraging young people into the amateur performing arena. Many community theatre thespians in Perth will remember Beryl with great fondness. She was also known to "tread the boards" herself and, upon the death of her husband and the following subsequent closure of the Young Ausralia League's office in the Perth CBD, Beryl moved to a retirement home in Bentley and continued to be involved in drama by setting up a drama group for retirees. Sincere congratulations, Beryl. Penny Searle ran the 1980 Stirling Players Drama Festival, the 1982 Garrick Theatre Drama Festival and the 1984 Wanneroo Drama Festival. During that period, Penny became known to many who would contact her for information on numerous theatre matters. During that time, although I personally know she enjoyed responding and dealing with those enquiries (I was one of those) Penny knew that she could not continue to do so, so she had the idea that an "umbrella" organisation should be formed to not only deal with enquiries re scripts, actors, insurance, props, run workshops etc but also where she could "place" the drama festivals that she had spent so much time setting up over a six year period. On talking about her idea to various amateur theatre clubs Playlovers offered to hold a public meeting to launch Penny's idea and from that meeting, Penny chaired and directed the "Steering Committee" that implemented Penny's idea and formed the Independent Theatre Association. What an achievement. Sincere congratulations, Penny. This recognition of your contribution has been a long time coming but I'm sure that it means a lot to you. Sincere congratulations, Penny.