Creswick Theatre Company is determined to pave the way to improving accessibility to the town’s historic Courthouse Theatre – one paver at a time.

The active little theatre company is inviting everyone to pitch in by purchasing a personalised paver, thus paving their own way to becoming part of Creswick’s Courthouse Theatre history.

CTC secretary and fundraising coordinator Heather Ingram says the main aim is to build an accessibility ramp leading up to the front entrance to the Courthouse Theatre which is the theatre company’s home. 

They’re also keen to see the venue used by more groups, and to ensure that it is readily accessible for all. 

Last month CTC started selling personalised brick pavers that will be used to build a paved path linking to the planned all-abilities access ramp. 

So far the fundraiser has been gaining good momentum but the chance to be part of history ends on November 28. 

“Construction will take place next year and we’re now in the planning permit stage. We are hoping to secure a grant as well,” Heather says.

“The ramp is going to look gorgeous and the path will be part of the landscaping. Inside the theatre we’re also going to get the foyer raised so as to be at the same level as the theatre.” 

The pavers cost $50 for an individual or $75 for businesses and they can be obtained online at events.humanitix.com/bricks. 

“They’ll be there for posterity and they will be engraved, so you can get them engraved in your own name or as a memorial to a loved one.” 

At the moment the main front entrance to the historic theatre – that once served as the Creswick’s courthouse – is accessed by some fairly large steps making it extremely difficult for some to get in. 

“It doesn’t even have to be someone in a wheelchair,” Heather says. “It’s difficult for anyone on a walker or even just someone with a bad knee.” 

The ramp and flooring upgrades are estimated to cost around $50,000 all up, and if sufficient funds can be raised fast enough, CTC members hope work can get started by the first half of 2025 and in time for CresFest.

Words: Eve Lamb 

The Creswick Theatre Company is looking forward to hosting a night of live music and poetry on Saturday August 17.

Tickets have gone on sale at $12 each and are available via the local theatre company’s website and Humanitix.

The cabaret style performance is scheduled to start from 7pm while the onsite bar opens from 6.45pm with audience members also invited to byo nibbles as well.

The little local theatre company that punches well above its weight in the number and variety of events and shows that it annually stages is also looking ahead to November when it will stage its upcoming “interactive murder mingle” A Murder at the Derby.

Creswick Theatre Company is inviting everyone to get along to its play reading at the Courthouse this Sunday afternoon.

It’s a chance to either participate and read a role, with scripts provided, or just kick back and be entertained.

This time theatre company members are taking on a time-tested script by famed 19th century Irish playwright, Oscar Wilde.

“It will be lady Windermere’s Fan,” says long-time Creswick Theatre Company member Jacinta Antonelli.

Lady Windermere’s Fan is a four-act comedy, first performed in 1892, at the Saint James Theatre in London. The story concerns Lady Windermere who suspects that her husband is having an affair with another woman.

As part of Creswick Theatre Company’s play reading series, they’re also planning to next month tackle a reading featuring an original script by a Glenlyon playwright with the possibility that one may lead on to a stage production as well, Jacinta says.

“We want to mix it up and have old favourites and originals,” she says.

Entry to this Sunday afternoon’s play reading is free and participants are invited to bring a snack along to share, with drinks, tea and coffee also available at the court house theatre bar.

“No prior experience is needed and we are encouraging people from all over the Hepburn Shire,” CTC president Neil Adam says.

“We would just like to encourage anyone who as ever thought of participating in something like this to come along.”

The play reading will take place 2-4pm this Sunday June 23 while the local theatre company also has plenty else happening in the wings including some school holiday fun called You’re an Instrument on Friday July 12, a night of live music and poetry on Saturday August 17, and a Spring racing season “interactive murder mingle” entitled A Murder at The Derby in November.

It is also currently accepting play submissions and production proposals through its website creswicktheatrecompany@fermigiohousegmail-com.

Neil says the committee is also especially keen to increasingly open up use of the local theatre company’s home venue, the historic Creswick Courthouse theatre, to other groups and activities.

Words: Eve Lamb

Creswick Brass Band has extra reason to feel festive after being named Band of the Year at the recent Lions Blue Lake Festival in Mount Gambier, South Australia.

Facing plenty of talented competition from around Victoria and interstate the Creswick band came second in the contest street march, won best band in the Christmas parade, best hymn on the day, best stage march (open C Grade), took first place in the Open C Grade competition and ended up being named Band of The Year.

Competition for the November 18 event included bands form Adelaide, Ballarat, Mount Gambier, Warrnambool, and Portland. Tastefully decked out as Christmas trees for at least some of their public appearances, the members of Creswick Brass had particularly impressed as they took to the streets of Mount Gambier for the Christmas parade.

“I think we were all extremely proud,” said band member and cornet player, Sheena Johnson.

“It made all the hard work worthwhile. Our director works magic and all of the musicians in the band are very talented and very loyal.”

Taking the multiple awards is a big coup for the local band whose existence dates all the way back to the 1800s with some leaves of absence, however, due to world wars, global pandemics and the like.

It’s clearly now back with a vengeance and some 60 members whose ages range from about eight to about 80, says Creswick Brass Band president, Rob Ohlsen who plays tuba.

“We play anywhere and everywhere and it’s starting to really get back now,” he said.

“It was very slow over Covid for us and for a lot of bands. We have everything brass from cornet to tuba and also percussion, and a main focus for us now is percussion. We need more percussion.

“We are a happy band and very family oriented and we do lots of different gigs. We practice on a Thursday night at the Senior Cits in Creswick so people who are interested can just roll up.”
Rob says beginners are welcome with a beginners’ practice session at 6pm and the more advanced rehearsal session from 7pm.

“Music is just universal. Everyone loves it and giving enjoyment back to people is great,” Rob says.

