EPISODE: Neighbourhood Watch

Written by Lally Katz

Directed by Lesley Reed

Produced by St. Jude’s Players

Season: 7th-16th of August, 2025

This episode of For the Love of Theatre Podcast features interviews with Director, Lesley Reed, Actors, Nathan Brown, Taya Rose, Christopher Cordeaux, Megan Robson and Dylan McGaw. We welcome back Mark Wickett, as our Host, who is also the Assistant Director of Neighbourhood Watch.

MORE ABOUT OUR GUEST HOST - MARK WICKETT

Mark has been working in Adelaide’s community and professional theatre for more than twenty years, much of it designing technical and creative solutions in video projection. Productions include: Les Misérables, Next to Normal and Oliver! For the last ten years, Mark has been directing corporate video and working with high schools in theatre and video, with productions including Matilda, The Book of Everything, and Where Words Once Were. Mark supports South Australia’s performing arts as a critic for Australia’s Stage Whispers Magazine and through serving on the Board of the University of Adelaide Theatre Guild. He was Assistant Director for the Guild’s 2023 production of The Tempest, and directed The 39 Steps for them in 2024. Later this year, he will be Assistant Director to Lesley Reed for St. Jude’s Players' production of Neighbourhood Watch.

STAGE WHISPERS ARTICLE

Click the link below to read Mark Wickett's Stage Whispers' Article on the For the Love of Theatre Podcast.

https://www.stagewhispers.com.au/community-theatre/love-theatre-podcast

Actor and Director Olivia Jane Parker talks to Stage Whispers’ Mark Wickett about her role in promoting South Australian community theatre through a podcast.

MORE ABOUT NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH

Memories are windows into the past, not only for 80-year-old Hungarian refugee Ana, but also for young actor Catherine, the only neighbour Ana truly befriends in the Australian neighbourhood where she now lives.

With a story drawn from playwright Lally Katz's elderly Hungarian-Australian neighbour's real experience, NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH takes audiences from an Australian street into WWII- ravaged Hungary and back again.

With Julie Quick as Ana and Ellie Schaefer as Catherine.

SEASON

Evenings - Thursday August 7 & 14, Friday August 8 and 15, 7.30 pm.

Matinees - Saturdays August 9 and 16, 2pm.

VENUE

St Jude’s Hall,

444 Brighton Rd,

Brighton, South Australia.

BOOKINGS

Tickets https://www.trybooking.com/DCCMU

Or call 0436 262 628

Or email bookings@stjudesplayers.asn.au

MUSIC

Title Track For the Love of Theatre Podcast, Written & Performed by Ben Waller.

Original Music Composed and Performed by Sarah Bradley

IMAGE

Courtesy of Christian Hardi

www.pixabay.com

#adelaidetheatre #adelaide #NeighbourhoodWatch #StJudesPlayers #FortheLoveofTheatrePodcast #FortheLoveofTheatre #SouthAustralianArt #StageCraft #StageWhispers #Theatre

NEW EPISODE: THE WATSONS

The Watsons

Written by Laura Wade

Directed by Matthew Chapman

The University of Adelaide Theatre Guild

SEASON: 1st - 10th August 2025

📍The Little Theatre

This episode of For the Love of Theatre Podcast is hosted by Annabel Whitford, featuring interviews with Director, Matthew Chapman, and cast members Lindy Lecornu (Lady Osborne), Genevieve Hudson (Miss Osborne) & Imogen Deller-Evans (Emma Watson), all from the upcoming production of The Watsons, written by Laura Wade, produced by The University of Adelaide Theatre Guild.

SUMMARY

The Watsons are in crisis. Cut off financially from her benefactor, the youngest, Emma, returns to her dying father and spinster sisters with the task of finding a husband - and finding one now. Matchmakers, match breakers, cads, stuffy clergymen and an overactive rumour mill all conspire as wedding bells ring in the distance and Emma eyes off a certain man…and that’s where we leave it.

See, Jane Austen never finished the story.

