Community Theatre

Director Glen Perks of the Bunbury Musical Comedy Group is carving out a reputation for bringing premiere productions to WA, having already brought the premiere of Blackbeard to the West in 2009.

Perks’ next show is Next to Normal, a multiple award winning emotional powerhouse of a musical by Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey with a thrilling contemporary score.

University of Adelaide Theatre Guild presents Michael Gow’s contemporary Australian classic Away from May 4 – 18.

Three families head off away in the summer of 1967 to re-enact their Christmas holiday rituals.  Immigrants Harry and Vic are making the most of their time with their terminally ill son, Tom.  Roy and Coral continue to grieve the loss of their only son in Vietnam. Jim and Gwen try desperately to cling to their daughter Meg who is beginning to embrace her own independence and womanhood.

Canterbury Theatre Guild (NSW) presents The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee from April 19.

Spelling Bee is a one-act musical comedy by William Finn (A New Brain, Falsettos, Elegies), conceived by Rebecca Feldman, book by Rachel Sheinkin and additional material by Jay Reiss.

The show portrays a spelling bee at the fictional Putnam Valley Middle School. Six quirky adolescents compete in the contest run by three equally quirky grown-ups.

Hotel Sorrento by Hannie Rayson is being performed on stage in the town of its inspiration and origin this April, for the first time since it was written and published in 1990. The story was based on the lives of three sisters who grew up in Sorrento, but the degree to which it adhered to the facts of their lives is mostly unknown.