About Us

The Executive

• President
• Production Manager
• Secretary
• Treasurer
• Festivals and Development Officer
• Front of House Manager
• Publicity Officers
•  

• Jackson Scott
• Andrei Romaniuk
• Cece Devlin
• Joshua Adams
• Heather Fairbairn
• Caity Booth
• Hannah Fulton
• Tom Walter

A Brief History

There has been a student-run theatre company based in the Schonell and Cement Box theatres since at least the 1970s. It has gone by many names including (but not limited to) Shotgun Theatre, the Amardean players (that’s ‘Drama’ spelled backwards), A.C.R.O.N.Y.M theatre and of course, Underground Productions. The one and only Geoffrey Rush performed in one of the first plays in the Cement Box, “Hamlet on Ice”, alongside other notable names Ken Kennett and Bille Brown.

Underground Productions came into being in 1999 in the Cement Box Theatre. The first season included “Bulldog Front”, written and directed by Marcel Dorney, and “The Cement Box One Act Play Festival”. This was the precursor to our beloved BUGfest, an annual tradition for the company since then. Over the years Underground has produced more than forty shows, with tens of thousands of audience members’ bottoms gracing the Cement Box Theatre’s seats.

At the start of the 2010 season, the company moved ‘upstairs’ permanently to the Schonell Theatre. Our opening production in the new space was “The House of Yes” by Wendy MacLeod.

Musical Theatre has been a regular part of our seasons for many years. The tradition of putting on a very large musical began in 2002 with “The Beggar’s Opera”, directed by Andrew James. In 2003, Ben Cornfoot wrote and directed “Fool’s Journey”. From 2005-2007 our musicals were “processed” by the actors and creatives involved to produce the new and exciting musicals “The Bleach’d Bunny”, “The Tribes of Avalon” and “Hell and High Water”. In 2008 the highly successful “Scissors Paper Rock” was named best musical of the year by Eric Scott and sold out in its final week. Our musicals continue to be written by our members, with “Red: A choose your own adventure musical”, “Unisex” and “The Battle of Brisbane” premiering in 2009, 2010 and 2011 respectively.

Underground is also dedicated to encouraging emerging scriptwriters from within its own community. Jeremy Wood’s “Not Fade Away” premiered in 2008. BUGfest is our annual short play festival comprised of works from local writers and is an opportunity for many of our members to write, act, direct or design.

We look forward to meeting the challenges and making the most of the opportunities that come from performing in the Schonell Theatre.

by Lizzy King and Jonathan McCray

Past Underground Presidents

• 1999 Victoria Keating
• 2000 Kathleen Murphy
• 2001 Rebecca Harrison
• 2002 Andrew James
• 2003 Kate Lanham
• 2004 Kat Henry
• 2005 Kath Chown

• 2006 Benjamin Williams
• 2007 Marcus Whittington
• (later, Jacqueline Ozorio)
• 2008 Rachel Burke
• 2009 Georgina Horsburgh
• 2010 Joshua Adams
• 2011 Andrei Romanuik
• 2012 Jackson Scott