FROM THE PRESIDENT
Robert Burns inspired the phrase “the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry” and COVID has certainly thrown us all some curve balls – I hope that you and yours are well in these unprecedented times. By now we had should have completed three shows with a fourth about to hit the stage – instead we, along with everyone else, find ourselves battling ever-changing circumstances but, barring further COVID interruptions, we’ve got a(nother) plan and a PLAY!
With the support of the Brolga Theatre & my colleagues on the committee I’m thrilled to announce that “STiFF” will ‘put the fun in funeral’ at the Brolga in late October;
All the STiFF audition info is here and I look forward to seeing you on Sat 8th @ 1pm or Tue 11th @ 7pm
Booking information will follow soon but we’re super excited to bring this comedy to life so look out for more details.
My wonderful team (Jonathan, Theresa, Louise and numerous others) & I had hoped to bring you a one off “Amazing Theatre Carnival” in September but despite huge amounts of talent & work COVID has forced us to postpone yet another show – we’re aiming for January 2021 so keep your fingers crossed for us.
I’d like to say thanks to every single one of you who has donated to our GoFundMe – you’ve generously given over $4,300 and with no grants, ticket sales or other income your support is key to keeping your local theatre alive. If you’re able to support us during these hard times I can promise you our undying gratitude and future theatre shows to entertain.
Please take care of yourselves and we look forward to entertaining you all again shortly.
David Coleman
Z-PAC President
0408 074768
FROM THE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Firstly, thank you everyone who has this year contributed to Z-PAC Theatre’s survival in all manner of ways, most especially those who have donated services or contributed to our GoFundMe page. This has genuinely assisted us in paying the bills we continue to incur while we wait to get our shows back on the stage. Donations are still most welcome!
Behind the scenes we have been very busy organising all sorts of show and fundraising opportunities. Our first, planned, headline act ‘Z-PAC Theatre’s Amazing Carnival Theatrical’ – our reopening one-day celebration of all things art, food, performance and entertainment – has very sadly been postponed! We were so looking forward to sharing the theatre and our art with everyone again but, opening our grounds, which we hoped would be the most COVID-safe option, has proven too difficult to achieve with the social distancing and physical restrictions around built environments. However, our celebration is only postponed, not cancelled. We plan to bring you our Carnival as soon as we can.
But, we have other projects planned! We are teaming up with the Brolga Theatre and Convention Centre to use their large auditorium space to bring you our first show since COVID. So, please support us and add ‘STiFF’, to your diaries where suspenders, death by misadventure and unorthodox embalming techniques feature in this zany, quickfire comedy. Written by April Phillips and directed by David Coleman, this show will run at Brolga October 30 – November 2.
But there’s more! Although subject to change, we have plans! In preparation for ‘Carnival’ so many of our directors and performers have been studying, up-skilling and practising ‘Thank God You’re Here’ type Theatre Sports. The end result is that we have uncovered a hilarious, fascinating and exhilarating entertainment opportunity for you, our audiences. Watch this space for more! Theatre Games is the super-fun night out you didn’t know you needed!
Later in the year will be ‘Almost, Maine’: a critically-acclaimed exploration of love in a remote, mythical almost town in Maine U.S.A. called, Almost. Written by John Cariani and directed by our fabulous youth-theatre leader Tim Holstein, the play is beautifully structured around nine vignettes of love; it is good-natured, witty and romantic. We anticipate this show for late November and December. Location still to be confirmed.
And then hopefully, we can jump straight back in to a full season in 2021 with our other well-varied and fantastic shows: ‘Two Weeks With the Queen’, ‘Inspector Drake and the Black Widow’ and ‘Flummoxed’.
Please do support us as we do our best to relaunch our fabulous theatre!
Theresa Saunders
Z-PAC Theatre – Artistic Director
NEW TREASURER
You will recall in the last newsletter that we were looking for nominations for the position of Treasurer on the Z-PAC Management Committee. We are thrilled to announce that Cheryl Palmer was the successful applicant. Cheryl hails from Te Anau, New Zealand and is now an Australian citizen, having lived here for 12 years. Cheryl landed in Hervey Bay about a year and a half ago after having travelled around Australian in a caravan for much of 2018. Cheryl is a self-employed accountant and her business is Vantage Tax and Advisory. Congratulations Cheryl and welcome to the Z-PAC team!!
