The 2013 Music Theatre Guild Nominations have now been released. We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the below mentioned people but also congratulate ALL of you who have been a part of our amazing 2013 performance year for Williamstown Musical Theatre Company.

We are extremely proud of the year that we have achieved and thank you all for the hard work and team effort that you have all put in over the last 12 months.

2013 Nominations

Settings
Norm Cassidy-Anderson, Urinetown

Female Performer in a Leading Role
Alana Kiely, Charity Hope Valentine, Sweet Charity

Male Performer in a Supporting Role
Blake Testro, Vittorio Vidal, Sweet Charity

Female Performer in a Supporting Role
Ashley Tynan, Nickie, Sweet Charity
Stephanie Hickey, Little Sally, Urinetown

For further information on the Music Theatre Guild of Victoria please visit their website here.

Director: Shaun Kingma
Musical Director: Tyson Legg

We are excited to announce our November 2014 production, The Australian Premiere of ‘Frankenstein – A New Musical‘ which will be presented at the Williamstown Mechanics Institute.

With earnest ballads and soaring ensemble numbers, this compelling new musical brings the suspense and romance of the classic tale to life in a uniquely faithful, yet thoroughly innovative adaptation of Mary Shelley’s original novel. In his quest to discover the secret of life, Victor Frankenstein, a brilliant young scientist, creates a human of his own design that turns out to instead be a horrifying beast. This is no “Hollywood monster,” but a flesh-and-blood man who, while terrifying in appearance, grows to become articulate, cunning, and thirsting for revenge upon the creator who abandoned him. A tragic love story and exploration of humanity, Frankenstein – A New Musical, breathes new life into the world-renowned story of man and creator pitted against one another in epic battle. Authors Mark Baron, Jeffrey Jackson, and Gary P. Cohen have sought to create a work that was uniquely faithful to Shelley’s original novel while offering a bold, new experience for modern theatre audiences. The result is a thrilling “mindscape” that brings the timeless myth of Frankenstein to life as never before.

“Brings the classic tale THRILLINGLY to life”
– Associated Press –

We are proud to announce that we have teamed up with WaterAid during our production of ‘Urinetown – The Musical’ in November. WaterAid focuses on helping transform lives by improving access to safe water, hygiene and sanitation. They work in Africa, Asia, Central America and the Pacific region and campaign globally to raise awareness of their vision of a world where everyone has access to these basic human rights.

We encourage you to donate to WaterAid at one of our donation boxes available during each performance of ‘Urinetown – The Musical’ or directly by visiting www.wateraid.org.au.

WaterAid statistics

• In 2012/13 they reached 1.7 million people with safe water.
• In 2012/13 they reached 2.2 million people with sanitation.
• Every hour they reached 190 people with safe water last year.
• Since 1981 they have reached 19.2 million people with safe water.
• Since 2004 they have reached 15.1 million people with sanitation.
• They work in 27 countries in Africa, Asia, Central America and the Pacific region.

WaterAid Timor-Leste and Papua New Guinea statistics

• 2,900 people reached in Papua New Guinea with safe water in 2012/13.
• 7,179 people reached in Papua New Guinea with sanitation in 2012/13.
• 2,495 people reached in Timor-Leste with sanitation and water in 2012/13.
• Since 2006, they have reached 17,968 people in Timor-Leste with water and sanitation.
• Since 2004, they have reached 47,143 people with water and 52,877 people with sanitation in Papua New Guinea.

General statistics

• 768million people in the world don’t have access to safe water. This is roughly one in ten of the world’s population.
• 2.5 billion people don’t have access to adequate sanitation, almost two-fifths of the world’s population.
• Around 700,000 children die every year from diarrhea caused by unsafe water and poor sanitation. That’s almost 2,000 children a day.

We are excited to announce our first production for 2014 – ‘GYPSY‘ which will be presented in May at the Williamstown Mechanics Institute.

Director – Nicholas Kong
Musical Director – Daniel Heskett
Choreographer – Tamara Finch

GYPSY is the ultimate story about an aggressive stage mother. Join Rose, June and Louise in their trip across the United States during the 1920’s, when vaudeville was dying and burlesque was born. Jule Styne’s music and Stephen Sondheim’s lyrics include Let Me Entertain You, Some People, You’ll Never Get Away from Me, If Momma Was Married, All I Need Is the Girl, Everything’s Coming Up Roses, You Gotta Get A Gimmick and Together Wherever We Go. This is a gripping story of one of the most frightening aspects of show business.

Details on auditions will be released shortly!

Williamstown Musical Theatre Company Inc are saddened at the loss of Bruce McBrien – our theatre community patriarch and one of the greatest supporters and promoters of our community. A real gentleman who will be sadly missed.

Bruce McBrien was born in Melbourne and studied Architecture. He however entered the world of catering and retailing, finally becoming a Buyer for Georges of Collins Street, before becoming the first Curator/Manager of ‘Rippon Lea’ at Elsternwick a position he held for 17 years. Upon retirement he was appointed Honoury Curator at Government House along with many other voluntary positions in Melbourne. He wrote ‘Marvellous Melbourne and Me’ subtitled Living in Melbourne in the 20th Century.

Bruce first appeared on stage in 1952 with Heidelberg Theatre Company and went on to perform in over 150 productions of the Lyric, Festival, Whitehorse, CLOC, PLOS and Elwood Theatre Companies. In 1986 he founded the Music Theatre Guild of Victoria, which now embraces over 80 companies and supports judges travelling Victoria for our awards for excellence program. They have became known as Bruce Awards in his honour. In 1990 Bruce was created a Knight of St John for community service and in 2000 received the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for his contribution to Musical Theatre.

We are excited to announce the cast of our November 2013 production of ‘Urinetown – the Musical’.

Rehearsal Weekend day 2 for ‘Sweet Charity’ kicked off again this morning at 8.30am with breakfast and straight into Choreography. During the breaks the girls are working on completing their own head dresses for which they made the bases yesterday. Looking good girls!

‘Annie Junior’ Audition times are filling up fast. Make sure you book your audition today. Call us on 1300 881 545. Further information also at http://www.wmtc.org.au/

At last nights Annual General Meeting the company awarded Peter Stanek and Ros O’Donovan Life Membership.
Congratulations to them both! Pictured above with company President Marcus Cassidy-Anderson.