It was the mid 1950’s when Marilyn Gibbs went to her first Wakefield Country Players production and since then she has been involved in makeup, costumes, direction, and has occasionally been on stage.
She remembers the days when cars filled the streets and people queued in the hope of getting a ticket because it was first in, first served for a seat. In the past, the audience was treated to a meal while they watched the show, whereas in a move to make shows more affordable and attractive to families, it is now ‘bring your own picnic’ to sit around tables lit by candles.
One year, the group painted a scene on the scrim walls of her family’s home, then removed it from the wall, rolled it up and took it to the local hall to erect for a show. Another time, when the hall was unavailable for practice, the group used the family woolshed to work on the show. It has always been about being adaptable and thinking outside the square, she says.
Shows went on hold after the town hall burnt down in 1968 but were resurrected in 1975 and have not paused since, running two to three plays or musicals each year. The latest, Our Man in Havana, takes to the stage on Friday, 1 December.
Marilyn says that just like in the past, the group is community focused and relies on everyone working together.
“You have to be a team for a production to work. You have people doing costumes, prop construction and sets, lighting design and people doing dishes. It can be dozens of people. It’s also friendship.”
Jen Amosa is today’s president and she has been an avid member of Wakefield Country Players since she was nine years old after being mesmerised by a show of Star Blaze.
Like Marilyn, her children grew up involved with the shows, from the time they were babies and sleeping while their parents took part either on stage or behind the scenes. Apart from a break when she lived overseas, she has been regularly involved with the shows one way or another, including acting and directing. Acting, she says, can be very “freeing” and she loves the way shows tell a story.
“Theatre is all about story telling; understanding humanity.”
It can take two years to plan a show, especially a musical which has to be sourced and often requires royalties up to $5,000. Plays are cheaper, but still cost a few hundred dollars for each performance. Then practice begins maybe three months before the show before finally, opening night.
Some shows can be up to 40 people involved onstage, or it can be very few. Our Man in Havana is a five-actor show, but with 40 scene changes. In short, it is a comedy based on Graham Greene’s novel that is set in Cuba in the late 1950s. A vacuum cleaner salesman, played by Peter Verstappen, is recruited by the secret intelligence service who are unaware he simply sells vacuum cleaners and so the fun begins.
