|
Hello Freinds,
The Red Cliffs Musical Society turns 73 years old and this is quite an accomplishment for a Society that started out as a “choir” performing Stainers Crucifixion at the Roxy Theatre in Red Cliffs for the Easter of 1938.
In 1939 the Society was actually formed under the name Red Cliffs Musical Society as it has been known since and was under the baton of its founder Geoffrey S. Beacham. The production staged on 7th August 1939 at the Diggerland Theatre at Red Cliffs was “Merrie England” with a cast of 10 artists plus the Dancers provided by Miss Millers dance pupils. At this point in time the membership consisted of 18 Sopranos, 8 Contraltos, 9 Tenors and 8 Bass with an orchestra of 7 members.
It is rewarding to have the society still going strong to this day and proudly having produced many successful shows over the past 73 years and with the event of “My Favorite Year” opening in September this production will be our 113th. If you take an average of 45 people involved in each production over the 113 shows it equates to over 5000 people passing through our productions since it’s conception.
The successes of the society was greater back in the late 1960’s through to the late 1980’s because of the newer show being produced by the society and the move to the Mildura Arts Theatre where there was many a time when the “House was almost Full” and even on occasion “Sold Out”
To keep the success of the society rolling on we are endeavouring to move into the 21st century by way of keeping up with the more modern shows that have come off Broadway in the latter years but to do these shows we have to patiently wait until they are affordable for us to do which sometimes means waiting 5, 10, 15 or 20 years for the professional companies to be finished with them then they become available to the amateur companies at an affordable royalty.
Over the past few years I have been fortunate to have a forward thinking committee supporting me and as a result of that we have our website which gets the information out to the community to keep them informed about the society and our up and coming productions along with other interactive facilities available that can be used for feed back from people or just a way for people that may be interested in joining us to get in touch.
To this end we are in the process of launching our own online booking system and also launching a new membership available to anyone who likes to frequent our productions. This membership will also be available on our website or at our productions. The membership will enable people to have their tickets for the three productions per year prepaid by paying upfront at a discounted ticket price and over the course of the three productions this amounts to quite a saving as well as enabling the membership holder to other benefits.
There will be a full range of memberships to cover the individual requirements; these will consist of a double membership, single membership and concession membership. There is no Family membership as the Family tickets are already discounted.
We the Society are looking forward to many more years of providing musical productions of professional standard to the community as well as giving the many talented young and old an opportunity to be involved in our society either on stage or behind the scenes. There is no better way to learn theatre craft than to be part of a production, make new friends and become confident about performing on stage or learning what being backstage is all about.
I am looking forward to meeting new people in our upcoming shows in 2012 all of which will be exciting for everyone who wants to be part of our productions.
Pamela Bradley
President, Red Cliffs Musical Society Inc. |
