By Cameron Weston
NINE Williamstown residents met to form a theatre company in the post-war era, when Broadway was in its golden age and Melburnians were still using food stamps.
And so it is that this year Williamstown Little Theatre, one of the oldest non-professional theatre groups in Australia, celebrates its 60th anniversary.
The group will stage five shows this season and is well into rehearsals for its second production, Neil Simon’s Broadway Bound, a play that, fittingly, he wrote around the time the theatre was born.
Committee president Bryan Thomas said in the early days the company could stage only a few shows, limited as it was by lack of performance space and low membership.
The company is now one of the strongest non-professional groups in the state, consistently enjoying sell-out shows and high subscription rates.
“Our local community and the arts community have taken us to heart,” Mr Thomas said.
He said performers, crew and show directors all felt they were holding the baton when they became involved with the WLT, such was the history of the place.
The WLT has built a fine reputation in non-professional theatre over the years, and regularly attracts top performers and crew from the Melbourne scene.
The company has moved to various locations throughout Williamstown over the years, from the Mechanics Institute, the Supper Room in the Town Hall and the former Mission to Seamen in Nelson Place.
The WLT settled into its converted bakery on Albert St in 1968. More information at www.wlt.org.au.
