By Tania Phillips
Are they late for Christmas in July or early for the real thing and does it really matter when it comes to a winter burlesque show about Christmas?
Stanthorpe Little Theatre presents their burlesque showcase – ‘Tis The Season – at their newly renovated O’Çonnor Street premises later this month. The renovations held up the show originally set down for July, which are now happening August 27-28, but its all good because the wait means there will now be bar and kitchen facilities.
Theatre secretary Annie Mitchell said it is all go now for the group, which has been entertaining Granite Belt locals in the old Methodist Church, which was moved to it’s current location 40 years ago.
Of course, like theatre groups across the world – 2020 was a bit quiet.
“We have been pretty lucky and have been able to put productions on, though a lot of them have been put back because of Covid,” she explained.
“When Covid hit we had to cancel King Lear, we had to cancel all of our stuff from last year – we were able to put on a burlesque show at Christmas time but that was the first thing we could put on last year.
“We had been in rehearsal for a lot of things, we sort of dropped them and then picked them up again.
“So this year we have been able to offer a number of performances including “Our Own Guys And Dolls“ in April, “SpyGlass“ in May and our Youth Theatres “Stanthorpe’s Got Talent“ in June.
She said preparations were now well-underway for both the Burlesque in August and their big production of King Lear in November which is their 16th Shakespeare Under the Stars and now has quite a following. Shakespeare Under the Stars is a major production and they welcome everyone – especially young people – to come along and experience what it’s like to be part of such a major event. They need spearbearers, soldiers, peasants and servants. Contact Annie at secretary@littletheatre.org.au or go to their Facebook page if you are interested.
But first before the seriousness of King Lear there will be the fun and frivolity of their Burlesque.
“Our burlesque show is on the 27-28 of August and that starts at 7.30pm and the doors open at 7pm,” she said.
“That show is a very cheeky Vaudeville Burlesque Show with Mrs Claus, naughty elves and the Green Fairy trying to corrupt everyone – it’s a Christmas show but it’s lots of fun.
“Burlesque has a long tradition of Vaudeville-style dancing, it’s slapstick and comedy – it’s poking fun at the establishment and just poking fun at social norms. We’ve just had a lot of fun with some Christmas songs – making them a little bit cheeky and bit naughty.”
She said their newsletter goes out to 350 addresses, but membership goes up and down – with a little drop last year because people felt they weren’t getting the same value due to the lack of productions.
“I think we have 80 paid members which is families and individuals and groups – it covers a wide-range of ages, abilities and interests,” Annie explained.
“We have musicians, we have people who want to do spoken word, we have musical and dance as well as the more traditional, and our Shakespeare audiences and actors, and of course our youth.”
She said it was an exciting time with their foyer now operational.
“We’ve been fundraising and we’ve been so busy trying to get the foyer going because we didn’t have a kitchen and we didn’t have an area for people to come and meet,” she said.
“We’ve been able to get some grants – we don’t have grants for everything – but we have a whole new bar area which will be officially opened on August 6. It’s a whole bar and kitchen area – we’re very excited about that. We will be able to welcome audiences in.”
