In 1962 various people at Eastwood Methodist Church got together to discuss the possible commencement of a musical society. Previously the Youth Club had performed one or two shows and engendered enthusiasm. A meeting was held in the church hall and an executive committee was elected. I was elected president, not, I'm sure, because of any special musical ability, but because I had some experience at running meetings. […]
The first executive meeting was held in my home[...] and was the first of many late nights as later executive members can testify to. I think the latest was 1am. […]
Our early shows were usually over eight performances (four weekends) at home and at times nine if we were doing an away show. Ever since day one we have had a reputation for good chorus work and excellent costumes. […]
These away shows were by invitation, usually from other churches or charities. We used to travel to places such as Roseville, Chatswood, Asquith, Springwood, and Kiama. While they were mostly popular with casts, they eventually became a drag for stage crews. A typical arrangement was for the stage crew and male cast members (often principals thought themselves above having to help) to arrive at the church hall on Thursday night, load the truck with the stage, drive to the other venue, unload the truck, put up the stage and arrive home about midnight. Then after the performance on Saturday night, take down the stage, load the truck, drive back to our hall and unload the gear, sometimes onto our stage ready for the next performance, all very late nights!
The most popular of these "away" shows was to Kiama where all the above stage work happened except it occurred on the Saturday afternoon. The cast travelled by bus, playing many games of 500 on the way down, (not on the way back!) and were provided with a usually sumptuous tea by the locals. Arrival home about 3am was not uncommon. […]
Staging
Very early on in the piece we found we needed a supporting framework for backdrops and side flats. My father [...] was able to have some steel fabrication made to our specifications which formed the basis of our stage designs for many years. It was strong enough to hold two backdrops at a time, allowing us to have a different scene for Act 2 if necessary. Many many hours were spent painting beautiful backdrops and flats. [...]
When we first presented our shows on the Eastwood stage, it was higher than it is now. In fact the distance between the stage floor and the ground soil underneath was only about a metre and a half. It was decided we needed a lot more space for our props and wardrobe so we sought permission from the church trustees to excavate under the stage. Given the O.K. a lot of hard digging was done [...] A concrete floor was laid, electric lighting was laid on, a doorway was cut in below stage right (another one centre stage, later) and we had our space.
Another innovation later came in the form of the lighting box. We sought permission to use the ceiling space over the then entrance lobby, cutting a window into the rear wall, and a ladder and trapdoor up from the lobby. Electricity was run by cords from a box on stage along the full length of the hall and eventually another phase was added to the meter and we were able to dispense with the long wires. Prior to this, we had a blackout once during a performance, caused by overloading the system with our lighting and the heating. Somehow, I don't know how, it was fixed and the show proceeded. […]
Bookings
Early on bookings were made in the hall, no preferential bookings, and one could buy as many tickets for one performance as they wished in one go. It was quickly found that as few as five or ten people booked out a complete hall, particularly for the last night and others, principals included, missed out. This led to some people arriving at the hall at 5.30am to book tickets at 7pm. Ridiculous! If you wished to make sure of last night tickets you had to arrange with one of these early birds to get them for you. Someone in the queue could change three or four times during the day as others took their turn to keep the place. It's all changed now.
Don
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