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The original Mackay Community Theatre was formed in July 1947 - so in 2007 we celebrated our 60th birthday! In 1947, there was of course no television and the Mackay Community Theatre produced 4 plays a year at the Olympic theatre which, with a seating capacity in excess of a thousand was always well packed. This theatre was demolished and the theatre group moved to the Theatre Royal.
In the '70s, a group of members, disillusioned with the way the group was manipulated, broke away to form Kudos Theatre. The first production was the Feydeau farce 'Hotel Paradise', and Kudos Theatre was off and running. It functioned well for a couple of years, then an approach was made to the Mackay Community Theatre for a merger (rumour has it that Kudos had all the talent and the MCT had all the money!)
The merger ensued, thus the Ku from Kudos and the Com from Community formed the Kucom Theatre Inc. |
The beginnings of Mackay Community Theatre
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With a small but loyal and enthusiastic membership, Kucom Theatre Inc owns an old Queenslander (serendipitously located in Shakespeare Street) that has been gutted to form a theatre with a flat acting area, with a racked seating capacity of 65. A small but well planned kitchen with servery caters for cold drinks and supper after the shows.
Four productions are presented each year and the quality of such productions is very high. This quality of presentation goes hand in hand with the group's chief objective - that is, to entertain.
Kucom Theatre has competed, very successfully, in the Yeppoon and Capella Drama Festivals, and for a number of years took productions to Townsville for the North Queensland Festival of One Act Plays. Awards have been won most years including Best Production, Best Male Actor, Best Director and numerous 'Special Mentions'.
Our performance seasons generally run for two weeks, and each season is preceded by a media-only sneak preview followed by a charity preview - various organisations have taken advantage of the opportunity to raise funds for their favourite cause, including the Soroptimists, the Mackay Family History Society, Friends of the Library and the Royal Flying Doctor Service.
The year 2000 saw Kucom embark on the challenging endeavour of youth theatre. Our production of Blackrock not only displayed the quality of young talent in Mackay and district, but also highlighted the large quantity of young enthusiasts at our very doorstep. In 2005 our Youth Theatre production of Skate was highly successful, and many of the cast members from that production were reunited in the 2007 production of Blurred.
Kucom Theatre is a community based not-for-profit group endeavouring to provide a means for members of our community to participate in and/or view a creative, constructive and very enjoyable pastime.
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