Love of theatre — and needing something to do — inspired a Donnybrook woman to turn a hall on her property into a theatre.
IT was the early 1980s when Donnybrook’s Sandra Scaffidi first starting talking over ideas for a Donnybrook theatre troupe with Norm Flynn and Treena Thorpe.
Keen to start something, the trio rehearsed a melodrama with a group of volunteer actors for four months before their debut performance at the Donnybrook Town Hall.
Their success inspired musicals and dinner theatres in following years.
“We used to get the Catholic ladies or any group that did catering to make money for themselves on the catering,” Sandra said.
“There was not a lot of money in it, and the expenses were huge.
“By the time we paid for the hall, and then we had the costs of royalties, the expenses of running it —costumes — we didn’t make a lot of money, but what we did make went back into the community.”
After a few years, the group “slid down”, Sandra said.
“You have to have directors and that’s where we fell foul.
“Norm moved to Bunbury and Treena and I moved in different directions; everyone started pulling back a bit.”
Treena and another enthusiast, Phil Tyler, continued to write a play each year for the drama festival. “That kept the theatre troupe going,” Sandra said.
“I sat back for a number of years.”
Sandra returned to the troupe recently, at which time the group was looking for permanent premises. “We looked at the hall near the cricket ground, we looked at church buildings, and then I got my inspiration,” she said.
“I was out in the park one day, getting bored, and I thought what can I do now? I’d done tourism and pulled out, and I thought it was such a waste to have this venue sitting there doing nothing.”
While considering her on-site venue, Sandra asked herself what she was good at.
The answer was theatre, because she had done it since she was 1.
From that idea, came the transformation of the hall on Sandra’s property into a dedicated theatre.
Source http://www.donnybrookmail.com.au/
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