The first meeting for the year, chaired by Jenny Short, dealt with preparations for the opening of the renovated "Little Theatre" such as furnishings and light replacement and the program running order for the day.
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Council also sought the Society's view on a proposed agreement for the running of the theatre and establishing a management committee with Councillor John Allen, Council staff member Brian Matthews, the sitting President and two community members, Alan Somers and Warwick Tom. Council's view was the theatre would be for use by the Community when the Society was not involved with a production.
In March the Society held it's AGM with two nominations for the position of President, Jenny Short had indicated previously she would like to stand again and a new nomination came from Lorna Helby. It was the first time proxy votes had been used at an AGM and resulted in the latter being elected by a narrow majority. Because of the division this method of voting caused at the time, proxy voting has now been removed from the constitution. Lorna Helby became President, Vice President was Jeff Lindsay and Secretary, Judith Schmalkuche. In view of the imminent theatre opening Lorna moved that Jenny Short, the outgoing President should carry on in that role during the celebration.
The official opening of the Little Theatre redevelopment was held on Saturday 25th March with Alan McCormack acting as M.C. The welcoming address was made by the Mayor, Cr Robert WIlson who then introduced Local member Tony Mcrane. Special Minister of State, the Hon John Della Bosca carried out the opening ceremony with Jenny Short giving an overview of the project. Later that evening Warwick Tom acted as Master of Ceremonies and invited James Condon, renowned actor of stage, radio and TV to address the assembled guests. After a short interval the Society staged a short series of items from previous shows to the delight of invited guests and many old members before adjourning to socialize.
As a celebration of our renovated Little Theatre, members decided to put together excerpts of past productions "Many Faces of the M&D" going back over the past decade, in late June early July over two weekends which was very well received by the community.
On the 29th July Parkes M&D Society staged the annual One Act Play Festival over the weekend with members providing great entertainment with twelve plays and plenty of opportunity to socialize. The adjudicator was Gary Files who commented on the variety of entries, Parkes plays were 'Fumed Oak" and "Wife Required", in the latter play Robyn Glowacki won the award for the best junior actor. Orange Dramatic Society agreed to host the 2001 festival.
The final show for 2000 was "South Pacific", directed by Lorna Helby, who had a job filling thirteen male roles out to a total twenty six in the cast. The main roles of Nellie Forbush and Emile de Becque were played by Tania Mill and Geoff Lindsay, Emile's children were Jock Campbell and Hannah Farrant-Jayet. Liz Matthews excelled as Bloody Mary while Bill Jayet was a crazy Luther Billis. The love story was played out with Jay Quince and Cate Ruzek as Lt Cable and Liat. Other main members of the cast were Brian Schmalkuche, Aaron Kingham, Mark Gersback and Matthew McGregor. Being the first musical in the renovated theatre, sound and lighting had few problems even though the theatre had undergone a complete rebuild, so all in all "South Pacific" was a successful and financial production. It is interesting to note, for quite a few of the new cast members, it was their one and only appearance for the M&D.