My Word | Fifty years of fun and memories

The queens are regal without hubris, the jacks are polite and the jokers are gentle but still funny.

Which is all quite surprising really because this was a night of theatre nights.

You might expect a few divas or glass egos — but I didn’t spot any at the Goulburn Valley Hotel last Saturday night.

It was the was culmination of months of planning as Shepparton Theatre Arts Group lifted the curtains to celebrate 50 years of bringing bright lights, song, dance, drama and much joy to the community from which it emerged half a century ago.

It was always going to be fun. You don’t bring 300 or so theatrical types together in one spot without lashings of sparkly air-kisses, glittery back slaps and ginger beer.

But there was also another ingredient — the everlasting warmth of shared experience — some stretching right back to the beginning when STAG was just an idea discussed around a table.

Past president Bill Muir summed up the bonding power of theatre at the start of Encore, STAG’s new 278-page book of photos and memories put together by long-time member Bronwyn Prater in a remarkable stint of research to mark its 50th anniversary:

“Theatre is habit-forming and the love of it is an ongoing, ever-growing, constantly changing experience,” Mr Muir said.

Just how ever-growing the bond of theatre is hit home when I arrived for the big night, and it took me half an hour to move from the entrance to the bar.

By then I had a hard-earned thirst, and we know what that needs.

There were people I hadn’t seen for 25 years, but who talked as if we’d just said “see ya” in the car park the day before.

There were some who made journeys across Australia and further to be there.

During speeches, one couple from Corowa were singled out because they had bought tickets without having any connection to STAG or knowing a soul who was there on the night.

They were just travelling through Shepparton and thought it might be a fun night out.

If there was a right call to make — they made it. At the end of the night, they had 300 new friends.

Theatre depends upon the charismatic spell of a good voice, and STAG has always had a deep well to draw from.

The early years until the late 1980s were narrated by the evergreen Pat O’Connell, who described how STAG was the offspring of two early institutions — Shepparton Light Music Company and Shepparton Dramatic Society.

Former Wanganui Park Secondary College teacher and Eastbank manager Rob Robson spoke about the fruitful years of the ’90s and early 2000s, beginning with the game-changing performance of Les Misérables at the old town hall in 1993.

I remember going to see that show as a new arrival in Shepparton and expecting a nice night of good old amateur theatre antics.

I wasn’t expecting a full-on smack in the face of raw emotion delivered by a young cast full to the brim with electric energy and hungry talent.

But that’s what I got.

Former Shepparton ABC Radio host Matt Dowling brought things up to the present with accounts of STAG’s increasing professionalism and wide reputation, reflected in the staging of increasingly bigger shows with frightening budgets.

Since 2012, STAG has been able to operate its own performance space at The Black Box off Wheeler St, meaning ticket sales for smaller shows can go straight into its not-for-profit coffers.

For five decades the company has survived financial doldrums, creative disagreements and the hammer blows of COVID with its reputation and its artistic integrity intact.

People were reminded of all this on Saturday night.

They were also reminded of the deep sea of talent that STAG has always been able to trawl, with astounding vocals from four of its best current singers, Nicky Pummeroy, Kat Bristol, Helen Janke and Andrew Nicholson.

A perfect reminder of how good things were and still are came with a spine-tingling performance of Les Misérables’ Bring Him Home by past president Ric Birkett.

It was a night of reminders.

Of friendships forged in the furnace of performance, of Shepparton-born talent that has travelled across the globe, of tradies and doctors and artists brought together for a single purpose, and finally of ordinary people who can be extraordinary and then go to work the next day.

Someone later described the night as one giant hug.

I can’t top that.

John Lewis is a former journalist at The News.