November Visit

Hello again DavidI hope i haven't mislead you!> I am intrigued at the relatively low level of> activity for non-professional musical theatre in Perth . Here in Victoria> it seems that almost every town or suburb has either a group which> does musicals, or at least a 'straight' company which does one musical> a year.There must be nearly thirty community theatre groups in the metro area alone.Nearly all of these will do at least one musical per year. Some groups will do more than others. They're a pretty eclectic lot usually. I misunderstood and thought you were seeking groups that focused on musicals. Companies that exclusively do "straight plays" or exclusively do musicals are few and far between.That said, i think there probably are fewer musical productions here than may be the average elsewhere - just a personal hunch.I suspect that this may be the case as musicals are frequently perceived to be more expensive to stage and most groups here are severely cash-strapped with small audiences.Oddly enough, the companies producing a fair musical component in their programmes would also appear to be better established with a good cashflow, their own venue and substantial technical resources. :)> There is enormous competition between the major suburban companies> to be the first to do a show as soon as the rights are released, and> over the years a large number of shows have received their Australasian> premieres this way - in some cases the only productions in this country> have been by the non-professional companies. Do your companies tackle> these shows, or do they stick to the standard repertoire?.For some of the huge musicals this may be the case - i think the first "amateur" production of Les Miserables in Australia took place here in Perth. There are bound to be others that i am not aware of. But my perception is that much of the musical fare is re-runs of the classics. One year we had no less than 5 separate productions of Hello Dolly!WAAPA has their musical theatre course churning out some excellent graduates. But almost without exception the graduates leave Perth immediately for the Eastern States or overseas. We just don't have a musical theatre industry to employ them.> Lots of> other questions to ask about company size, composition, premises...> hope to talk to some of you when I come to Perth.I'm likely to be busy rehearsing when you're here unfortunately. Do you have any free days?CheersGrant