This really all began in the early 1960s, when a group of people in the then Methodist church got together to produce 3-act plays in the Parish Hall, and 'Music Hall' nights (with dinner, singing waiters, and melodrama) in the Methodist hall. As we became more proficient the Rev. Jack Leonard, himself a bit of a showman (his wife, Pat, did props.) suggested it was time we formalised the arrangement and adopted a title. He suggested 'The Queanbeyan Players', and Jack was our first President.

There was a gap of about four years while various babies appeared, then in 1973 Jeff Lee arrived as headmaster at the High School (there was only one then). Jeff was a keen singer, on the board of the N.S.W. Arts Council, and a branch was formed here in Queanbeyan. Jeff was instrumental in the next stage of our existence: most of the previous Players' members were still around and in 1975, as the Queanbeyan Arts Council Players, with Myra Law conducting and most of the male teaching staff dragooned into the chorus we burst forth anew with a production of 'The Pirates of Penzance' - ladies' costumes borrowed from Philo. This was followed the next year by "The Gondoliers' with a wonderful set designed and painted by Tom Bosman, Norma Roach doing costumes for the first time and as Casilda wearing a dress made from a friend's cast-off curtains. 1977 brought 'H.M.S. Pinafore', 78 'Salad Days', plus 'Trial by Jury' amongst the cedar court-house furniture (in the then Presbyterian Hall) whilst the new court-house was being built. Then a change of head-master at the High School and with the closure of 'Ruddigore' on June 2"1, 1979 we were homeless.

Vivian Arnold stepped into the breach with 'Queanbeyansnickers' - a revue purporting to be a history of Music Hall from stoneage to space age and full of the most awful puns......two Greek tailors called Euripades and Eumendades (say them aloud), 'Henry the Eighth, This Is Your Wife!!', and finishing with a Frank Pangalaxy competing against a Fred Earth for the post of Mayor of Queanbeyan (you would have to be an older resident to get that one). This was performed on an extended stage at the Methodist Hall with lights strung up on scaffolding. It was a huge success, but letters to the Queanbeyan Age commented on the unsuitability of the venue for theatrical performance, a fact of which we were only too much aware.

However, in early 1980, the local firm of J.B. Young and Co. made available the former 'Star' cinema in Monaro St. which was part of their property and had been vacant for several years, except for the pigeons (it is now part of the Riverside complex). We cleaned up the bird droppings, scraped chewing gum from under the seats, built a stage, installed a lighting system, built a dimmer board using cast-offs from the Canberra Theatre, bought what lights we could afford and hired or borrowed the rest, and to great acclaim opened with a production of the endearing Lerner and Loewe musical Brigadoon. It was directed by Lois Adamson and Musical Director was Bill Hunt, both now deceased.

The 'Nova' Theatre, as it was called, was run as a community theatre by a voluntary committee of local people. Queanbeyan Council kindly replaced our old (but worthy) piano with a good one which now resides in the Conference Centre. The Nova was a delightful place to work in, with wonderful acoustics and sight-lines, and an intimate atmosphere much appreciated by cast and audience. Despite no wing-space, an ancient, enormous amplifier behind the cinema screen which made back-stage movements very difficult, tiny dressing rooms, and no backstage toilets, we loved it, and local groups such as Quota and Rotary used to have film sessions there to raise funds. However, all good things come to an end, the property was sold, and with the close of our highly acclaimed production of 'The Yeomen of the Guard" in 1986 we were once more homeless. Vivian Arnold once more filled the gap with another revue, "The Canterbury-Bankstown Tales", telling the story of a male ballroom-dancing team crossing via the India Pacific Railway en route to the races for the America's Cup, and featuring a French spy ring and tap-dancing tubes of pimple cream. Our audiences out at Philip College were indeed entertained.

Meanwhile, Council was building what is now known as Queanbeyan Conference Centre with some input from the Players, and we opened the Hall in February 1988 with an encore staging of "The Mikado' amid some technical difficulties - no power, no correlation between the lights up on the lighting-bars and the numbers on the patch board, and someone had polished the stage. Puns about the 'Mikado By Candlelight On Ice', but we won through, the audiences responded with their usual zeal, and we had found a new home.

We have had a significant input into the planning of the Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre at present nearing completion, and have been saving towards making a contribution there - perhaps in stage curtaining.

The Queanbeyan Players have established an enviable reputation in the Canberra/Queanbeyan area for putting on quality theatre at reasonable prices. We can claim to have been the stepping stone for a number of talented young performers who have gone on to professional careers in musical theatre, opera, and in writing for theatre and radio. We are proud of our reputation of being a 'friendly company to work with', and of what we have achieved in more than thirty years. With H.M.S. Pinafore we can now look forward to sailing into a new and even brighter future.

~ Norma Roach, 2007