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A Short History of Strzelecki Showtime
Strzelecki Showtime was first initiated during the run of the Melbourne Gang Show in 1969. Ray Beebe had taken his scouts along to the Palais Theatre in St. Kilda to see the show. During the interval Ray and the scouts met some of the Gang Show personell. Ray commented that it would be great to have some sort of Gang Show in Morwell. The Gang acted fast and by the end of the show Ray was given an envelope which contained an offer to stage the 1969 Melbourne Show in Morwell. Of course Ray accepted. Ken Bayly, along with Ray and Stephanie Rickard then set about organising the first show. The Strzelecki kids were put into chorus with the Melbourne Gang taking the lead. The show was held at Morwell Town Hall for a one night run. It was such a success that Ken and the Melbourne Gang suggested we go it alone for the 1970 show. This is what happened. In 1970 the show was entirely run by Strzelecki District. Melbourne Gang Show and Camberwell Showtime helped us out with Music, Scripts and Costumes. Ray Beebe was Directer, Alan Murray began a long spell as Producer and Stephanie Rickard took on the Job as Musical Director. The show was held in the Morwell Technical School hall where it was to remain untill 1980. The show was a success, however 15 minutes before curtain up there wasn't much of an audience but by curtain up the hall was bursting at the seams. In 1971 Norm Bailey became Stage Manager, a job that he still does for us in 2003, this must be some sort of record!! In 1972 Ray Beebe went to England for 2 year (where he was a member of Nottingham Gang Show) so the job of director was handed on to the very capable Adrian Adams. As we celebrated our 5th show in 1973, Col Leviston took on the role of director and Keith Taylor started his reign as Musical Director. We're 10 was the cry in 1978. Showtime was now well established in the Latrobe Valley as an annual event. Our cast now numbered 91 and the show was much more professional than when we Started. Showtime moved into the 80's with a change of venue, we moved to the newly built Morwell High School Hall (later to be Kurnai Morwell) The new hall was much better equipped and had better seating and change room facilities. 1981 saw Ray Haines become producer of the show, a position he held until 1989. Greg Sephton becam director in 1982 and in 1984 May Sennet took on the role. In 1984 Chris Beamish tickled the ivories for the first time, a job in which he excelled in both as a pianist and a writer, along with Barry Lawrence, of over 25 original songs used in the show In 1989 we celebrated our 21st Birthday and Barry Lawrence took over the reigns as Producer, a job he has performed exceedingly well up until his retirement in 2001. Barry headed the show in a new direction where we began to write most of our material used in our shows. This was evident in 2001 where 98% of the entire show was written by local Strzelecki Writers. Reg Kemp took over the role of director in 1989 and served the show well up until 1996. 1993 and we celebrated our 25th Silver Jubilee with a trip down memory lane, with some of the best songs and sketches from 25 years of Showtime. In 1994 Mandy Billingsley became producer and the show was succesfull with our biggest cast of nearly 130. But you couldn't keep Barry away and in 1995 he was back co-ordinating the show and in 1996 he was back as full-fledged producer. 1997 saw Charlie Tarren take on the role of director. In 1998 we celebrated our 30th Show with a "Family Reunion" a mixture of new material and some favourite songs and sketches from over the years. Fiona Flanigan took on the job of director which she still skillfully does in 2003 2000 was our first venture in a whole "plotted" show as opposed to the old revue style of the earlier shows. In this show we were pitted up against the "Millenium Bugs" and defeating them involved some hilarious songs and some interesting plot twists. 2001 saw the biggest change to the show in the past few years. We moved to Traralgon and now perform the show in the Latrobe Regional Performing Arts Centre. Although there is a smaller capacity, the theatre is much more modern than the old Morwell Kurnai Hall. We now have all the joys of modern Theatre with Comfortable Teared seating, better fly system, better audio and computerised lighting control. The 2001 show "Flight 2001" was the most succesfull in some time, with a better quality show audiences were up for the first time in over 10 years and with all the new technology the reviews of the show were much better. In 2001 Nathan Last had the big shoes to fill of taking over Musical Director and Barry Lawrence after an amazing tenure as producer decided to retire from the role, but just try and keep him away from the stage. In 2002 we tried a few new things, first of all we hired in a massive new sound system, more lighting and threw the band on stage. All this came together to make a great show for all concerned. In 2003 we took the Lead of other Scout Shows and wrote the entire show brand new. Although a bit of an experiment the audience liked the idea, and we are doing the same in 2004 with the brand new Musical "A Mystery!" set in turn of the century Melbourne. It is looking like being a great show and a lot of fun.
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