About
OUR CLUB
Throughout its history, the Manjimup Repertory Club has been there for people of all ages to come together and have fun staging amateur theatre productions.
The club was founded in 1937 and to begin with members met in each others homes to rehearse plays. The plays were then performed in the town community hall (a weatherboard hall on Rose Street) and later on in the current Town Hall which replaced the original hall.
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In the 1970's the club built their own clubrooms - a corrugated colourbond shed on a block of land in Bath Street. The building was located at the back of the block which had to be entered from a laneway. The remaining area of the block was left vacant so a permanent theatre could be built sometime in the future.
The "Clubroom Theatre" as it was called, seated 30 - 40 people using plastic chairs placed on tiered platforms made from packing crates.
There was no stage and actors performed on a carpeted space in front of the seating. If an audience member needed to leave during a performance they would have to walk through the performance space to do so. For larger productions the club would need to hire the Town Hall for the final rehearsals and performances.
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In the early 2000's the club was approached and negotiated a land swap in which our original block would be swapped for the land and old Ambulance subcentre, which was a heritage brick and tile building that was built in the 1950's. At the time the building was being used by the Emergency Services, but the land swap enabled them to move into a co-location with the town's Fire Brigade and to have their facilities upgraded and expanded to incorporate the Repertory Club's former land.
With assistance from the Manjimup Shire and State Government, the land and ambulance building underwent heavy renovations to turn it into our new theatre.
A stage and auditorium were constructed at the back of the original building and the two areas were connected.
The double bay ambulance garage was sealed in and is now the changeroom an wardrobe area. Only the timber floor in the old meeting room remained the same and this is now the foyer to the theatre.
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Club members were delighted to finally have a place where they could rehearse and perform all their productions, small and large.
The first production in the new premises was the musical Oliver! in 2007. The seated 142 patrons, the seats were a combination of old wooden chairs that were taken from the Manjimup Roxy Picture Theatre closed down in the 1970's, and chairs from a small movie theatre that operated from the Overlander Motel (now Manjimup Gateway) in the early 2000's.
In 2015 through a Lotterywest grant the club was able to install brand new seating. Capacity reduced down to 123 seats but increased the level of comfort for patrons attending a show.
Every aspect of the club is entirely run by volunteers and members of the club. We encourage everyone to attend auditions for upcoming shows or volunteer for the many vital backstage roles required to keep the shows on track and the audience coming back for more.