DRAMA CLASSES
This has been a crazy and tumultuous year – no denying it. Schedules have changed; livelihoods have been challenged; and peoples’ confidence has been shaken to its core. Yet now, more than ever, is the time to keep your faith in the arts! People need confidence, consistency and distraction, particularly today’s youth, and so to meet this need Z-Pac have been delivering a quality drama program covering a huge cross-section of ages.
Z-Pac’s drama classes are well and truly underway this term, and so far a lot has been happening. On Monday afternoons, Z-Pac has become a hive of activity. 3:30 – 4:30 sees our Tinies class exploring drama in the form of ‘Speech and Sound’. Students have been discovering the extent of their voices by working on annunciation, diction, phonetics, pitch, volume and most importantly projection (filling the room with your voice). In fact the Tinies have been working very hard on learning tongue twisters. Here’s one we practised last week, do you think you can say this 3x without making a mistake?
“Any noise annoys an oyster, but a noisy noise annoys an oyster more!”
4:30 – 5:30 on Monday is the new time for the Teen class. This term we have been focusing on alternative forms of theatre. We have explored elements of: Improvisation, Absurdism, Epic theatre and Street theatre. A few more weeks of developing skills in each of these styles will put students in a great place to work towards our final performance, a “Choose your own adventure” play, where the direction of the story will be dictated by the audience members’ decisions. It is hugely difficult to perform but will be quite exciting to watch!
5:30 – 7:00 is our Adult class. This term we are being very practical, and getting class-members ready for auditioning with audition-etiquette workshops, skill-development in monologue performance, and overall confidence boosting. Those in the Adult class have been working really hard to develop their own rep folders, and will soon be armed with the skills to handle any kind of audition.
On Wednesdays we hold the Junior class program. Junior 1 at 4:00 – 5:00 and Junior 2 at 5:00 – 6:00 feature similar programs, but work with slightly more age relevant class groupings. The focus of Junior classes this term, has been to reinforce the foundation of everything that makes up dramatic performance: “The Elements of Drama”. Students have been exploring these ‘Elements’ across the last few weeks, and as a result have been simultaneously strengthening their knowledge-base and performance potential in the process. Students will be applying these elements to their scene-work in the coming weeks.
It should be noted that classes this term do have a focus as well. All classwork has been developing performance skills, which will go towards an end of year performance night; all to showcase the amazing talents of Z-Pac students. Although the date of the showcase is still to be confirmed – ‘Creepy, Kooky and Altogether Odd: A Z-Pac Drama Class Showcase’ is a performance night that is sure to entertain and enthral adults and children alike. More details about this event will be released in the near future, so keep your eyes on the lookout for tickets, to experience this home-brew, spook-tacular performance.
Special thanks once again to all of the amazing volunteers and helpers who help make the Z-Pac drama classes a possibility; you are an amazing team of awesome people and I am blessed to work with you all.
For more information about joining the Z-Pac drama program, feel free to check out the Z-Pac website www.zpactheatre.com or feel free to contact Karlie Tanner on 0428005330 or
(Mr) Tim
Drama Co-ordinator
Z-Pac Theatre
STOCKLANDS SCHOLARSHIP GRANT – $1,000
Thanks to Stocklands from whom we have successfully obtained a $1,000 scholarship fund. Thanks to their generosity, we will be able to use these funds to contribute towards the cost of Drama classes for members of the community who may not otherwise be able to afford them.
We can’t, as a not-for-profit, just “give the classes away” and we see a partnership with Stockland as a way to allow those who are suffering financial stress become part of their local community.
Z-PAC Theatre run regular drama classes for the local community – from ages 6 to 106. These classes give the opportunity to learn new skills, find a new “purpose” to help them settle in the community and the chance to build new friendships.
A HUGE thanks to Les and the team at Fraser Coast Security who recently fitted us out with a brand new security system. What a professional service to deal with!! Your support and sponsorship means a great deal to us.
THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS
And finally we would like to thank all of our loyal sponsors for your support and we encourage you, our community to remember the importance of supporting local businesses in these times.
