"About time too!"

It's a curious metaphor: living theatre professionals warding-off amateur-theatre vampires with crucifix and garlic. At stage door? Maybe. Definitely not at the box-office. Any professional theatre company in Perth would welcome the living and the dead, so long as they paid for their tickets. Sure, there's snobbish on both sides. And in Perth, throw in "independent" or profit-share theatre and student theatre, and there's a landscape of theatre-producing silos. What's the practical outcome of Mike Boyd's intention: amateur battalions on Bosworth Field for R3? Black swan Theatre Co. recently asked for volunteers for the hat parade in FAR AWAY. Or is it more meaningful collaboration - the community choir in MAVIS GOES TO TIMOR (Deckchair Theatre) or Barking Gecko's community production of CRABBBING AT HIGH TIDE in Broome before Perth Festival? What are the fundamentally different intentions behind amateur and professional? We explore this question with the actual words from Perth community theatre in APOCALYPSE PERTH. Seemless transition into self-promotion: that's a professional for you. The Blue Room and Always Working Artists present APOCALYPSE PERTH 21 Oct - 8 Nov 2008 The Blue Room Studio. Bookings: (08) 9227 7005 http://www.blueroom.org.au/blueroomseasons/apocalypseperth http://alwaysworkingartists.blogspot.com/