AUDITION DAY – SUNDAY 27 SEPTEMBERDear thespians of the Bega Valley and beyond,Theatre Onset is working towards our Homegrown project to be performed in March 2027. The project thus far has 10 playwrights, with 10 x 10-minute plays and 6 Directors. We will be holding an Audition Day on Sunday 27 September (next weekend) with as many of our potential actors attending so we can play around with the plays and the directors. From this, we will be able to cast the plays. We are looking for all ages, especially 18-25 year olds, all genders, all cultural backgrounds. If you are interested in being part of this show, please get in touch with me – contact details below. If you are interested in being part of the show but can’t make it next weekend, let me know. Suggested timeline for the project, with most rehearsals on Mondays and Thursdays in Bega at the old Uniting Church, is as follows:Mid Oct – mid Dec 2026 – rehearsals – TBA. Break over Christmas and New Year (unless the play you are in doesn’t break)Rehearsals start again in mid-late January/Feb, early March 2027Performances in mid-late March 2027 – exact dates TBC with cast. Production week – 1 week before performances start – all hands on deckCan you please tell me:If you are interested in acting in this project.If so, can you attend our Audition Day on Sunday 27 September 11-4pm at the old Uniting Church in Bega?Can you come for the whole day?Are there blocks of time that you know you will be away during the timeline above? What are they?What is your availability for rehearsals?We are also looking for people who can help out with backstage work (quite a bit for a season of short plays), set and propo making, costume and prop sourcing, publicity and socials. Let me know if you are interested in helping out.Cheers, Mahamati 0448 248 322Theatre Onset
Spectrum Theatre & Theatre Onset present Neil Simon’s THE ODD COUPLE Directed by Amber Little
STARTS NEXT WEEK! 5 Shows only. DON’T MISS IT! 7pm Thu 28 May 1.30pm Fri 29 May 7pm Fri 29 May 1.30pm Sat 30 May 7pm Sat 30 May
VENUE: THE TWYFORD in Merimbula
One’s a snob and one’s a slob – a friendship made to laugh!
Neil Simon’s Tony Award winning play about friendship, divorce and misunderstandings has been recreated several times including the 1968 film with Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, and the 1970 TV remake with Tony Randall and Jack Klugman.
Two suddenly single pals – a sloppy sportswriter and a fastidious news writer – strain their friendship by becoming roommates and unconsciously repeating the same mistakes they made in the marriages they just left.
A FABULOUS LOCAL CAST: Felix Ungar John Fraser Oscar Madison Jamie Forbes Murray Jackson Fisher Speed David Willis Vinnie Chris Warren Roy Sam Roberts Cecily Pigeon Belinda Rose Gwendolyn Pigeon Jodie Stevens
Show length: 2.5 hours including 20 minute interval
Recommendations & Warnings: This production contains adult themes, discussions of suicide.
VENUE INFO · Foyer Box Office opens 1 hour before the show for any remaining tickets. · Foyer Cafe/Bar opens 1 hour before show and at interval. Bar closes 5 minutes before show starts. · Please arrive in time to buy your refreshments and be seated before the lights go down. · For accessible seats and wheelchair space bookings in Row J, please contact the Twyford Box Office directly on 0421 199 910 or email info@thetwyford.com.au. · Hearing Loop in Theatre for T switch-compatible devices.
Theatre Onset’s next play, Lysistrata: A Woman’s Translation by Drue Robinson opens next week on Friday 20 March. Don’t miss out! Theatre Onset shows are always well-attended and well-loved!
The play will be performed at the old Uniting Church, 125 Gipps St, Bega with opening night on Friday 20 March and closing on Sunday 29 March. Night time performances and matinees.
A group of women in Ancient Greece seize the Treasury and all the money in it and stage a sex strike until the war is stopped! Based on the comedy by Aristophanes, this is a modern adaptation by Drue Robinson, written completely in rhyme!
This is a bawdy romp, laugh out loud and with a local cast of 25 there is plenty to feast your eyes on.
The play will be performed at the old Uniting Church, 125 Gipps St, Bega with opening night on Friday 20 March at 7pm and closing on Sunday 29 March with a matinee at 1pm. For all ticket prices and dates, head over to trybooking.com/DJOES.
Due to the many sexual innuendoes, stylised violence and adult themes, we recommend audiences are 17years and over.
Auditions coming up for the play The Odd Couple, a co-production between Spectrum and Theatre Onset! Auditions will be in the week of Feb 9th 2026, 6 male roles, 2 female roles, please email amberlsod@gmail.com to book an audition or for more information.
Happy New Year and we hope you are having a wonderful summer, maybe writing??
This year, Theatre Onset will produce a season of short plays by local writers called Homegrown. We held a Playwriting workshop in December last year, and we all had such a fun, productive time, we decided to hold another one which will be on Sunday 15th February at the old Uniting Church in Bega, 11am-4pm. If you are a budding playwright and have a play or two half written, completely written or a very strong idea, you are more than welcome to come to the workshop. Three of Theatre Onset’s resident writers will be on hand to guide participants through a process to help get them writing great 10-minute plays. The deadline for submission of works for consideration in the Homegrown program is 31 March 2026. This workshop is an opportunity to get those plays up to scratch, giving you advice and techniques to get your plays ready for submission.
Please RSVP for the workshop by Sunday 1 Feb.
Here is a checklist for developing your play:
TEN MINUTE PLAY DEVELOPMENT – CHECKLIST
What’s it all about?
What’s your play about? Can you tell us in a single sentence?
Write that sentence, read your play. How did you go?
Before anything else get your story straight, beginning, middle and end. Now, do you believe it?