So it’s up to Emma, with the help of modern-day Laura, a jaded playwright with a rapidly approaching deadline, to find her own happy ending…

And that’s where the fun really begins.

Laura Wade’s witty, bold adaptation of Jane Austen’s unfinished novel is a playful, provocative exploration of choice, control, and who really gets to write the ending.

BOOK YOUR TICKETS

SEASON: 1st - 10th August 2025

📍The Little Theatre

Tickets from http://trybooking.com/cxjin

MORE ABOUT OUR HOST

Annabel Whitford is the Administrator of the Theatre Guild. She dances through life as a cheeky mix of backstage boss and jazz-handed showoff. A passionate arts advocate, champion for the underfunded, spreadsheet whisperer, and sequinned menace, Annabel is here to make the world more fabulous and slightly more organised.

📸 Headshot taken by Richard Parkhill

MUSIC FOR THE EPISODE

The Tile Track - For the Love of Theatre Podcast,

Written and Composed by Ben Waller.

All other music for this episode was sourced in the Public Domain.

Freccero - 6th Street (Austin), Pixabay

Scarlatti - Sonata in G major, K.547 - Arranged for Harpsichord by GregorQuendel, Pixabay

#ForTheLoveofTheatrePodcast #TheWatsons #LauraWade #JaneAusten #Matchmakers #SouthAustralianArt #Plays #SouthAustralianTheatre #Stage #Community #CommunityTheatre

‘Almost, Maine’

Produced by The Stirling Players

Written by John Cariani

Directed by Ben Proeve

SEASON: 11-19 July 2025

This episode of For the Love of Theatre Podcast features an interview with Director, Ben Proeve, Assistant Director & Music Composer, Toby Vincent & Cast Member, Harri Wolff. This discussion focuses on their production company and their latest show, Almost, Maine for The Stirling Players.

SUMMARY

Welcome to Almost, Maine, a place that’s so far north, it’s almost not in the United States. It’s almost in Canada. And it’s not quite a town, because its residents never got around to getting organized. So it almost doesn’t exist.

One cold, clear, winter night, as the northern lights hover in the star-filled sky above, the residents of Almost, Maine, find themselves falling in and out of love in unexpected and hilarious ways. Knees are bruised. Hearts are broken.

But the bruises heal, and the hearts mend. Well, almost. A delightful midwinter night’s story of different scenes that take place in the same 15 minutes.

Cast: Oliver Medwell, Kodi Jackson, Harri Wolff, Sam Ewart, Annabel McGregor, Kaila Barton, Tim Stoeckel.

VENUE

STIRLING COMMUNITY THEATRE

7 Avenue Rd,

Stirling

South Australia 5152

SEASON

Fridays July 11 & 18 at 7.30pm

Saturday July 12 at 3pm

Sunday July 13 at 3pm

Saturday July 19 at 2pm and 7.30pm

BOOKINGS

https://www.stirlingplayers.org.au/buy-tickets

or through Trybooking.com

MUSIC

Original music for 'Almost, Maine' composed by April Strevens and Toby Vincent

This episode features one of the original compositions, a track titled, 'Her Heart Magic Moment'.

'Almost, Maine' has been an exciting opportunity for our Assistant Director and Production Manager to collaborate on original music. The direction was to enhance and complement the plot and emotions on display and create a sound design for each love story. With piano, acoustic guitar and strings, Toby and April have created musical motifs and themes which unite all the scenes but give each vignette its own musical 'stamp'.

April Strevens, Production Manager and composer. April has been involved in music, theatre, film and the fine arts for many years.

April says: "utilising music as a uniting tie between the various storylines of Almost, Maine was an important element to balance in composing the score. Altering melody, rhythm, and composition allowed us to connect the story whilst building different tones appropriate to the varying depictions of love throughout."

Title Track For the Love of Theatre Podcast written and composed by Ben Waller.

#FortheLoveofTheatrePodcast #Stage #Theatre #CommunityTheatre #AlmostMaine #TheStirlingPlayers #Podcast