Musicals

50 GOLDEN YEARS

The following history of Ballarat National Theatre, "50 Golden Years", was written Sonja Kinnersly and published by Ballarat National Theatre in 1988 to celebrate their 50th anniversary.

1938 - 1945

1945 - 1952

INTRODUCTION

Researching and compiling this fifty-year history of Ballarat National Theatre has been a real labour of love for me. Since beginning the work in 1985, I have had the good fortune to have had recaptured for me the magic feeling which I first experienced in the late 1950s when as a school girl, I was taken to the Little Theatre in Camp Street by my father. From that first 'curtain up' when I settled into the canvas~backed seat, only to be catapulted forward at unexpected moments when some adult in the same row shifted their position, I have been. totally and irrevocably in love with Theatre. It seemed at the time, and after thirty .years the impressions remain, that the actors I watched performing on that tiny stage were god-like creatures, stunningly beautiful, profoundly moving, unfailingly professional and with talents which were in my youthful eyes, magic.

It has only been in the latter years, when as a member of the committee and later as President, and involved in the backbreaking, sometimes thankless and often heart-breaking work of running a theatre company, that the magic has begun to wear thin. This knowledge - that Theatre is not all lights and glamour and magic, coincided with the devastating discovery that the handsome actor, on whom I had the most desperate crush at the age of 15, was in reality, a very ordinary middle-aged man, whose preference in any case, was not for girls.

This history then, is dedicated not only to those stars with whom we, as audiences fell in love, but to the thousands of people who, in fifty years, have worked their magic behind the scenes in whatever capacity, and made ordinary people into gods.

It has been a great joy for me to read through fifty years of official minutes, annual reports and correspondence, and fascinating to 'read between the lines' and imagine the real stories behind what was officially recorded. In fifty years the meanings of some terms have changed; for example 'producer' as the person who has artistic control of the production, has now been discarded in favour of 'director'. However, here both of these terms have been used where appropriate to a particular year. Also the conventions governing the usage of personal address which are year-specific have been preserved to a large extent to keep the feeling of that particular era. For example, in the list of committee members' names, it is not until the 1970s that members' first names are used in the records. It was interesting to note that in correspondence between the secretary and the treasurer in 1956, they addressed each other as 'Miss Morgan' and'Mr Abson'. It is the more interesting to us in the electronics age that committee colleagues would favour the written word over the telephone.

My personal thanks go to many people for assistance with this history. To Val Sarah for her research; to Ian Field for his invaluable assistance in sorting and classifying the material; to Jenny Strickland, Connie Russo and Geoff Richards who, fortunately for me are blessed with magnificent memories; to Bob Baker, Peter Barwood, Albert Dulfer, lan Field, Marj Ford, John Fox, Gordon Henderson, Phil Hobson, Peter James, Doug Sarah, Val Sarah, Joy Smith, Alan Wakeling and the late Thelma Walker, for personal histories and anecdotes. To the present committee for their faith and practical support, to BTV6 for their continued sponsorship of National Theatre and to the Ballarat Courier for much of the source material. And especially to all those secretaries over fifty years who have kept good records of the Theatre's activities, thereby ensuring an accurate history of BNT, and the comparitive sanity of its historian.

Sonja Kinnersly, January 1988.

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