I went to see a few players strut and fret their hour upon the stage last week, and there we all were, gazing open-mouthed and dumbfounded at the multitudes contained within our fellow citizens.
Who would have thought our community policeman had the mettle to drop the shield of his uniform and sing Barbra Streisand’s You Don’t Bring Me Flowers with sensitivity and grace?
But there you go, there’s always more to people than you expect.
Shepparton Theatre Arts Group’s latest production, It Takes Two, played twice on Saturday, but such was the quality and the pure magic it weaved, the show could have drawn sell-out crowds for another week if production costs allowed.
Troy the sparkie put down his voltage tester to sing (I’ve Had) The Time of My Life with GV health worker Melissa Beaton. The voltage coming off the stage didn’t need testing; it was enough to run a city.
Teacher Bella Walker gave us a lesson in style and sass with her rendition of Suzy Quatro’s Stumblin’ In with seasoned Shepparton performer Wayne Geraghty. Bella’s students might now see more than the bespectacled leader at the front of the class.
The power and emotional engagement of the performers made it difficult to realise this was amateur theatre and nobody was getting paid. They were doing this just for the thrill of it. And how thrilling it was to watch their transformation from ordinary to fabulous.
However, many of the performers already had runs on the board as semi-professional singers — and it showed. The quality of performances was probably the best I have seen in more than 25 years of watching STAG shows.
There were no flat spots or bumps in any of the 28 duets — they were all seamless A-list acts.
Equally, The Stagtuccio Dancers brought dynamism and thrills with a series of faultless routines. I needed a big lie down and a bunion massage with avocado foot cream after watching them.
The magic of watching STAG shows is that you already know one facet of the performers — as a teacher, a nurse, a tradie or a business person. But here’s another side — here’s a singer, a dancer, an actor or a musician. These are real multi-faceted people, living real lives.
But it’s not only the people on stage that make a STAG show a real experience.
When you walk into a theatre with raked seating packed with nearly 500 familiar faces you can’t help looking around. There’s Paul with his dad from the UK come to watch wife and daughter-in-law Wendy on stage; this will be a treasured memory for them. There’s Lorraine our old car service lady; I didn’t know she was a theatre fan. There’s Gary our old house-builder. He’s now my firewood man; I must track him down at interval and order my winter supply. The lights go down, and there’s John the foot man with a wig on. Good grief, he’s the spitting image of Alan the real estate man. I never knew Alan was so damn funny.
A community is always more than the sum of its parts, and community theatre does more than bring people together in a practical and supportive way. Like a hall of mirrors, it reflects what an infinitely diverse and talented bunch we are — each with their own aspirations, reasons and deep wells of laughter and tears. After the past few years, thank goodness we can all still celebrate this together for one night at least, in one public place. Thanks to all the people who make this possible, and for placing people up where they belong.
I’m singing to the mirror right now. It’s where I belong, dammit.