Having acclimatised to the festive season vibe during its Mount Gambier coup, the band is now looking to play plenty of live public gigs in the lead up to Christmas, including the community Carols at The Courthouse event being hosted by Creswick Theatre Company this Saturday, December 9.

The carolling gig and the many other performances that the band has lined up between now and Christmas offer great opportunities to check it out, enjoy its big brassy sound and maybe even think about joining up, Rob says.

There’s other performances coming up in Creswick including evening gigs at Creswick’s ‘Christmas House’ on Creswick-Ballarat Road on December 23 and 24.

The upcoming Carols at The Courthouse event will also feature community carolling led by local singers including members of the Creswick Chorus, local school children and anyone else who wants to get along, flex their own vocal chords and let the seasonal joy rip. Words: Eve Lamb.

Words and Image: Eve Lamb

In his day yesteryear Creswick identity Simon (Simmy) McDonald was something of a household name in folk music circles.
The well loved local character lived on his family property at Springmount just out of Creswick, without electricity, all his life (1906-1986) eking out a living from gold fossicking and agricultural work.
But he was also a fixture at local pubs, particularly Creswick’s American Hotel, where he would sing for food and beer.
At a time when ‘The Folk Wave’ was on and folk music was the Rap of its era, Simmy was called ‘the best traditional singer in the British style ever recorded in Australia’.
Possessing a “fantastic voice” and a splendid repertoire of Irish and Scottish folk songs, he was also “a self confessed alcoholic” and no stranger to the town’s historic courthouse.
He even spent a night in the adjacent lockup, an experience about which, in true folk legend style, he penned a poem.
However, despite his misadventures with the law, Simmy’s folk music talent was so considerable that many hours of recordings from 1959-1967, featuring both his music and himself in conversation, ended up in the National Archives in Canberra.
And it was there that current day local Neil Adam (pictured above, outside the old Creswick Courthouse Theatre, with one of Simmy’s album covers) unearthed this rich recorded legacy, after learning about Simmy, who was in danger of becoming lost to the mists of time.
The result is The Simmy Show which is playing at Creswick Theatre this Saturday evening August 19 as part of the wider Words in Winter festival.
The show was sold-out when staged previously during Cresfest and features live music and discussion from Neil, himself a talented guitarist and singer songwriter, carefully curated excerpts from those precious archival recordings with Simmy himself, and also live music by Ballarat Irish folk singer Paddy Caulfield.
“Simon McDonald lived at Springmount just outside of Creswick, Victoria and became a bit of a household name in music circles during the Folk Revival of the 1950s and 60s,” Neil says.
“He made an LP of songs, a book was written about him, and there are hours of old reel-to-reel recordings of interviews with him. He had a fantastic voice.
“The old courthouse is a great place to stage this show because Simmy was an occasional ‘performer’ at the courthouse himself for public misbehaviours.
“He called himself an alcoholic and he wrote a poem about being locked up in 1939.
“He used to perform at The American (hotel in Creswick) where they paid him in food and alcohol. He had a great repertoire of songs and he kept these 200 songs alive in his head because it was helping him survive.”
Neil, who is also Creswick Theatre Company’s current president, describes this Saturday’s show as “half live music, half local history and half recordings from the National Library… So that makes it a show and a half,” he reckons.
Dollars raised from the show support the little courthouse theatre and tickets are available through Humanitix.
Neil says he’s also keen to get copies of the archival recordings with Simmy which are held in the National Archives made readily available at the Creswick library.

Creswick Theatre Company has been having a wickedly good time preparing to stage dark comedy Arsenic and Old Lace.

The script by American playwright Joseph Kesselring was written in 1939 and sweeps its audience into the world of two (seemingly) dear older ladies, the Brewster sisters, who live with their nephew in Brooklyn. 

The gals are sweet and welcoming older ladies who just happen to have a personal practice of murdering single men – to save them from being lonely. 

“It’s a farce,” says director of the Creswick Theatre Company version, Jenni Sewell. “It’s a very funny script, subtle but clever, and there’s bits in it where we just crack up in rehearsals.”

The original Arsenic and Old Lace made its Broadway debut in 1941, enjoyed a successful three-year run, and went on to be made famous by the 1944 film adaptation directed by Frank Capra and starring Cary Grant as Mortimer Brewster.

The Creswick Theatre Company production features a cast of 13 and is being staged over June 16-25 with four evening shows and two matinees, and tickets are on sale through Humanitix online.

Jenni says they’re selling, so best not mess about if you want to be sure of catching it.

“We have a seating limit so if people really want to see it they should get tickets.”

Elly Kries has one of the lead roles as Martha Brewster and, when The Local dropped in on a recent rehearsal, was obviously having a rollicking good time getting into character for the part. But there are challenges.

“It’s really hard when everyone’s breaking up laughing, not to crack up yourself and just keep performing the part,” Elly said.

“It’s a great script and I do like playing dress-ups and being someone else for a little while.”

There are plenty of strong character parts including Elaine the minister’s rather naughty daughter played by Imogen Nooney.

“She’s a bit saucy, a bit more worldly then a minister’s daughter really should be,” Imogen said of her character.

Delacombe’s Ellen Scott plays Officer O’Hara, an interesting character as well.

“He could best be described as duplicitous,” Ellen said. “He lives one life to earn his keep but has been writing a play… for twelve years.”

Like many of his fellow cast members, Ballarat’s Chris Andrew has been with CTC for a while and has appeared on stage in previous productions with this lively little community theatre company. For Arsenic and Old Lace he’s playing Dr Reverend Harper.

“It’s a challenging role but I love it,” he said. “It’s heaps of fun. I love being on stage and bringing fun and laughter for the audience.”

Tickets are through Humanitix.com