What happens? Actually happens… not talked about, not discussed… does anything actually happen. Remember what they say… theatre is life with the boring bits missing.
Have you got the most out of your story?
Those good ideas that you had, have you explored them to their logical/ illogical conclusion?
Anything more you want to say? Said all you wanted to say and then dribbled on a bit?
Who is in it?
Most important…Are all your characters working to tell your story?
Does every exchange either build on a character or drive your story forward? Hopefully both.
What about Bill with his two lines??? Do you need him? Is he worth more than the two lines you’ve given him.? You’ve got ten minutes, don’t waste a minute.
What have you given your director/actors to work with?
Does six-foot seven hard man Fred sound, and more importantly act, like a hard man? The actor and the director will start from what your character does to build a believable character. Does what you’re characters do reflect what you’ve said about them.?
Dialogue
Read your dialogue aloud or, better yet, get someone else to read it while you listen. Does it sound like a recognisable person speaking?
Do all your characters sound the same? Some people will go on a bit, others you’ll be lucky to get a grunt out of, and a grunt might say as much as a dozen words for the right character.
Listen to people around you. You’ll pick up a rhythm in their speech. Good playwriting matches speech pattern to character.
Where will this be performed?
Think about if you were to submit your work to an Off Off Broadway company in New York. It’s open for submissions for ten-minute plays with something to say, to be performed in their black box theatre. Is your play a fit?
The company is going to present a program of plays.. It is looking for a balanced program to entertain/ stimulate its audience of paying customers. Whether it gets an audience to its next production depends on how well the audience receives this production… no pressure.
Does your play fit the bill? If so, press submit, etc.
If it’s good enough for Theatre ONset, it should be good enough for Off Off Broadway. Don’t think of it being good enough to just get by.
So, if you have got to the end of this checklist, please let me know if you are coming to the 15 Feb workshop.
If you know of others who would benefit from this workshop, please forward this info on.
Next Friday 16 January, we will be holding a Working Bee at the old Uniting Church in Bega, which is where we currently perform our plays. We have a range of tasks to achieve and would love some help in giving the old Church a bit of TLC. If you would like to come and help, we will be there from 10am-2pm.
Last year, we were fortunate enough to receive grant funding through the Community Building Program via Dr Michael Holland. This is to provide some needed upgrades to the Old Church and to turn her into a better theatre when we put plays on there, including lighting and reducing the damp in the building. While we won’t be able to do everything we want to do, this Working Bee is in line with our aim of taking a more proactive role in maintaining the Church as a community space.
Working Bee:
Venue: old Uniting Church, 125 Gipps St, Bega (opposite St Vinnies)
Time: 10am-2pm
What to Bring: clothes you don’t mind getting dirty
We will provide rolls, cooked chook and salad for lunch + tea/coffee, etc. If you want anything else, please bring it.
Any further questions or suggestions, please text or email me.
Theatre Onset will be holding its AGM on Sunday 21 December at High Noon. If you would like to attend the AGM, supporting our creative schedule and offering ideas, plays, shows, etc, you would be very welcome. If you would like to join the committee, please let us know before the AGM.
Agenda:
President’s report
Treasurer’s report
Any other business
Nominations and elections for the committee in 2026
Followed by a General meeting and a BBQ
Please get in touch to find out where the AGM will be held and what to bring.
Call for actors & Call for designers and makers for sets, props & costumes
Theatre Onset Auditions for “Lysistrata: A Woman’s Translation” a play by Drue Robinson.
Lysistrata is a bawdy, riotous, energetic &hilarious play, based on the Ancient Greek play of the same name by Aristophanes. It is full of sexual innuendo, strong women, ridiculous men and you will need to be bold and outspoken, not afraid to be rude and loud. And the play is written in rhyme.
3 auditions/read throughs (no preparation needed) will be held:
1. Saturday 27 September 2-4pm
2. Sunday 28 September 2-4pm
3. Monday 29 September from 5-7pm
4. Alternate date by request
RSVP for one date via email or text to Mahamati
0448 248 322 / mahamati.currie@gmail.com
Venue: Old Uniting Church, 125 Gipps St, Bega.
Cast of 24:
– 5 women 25-45 years, or able to play this age
– 3 women 18-25 years (+ will play another part)
– 1 woman – large, non-speaking, a powerful presence on stage!
– 6 older women 50-100
– 3 men 30-55 years
– 6 older men 50-100
We will also need other helpers, especially at the design stage then building sets, making props & costumes, Front of House for performances.
Rehearsals start Monday 13 October
Performances start on Friday 20 March with final matinee on Sunday 29 March.
Theatre Onset will be producing a season of short plays (ten minutes maximum) in September/ October 2026.
We are looking for 10 local playwrights/writers who would be interested in supplying a short 10 min piece for production. The show will be called Homegrown.
If you are a first time writer or have never written a play before, we are happy to help you bring the piece to performance readiness – rewrites, discussion themes, what works in terms of set, etc. This project is about sharing and learning skills as well as producing great short plays.
Timeline:
If you are interested, send us a pitch or Expression of Interest now and what support you might need. Plays must be ready for submission by 31 March 2026. After this, we will select 10 plays for performance by the end of April. May-October 2026 – rehearsal &performance period. This may vary.
We envisage using an ensemble cast for this, ie the same actors will be in all the plays. We will call auditions for this in May.
We will also call for Expressions of Interest for Directors.
You will be paid performance rights if your play is brought to production.
If you are interested in being part of this project, please get in touch now. W warmly invite you to submit a play!
And a reminder that our next exciting production, Waiting For Godot, starts i Bega in just over 2 weeks on Friday 25 July. Tix through Trybooking: https://www.trybooking.com/DCRAK Mahamati
Theatre Onset 