Darwin Bowls Club, Fannie Bay, Darwin

May 24-28 & May 31 - June 4, 2006

Rivalry in the Twilight Years

This was a remount and reworking of the original A Bowls Club Wedding performance in 2003. Our Youth Dance Leaders program for 2006 allowed us to integrate them more fully into this show.

Over many years of working with the Grey Panthers senior women’s dancing troupe, one comes to a rich appreciation of the ‘friendly rivalry’ that exists between these women and their teams (bowling, softball, golf). A Bowls Club Wedding takes this a little bit further! Combining these amazing women with Darwin comedic performers Gail Evans and Yoris Wilson, throw in the exuberant break and hip hop dancing of Tracks youth dancers, and then get the audience to participate in social dancing and you end up with an inter-generational, cross dance style, multi-art Tracks classic.

A Bowls Club Wedding is the wackiest wedding of the decade, a celebration of love sparked by rivalry in the twilight years. First created for its sell-out season as part of the Darwin Festival in 2003 and later reworked for a cast almost twice as big for another sell-out season in 2006.

Do you remember a time when things were simpler? A time when the biggest worry was who might win the next tournament? Or what to wear to your best friend’s wedding? Who ever thought that ‘team spirit’ could lead us to the very brink of a world war of dancing?

Jack and Kitty, the bride and groom, are long standing members of feuding bowls clubs, the Top End Terrors (sexy, bowls with bite) and the Mindil Monitors (romantics with a prickly tongue). They are mavericks in a world where team acrimony festers over generations of ardent supporters. Tribal loyalties run so deep that such a union is an outrage!

Can Jack and Kitty prove that true love later in life conquers all?

Creative Personnel

Director, Choreographer: David McMicken
Co-Director, Designer: Tim Newth
Choreographer: Julia Quinn
Musical Coordinator: Merrilee Mills
Writer/Text: Gail Evans with Yoris Wilson
Lighting, Sound Design and Operation: Matthew James
Costume Construction: Louise Rieck
Props: Cuzz and Janice McEwen
Flowers and Decorations: Betty Newton

Production and Promotion Personnel

Technical Assistants: Chad Oliver, Steve Southwood
Promotions: Fiona Carter
Poster Image and Design: Mark Marcelis
Front of House Manager: Nicola Jackson
Documentation Film: Todd Williams

Performers

The Mindil Monitors

Gil, the MC: Yoris Wilson
Kitty, the Bride: Audrey Gorring
Wedding Party: Shirley Somers (Bride’s Maid), Kelly Beneforti (Shaynne, Flower Girl), Erwin Fenis (Shane, Page Boy)
The Team: Kay Brown (Gill’s Mother), Crena Hemmings, Elaine Marlow, Val Clark, Judith Allen, Bette Chapman, Helen Murphy, Marg Lee, Diane Dibbins, Dianne Mount, Chris Parker, Bev Paget, Maria Vlastuin, Karajayne Handberg and Immanuel Dado

The Top End Terrors

Lori, the MC: Gail Evans
Jack, the Groom: Kevin Gould
Wedding Party: Margaret Glowacki (Maid of Honour), Julia Quinn (Charlene, Flower Girl), Xavier Burrow (Charles, Groomsman)
The Team: Kathleen Harding, Marge Duminski, Judy McKerr, Lucy Aylett, Janine Sutter, Liz Gammon, Jan Hastings, Gwen Varney, Jackie Williams, Mavis Waddell, Jan Blackburn, Val Hristova, Punny Vegter, Vera Tabuzo and Corina Nichols

Scenario

• Prologue: The Arrival of the Bridal Party
• ACT 1: Trying to be Nice
• ACT 2: The Attraction / The Art of Playing Bowls
• ACT 3: Rivalry Out of Control

Tracks 2006

Artistic Directors: David McMicken and Tim Newth
General Manager: Fiona Carter
Dance Animateur: Julia Quinn
Youth Dance Animateur: Erwin Fenis
Administrative Assistant: Skye Raabe
Bookkeeper: Julie Stark
Development Consultant: Suzanne Fermanis

Committee Members: (Chair) Jill MacAndrew, (Vice-Chair) Jackie Wurm, (Treasurer) Glenn Bernardin, (Secretary/Public Officer) Traci Keys, (Ordinary Committee Members) David Taylor, Ken Conway, Nick Papandonakis, Donna Quong, (Ex-Officio Members) David McMicken and Tim Newth

Public Fund Trustees: Rev. Steve Orme, Dr Anita Toth, Paul Wan