Bowraville’s ‘Grand Old Dame’ The Bowraville Theatre gets some spit and polish Highlight Section Nambucca Valley Nambucca Valley News by News Of The Area - Modern Media - March 10, 2022 Some of the Bowraville Theatre Volunteers who rolled up their sleeves for the clean up were (L-R) Dee Fletcher, Wayne von Sambeek, Alejandra Diaz, Tina Birtles, Barbara Furneyval, Ricardo Gonsalves, Merron Marshall, Elizabeth Newman, Karen Holloway, Maree James, Dale Hawkins, Rocky Rawherewha, Andre Krausmann, Phill Veness, Fiona Perry, Geoff Gardner, Ron Hawkins and Helen Leape. WITH the much anticipated re-opening of the Bowraville Theatre just around the corner, the Bowraville Arts Council decided that the ‘Grand Old Dame’ needed a bit of a clean up. On Saturday 5 March a large team of willing volunteers descended on the Theatre with mops, buckets, pressure hoses, an assortment of tools and loads of elbow grease to get her ready for opening night. The Bowraville Theatre will awake from its pandemic induced slumber with a bang and some big laughs on 18 March 2022, when the ‘Laugh it Off’ comedy fundraiser being produced by the talented people of Human Rabbit Entertainment hits the stage. News Of The Area spoke to Secretary of the Bowraville Arts Council, Dale Hawkins, who said, “With some of the Mid North Coast’s best stand-up comedy coming to town we decided the Theatre had better look her best so we arranged a clean up day to get her back in shape.” Floors were scrubbed, seats vacuumed and even some carpentry was required to freshen up the iconic art deco building that has been sitting idle due to COVID-19 induced restrictions. Dale added, “The Laugh it Off show will just be the beginning of what the Theatre has coming up as the very popular Bowraville Theatre Singers are starting up again and comedy legend Cy Fahey, The Thinking Man’s Bogan, is coming soon.” Although the Bowraville Theatre has been hired by SBS for a documentary film, and some artists have used it for filming music videos, not being able to have ticket buying audiences come through the doors has made it a tough couple of years for the volunteers that operate the Theatre. Bowraville Arts Council President Ricardo Gonsalves told News Of The Area, “We have a great team of volunteers here at the Theatre but we could certainly need more volunteers to fill more roles such as sound and lighting, box office, stage hands, ushers and cafe staff.” Ricardo concluded, “When we start up again with live entertainment it is going to be a lot of fun and I strongly recommend joining our team at the Theatre to be a part of it.” By Mick BIRTLES Bowraville Arts Council volunteer Maree James at the Theatre cleanup day. Bowraville Arts Council volunteer Geoff Gardner at the Theatre cleanup day. Bowraville Arts Council volunteer Andre Krausmann at the Theatre cleanup day.
