Junior Players’ birthday bash

THE CREAM of Geelong performers will be together on stage this month to pay homage to the theatre company that gave them their start.
International opera sensation Peter Coleman-Wright, Martin Croft, Kate Bader, Gail and Cindy Lee, Shane Lee, Shandelle Cooke, Angie Hilton, Sam Cocking, Tim and Noni McCallum, Jackson Thomas, Lisa and Kate Hanley, Andre Jewson, Sophia Katos and Jack O’Riley have become familiar names.
Along with Guy Pearce, they will all be part of a weekend of celebrations as Geelong Society of Dramatic Arts (GSODA) juniors turns 50.
The GSODA Junior Players 50th Anniversary includes a gala ball on the Saturday night and an afternoon tea and open day at White Eagle House.
The celebrations will culminate with one-off Gala Spectacular on 17 August in the Playhouse Theatre at Geelong Performing Arts Centre, headlined by Coleman-Wright.
GSODA said the one-off performance would showcase the talents of former members of the company who had gone on to forge professional careers in the industry.
The show’s musical director will be John Shawcross, while Debbie Fraser will direct with the assistance of Jennie Tonzing.
GSODA believed its Junior Player was the oldest children’s theatre company of its type in Australia.
The brainchild of Dorothy Squire and Noeline Jennings, the juniors’ first production was Red Riding Hood, staged in a former GAMA Theatre in 1965 with a cast of 39 performers aged between eight and 16.
The production proved so successful the company went from strength to strength, growing to 85 members by 1967, GSODA said.