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Featured Member- April 2005
The
featured member for April 2005 is Geoff Leeder.
As
an interesting start to Geoff's "potted history" the
first theatrical production ever recorded in the Swan River
Colony is credited to one, William Leeder, who just happens
to be Geoff’s great, great, great grandfather. William
Leeder arrived in the Swan River colony on the ship “Rockingham”
in 1830, and, in 1839, a “petit comedy” entitled
“Love a la Militaire” was performed in Mr Leeder’s
residence before a crowded audience - principally the friends
of the gentlemen and ladies who favoured them with this amusing
novelty. (Quoted from a publication entitled The Australian
Theatre). With this background, how could Geoff not be involved
with theatre!
Geoff’s
involvement with Community Theatre began in the same way as
many of us; performing in Church Music Halls to raise money
to build and pay for a new church. He found that feeling of
having the audience in his power bizarre and yet, in a strange
and discomforting way, highly satisfying. From
there it was but a short step from obscurity to mediocrity when
he joined the Rockingham Theatre Company. It was here that Geoff
learnt the basics of the craft and he performed in a number
of musicals and Roy Cooney farces, the speciality of this theatre
company.
Looking
to extend his experience, Geoff then joined Kwinana Theatre
Workshop, a company at that time known for staging challenging
and confronting plays. As an example he performed in “One
Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest” and “Nuts”.
It was at Kwinana that Geoff met Brenda Stanley, who was instrumental
in his coming to Melville Theatre Company, when Brenda cast
him in her production of “The Hollow”, his and Brenda’s
first association with Melville.
At
Melville, Geoff was to discover a theatre company which ran
very differently from the others he had been associated with.
Geoff was impressed with the way newcomers were welcomed and
encouraged to extend themselves.
By this time Geoff had worked with a number of directors and
began to have his own ideas about how plays might be staged.
As his aging brain made learning those lines increasingly difficult,
Geoff decided that directing might be easier.
HA! Was he ever wrong?
As is the policy at Melville, he was
invited to firstly direct a one-act play. Geoff chose “The
Spiders” which that year in the State Drama Festival won
two awards; Best Actor & Best Supporting Actor. There was
no looking back after that and Geoff has gone on to direct for
Melville a number of one act and full length plays that have
been credited with awards.
In
addition to working at MTC Geoff has also worked with Harbour
Theatre, Kalamunda Dramatic Society and Graduate Dramatic Society
as well as being a Finley award adjudicator and a committee
member of the Independent Theatre Association for a number of
years. In his "spare time" Geoff has worked professionally
in TV advertisements and as an extra on the TV series “Ship
to Shore” and “Sweat’. He also worked on the
feature film “Under the Lighthouse Dancing”.
Geoff’s
family are all involved in the performing arts in some way.
His wife Lyn, is a costume designer, daughter Kate runs her
own dancing school, daughter Brooke is a graduate of the Victorian
College of the Arts and has danced professionally in the Eastern
States and is now a dance teacher, daughter Hannah is a graduate
of “Dance Factory” in Melbourne and has danced professionally
in Australia and overseas and is now a dance teacher, daughter
Amy is a graduate of WAAPA and is working professionally in
theatre here in Perth.
Melville
is indeed fortunate to have such a pool of talent to exploit
- sorry, I mean "employ". Thank you Geoff for all
your wonderful work in the past and, may we hope, in the future?
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