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Gosford Musical Society (GMS)

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Gosford Musical Society (GMS)[edit]

Gosford Musical Society (known as 'GMS') are a community volunteer musical theatre group that is 71 years old (1947 - current). They perform 5 shows each calendar year (3 senior shows, 2 junior shows) at their 'home' at Laycock Street Bicentennial Community Theatre, in Wyoming (Gosford), a suburb of the Central Coast region, 76km north of Sydney Australia. GMS has built a good reputation of their stagecraft and members' opportunity of working in a professional theatre in any area of production and the first hand experiences has given a start to the biggest Australian musical theatre stars and entertainers. Notable alumni include Julia Morris, Sonja Kruger, Belinda Emmett and Jemma Rix.

About[edit]

Gosford Musical Society (GMS) is a community volunteer musical theatre group that was formed in 1947. They perform five shows a calendar year (3 adult, 2 junior shows) at the Laycock Street Theatre, their home since 1988.

The community group has a dedicated rehearsal space onsite, called "the Shed", which includes a mirror room with a properly sprung dance floor and two other separate rehearsal spaces, a kitchen, and a workshop where they design, create, build and paint, all the costumes, props, wigs, sets pieces, scenery and fly scrims for each production in-house.

To join Gosford Musical Society is by annual membership, to perform onstage is by audition and all members and volunteers are encouraged to take any role in the pre or post production, or roles whilst the show is in performance. These can be; actor, singer dancer, rehearsal pianist, director, choreographer, musical director, production manager, assistant production manager, audition panel, set designer, costume designer, wig designer, prop designer, set maker, prop maker, costume maker, hat/millinery design and making, program sellers, stage manager, assistant stage manager, fly, orchestra, bump in crew, program designer, photographer, make-up artist.

History[edit]

1947 - 1960[edit]

The Valencia Theatre, Gosford[edit]

Gosford Musical Society formed officially in 1947, staging musicals at the now demolished Valencia Theatre. Their very first production was Pirates of Penzance in April 1948.[1]. They started with humble beginnings, the Valencia Theatre had no dressing rooms or proper theatrical set up, the female cast dressed in narrow space behind stage, near the stage door, while the men's dressing room was a tent pitched on the grass behind the back door, open to all weather elements and forced the men to keep running to the back door to listen for their cue to enter stage.

GMS historian Darryl Davis remarks, "They used to hire all their costumes and sets from Sydney, and for one of the performances in 1949 the sets didn't turn up, so they put a note in the program for Act 2 saying due to lack of sets, Act 2 will look remarkably like Act 1"[2]

1961 - 1975[edit]

Chicken Sheds, The Gosford Showgrounds, Gosford[edit]

The demolishing of the Valencia Theatre forced the group to find an alternative large space to accommodate a stage and portable seating for audiences. The only space available was the chicken sheds at the Gosford showgrounds. This was an open space, so the stage was purposely built and chairs were set up for each performance. It also had a tin roof, that when even a tiny bit of rain would force the actors to raise their voices above the noise and a heavy downpour would stop the show until the rain had finished, and had limited insulation, so it experienced all extreme weather elements. This venue also was situated beside the railway, so audiences could also hear each train travel north or south on the Gosford/Newcastle line while the performance was on. The venue had unsealed roads and was also partial to flooding and mud.

1976 - 1987[edit]

Gosford High School Auditorium, Gosford[edit]

GMS group moved their shows to Gosford High School auditorium, which being a selective school offered better facilities for dressing rooms, access to bathrooms, set and lighting rigs. But, wasn't completely ideal, as school performances, ceremonies and usage took precedent over their shows. They also couldn't get access for rehearsal and storage of sets, props and costumes.

There was no professional theatre in the Gosford area. In the ten years performing here, they raised by themselves $450,000, gained community support, campaigned the government and local council and led the charge to build a professional theatre for the community.

1988 - current[edit]

Laycock Street Theatre, Wyoming[edit]

Was officially opened in 1988 as "The Laycock Street Bicentennial Community Theatre", to coincide with Australia's bicentennial celebrations. The theatre's name is generally shortened to "The Laycock Street Theatre".

The Laycock Street Theatre is located at Wyoming, a suburb of the Central Coast, located 76km north of Sydney.

It has been the permanent home for Gosford Musical Society since it opened in 1988, for unlimited ongoing use for their community group[3].

Chris King, Arts and Culture Coordinator for Gosford City Council remarks, “Laycock Theatre is very much the hub of the area’s performance culture"[4]. Including the performances of Gosford Musical Society and other music and performance tours, Laycock Street Theatre has grown a reputation for being known as the most successful regional theatre, [5][6].

