By Luke Voogt
One of Geelong’s long-time theatre “families” will come to an end in style with a three-part series celebrating its fondest onstage memories.
Scottish expat Ron Sudden and wife Maureen founded the Bayside Entertainment and Theatre Inc, or BEAT Inc, in 2005 for the city’s older residents to live their theatrical dreams.
“We wanted to get something for the older age bracket people that didn’t get a chance to perform in bigger shows in Geelong,” he told the Indy.
“We’ve got people in their eighties, seventies and sixties still performing – it’s marvellous.”
But after 12 years, the troupe of singers, dancers and actors will say Thanks for the Memories during their final curtain call next month.
“We think it’s time to wind it up on a high while we’re all fit and people are able to still perform well – which they are,” Ron said.
Ron remembered BEAT’s “packed“ first performance, Hits of the Blitz, at Geelong Performing Arts Centre over four days in 2006.
The show began in darkness, with air-raid sirens blaring through the theatre, which took one “agitated” audience member back to the bombing of England.
“She’d gone through this very thing back home,” Ron said.
The troupe played songs from the 1940s to an audience full of World War II veterans and nurses.
“We asked everybody with medals to stand up and we gave them three cheers,” Ron said.
The show finished with Churchill’s end of war speech and Vera Lynn’s wartime classic We’ll Meet Again.
“Every single audience member in theatre were holding hands and singing together,“ Ron said. “People were crying – it was an amazing experience.”
Ron moved to Geelong from Scotland as a teenager and went on to perform in local theatres for about 50 years.
He has been BEAT’s director, treasurer and pianist for a decade, alongside Maureen, the group’s president.
“We put the shows together and we chose the songs,” he said.
The group had become like family and would be hard to say goodbye to, Ron said.
“A lot of the ladies are widows and they just love the social interaction.”
BEAT Inc’s final concert series Thanks for the Memories runs at Belmont Theatre Hall on 1, 7 and 8 October.
The show includes a World War II segment, comedy skits and variety of different routines.
“We’re finishing with We’ll Meet Again and that will be teary,” Ron said.