Theatre Specs The Laycock Street Theatre is a professionally working proscenium arch style theatre with a 39​2 seat raked auditorium, modern fly tower, with a 180m2 stage area, orchestra pit (can be covered to provide an apron thrust stage), sound and lighting capabilities, loading dock and two large dressing rooms, with bathrooms either side of stage. The Theatre venue also includes a Box Office, large foyer, bar and kiosk.

The Don Craig Room is a newly built 110 seat multipurpose space, named after original GMS member Don Craig.

Sound System upgrade In 2017, the Laycock Street Theatre upgraded their sound system to make them compete with other similar sized and bigger theatres. Chris King, Arts and Culture Coordinator for Gosford City Council asserted, "[Laycock Street Theatre] hosts a very wide variety of performance genres from musicals, rock concerts, pure drama, comedy acts, corporate events, film presentations and various community groups, like dance schools. The goal of any new loudspeaker system was to ensure all styles were suitably covered"[7]

In 2018, the Laycock Street Theatre won an Australian Entertainment 'Mo' award for Best Technical Support[8][9].

2018 - 30th Birthday Celebrations[edit]

The Laycock Street Theatre will celebrate it's 30th birthday in 2018[10], celebrations include a tour of the theatre and performances by Gosford Musical Society, including their current show, My Fair Lady.

GMS Costumes[edit]

GMS Costumes was started in 1980 with the idea of the costumes made by love by GMS volunteers and members to be re-purposed by offering the community a chance to hire the costumes from shows. Originally costumes were stored in members spare rooms and garages, before they moved into a small 2 bedroom shack on the Laycock Street Theatre block.

A new building wing was built, located on the same location, which now houses 10,000 costumes, over two floors, for hire, to individuals and groups. They also hire (along with their sets/props) to other community musical societies complete show costumes. The costumes for hire are either made and from previous productions, or made specifically for hire, or commercially sourced. GMS also rent their made sets and props.

Notable Gosford Musical Society Alumni[edit]

Gosford Musical Society Alumni, other awards[edit]

Musical Theatre[edit]
Other[edit]
  • Darryl Davis, Central Coast Council Australia Day Awards, - Arts, Culture & Entertainment Award
  • Chris King, Central Coast Council Australia Day Awards - Arts, Culture & Entertainment Award
  • Alf Taylor, OAM

References[edit]

  1. "Gosford Musical Society". 29 July 2013. Archived from the original on 29 July 2013.
  2. "Gosford Music Society celebrates 70 years of history".
  3. https://www.centralcoast.nsw.gov.au/laycock-street-community-theatre-takes-centre-stage-for-its-30th-birthday/
  4. http://www.dbaudio.com/en/db/news/detail/article/laycock-theatre-maximizes-the-value-of-their-investment-dollars.html
  5. https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/newslocal/central-coast/laycock-st-is-set-for-a-bustling-2017/news-story/265052518872a9a6cc1245b19236f437
  6. https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/newslocal/central-coast/laycock-st-is-set-for-a-bustling-2017/news-story/265052518872a9a6cc1245b19236f437
  7. http://nationalaudio.com.au/news.php?newsid=310
  8. https://www.centralcoast.nsw.gov.au/laycock-street-community-theatre-wins-top-industry-award/
  9. http://nationalaudio.com.au/news.php?newsid=310
  10. https://www.centralcoast.nsw.gov.au/laycock-street-community-theatre-takes-centre-stage-for-its-30th-birthday/
  11. http://www.helpmannawards.com.au/2018/nominees-and-winners/industry
  12. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-07-16/helpmann-awards-first-announcement-muriels-wedding-the-musical/9998236 2018 Helpmann Award

https://www.northernstar.com.au/news/gosford-music-society-celebrates-70-years-of-histo/3148508/ https://www.gympietimes.com.au/news/gosford-music-society-celebrates-70-years-of-histo/3148508/ https://www.centralcoast.nsw.gov.au/laycock-street-community-theatre-takes-centre-stage-for-its-30th-birthday/ https://www.thechronicle.com.au/news/gosford-city-council-improve-laycock-street-theatr/3075208/ http://www.musictheatremelbourne.com.au/news/meeting-the-creative-team-of-paris-isaac-hayward-musical-director/ https://aussietheatre.com.au/news/tailor-made-for-monash-chatting-with-james-millar-and-peter-rutherford-about-the-dressmaker-a-musical-adaptation


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